Letters to ONE

Gay and Lesbian Voices from the 1950s and 1960s

Edited by Craig M. Loftin
Introduction by Craig M. Loftin

Subjects: Queer Studies, Social And Cultural History, American History, Lesbian / Gay Studies
Series: SUNY series in Queer Politics and Cultures
Paperback : 9781438442983, 248 pages, September 2012
Hardcover : 9781438442976, 248 pages, September 2012

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Biography and Self-Analysis
2. Love, Sex, and Relationships
3. Repression and Defiance
4. Incarceration
5. Representations
Notes
Index

Collection of letters written to the first openly gay magazine in the United States.

Description

Long before the Stonewall riots, ONE magazine—the first openly gay magazine in the United States—offered a positive viewpoint of homosexuality and encouraged gay people to resist discrimination and persecution. Despite a limited monthly circulation of only a few thousand, the magazine influenced the substance, character, and tone of the early American gay rights movement. This book is a collection of letters written to the magazine, a small number of which were published in ONE, but most of them were not. The letters candidly explore issues such as police harassment of gay and lesbian communities, antigay job purges, and the philosophical, scientific, and religious meanings of homosexuality.

Craig M. Loftin is Lecturer in American Studies at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America, also published by SUNY Press.

Reviews

"Although Letters to ONE is technically a secondary source, it often reads like a primary source. Short of actually visiting the ONE archive, this work may be the closest that Loftin's readers will come to hearing the voices of an earlier age of gays and lesbians. " — H-Net Reviews (H-Histsex)

"[a] remarkable book … about gay and lesbian life in the 1950s and '60s. " — Los Angeles Times