October | Lavender Literary Society: Gay American History at 50!

Join historian Jonathan Ned Katz to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking 1976 book Gay American History!

Spanning four centuries and including topics such as “Trouble” (oppression) and “Resistance,” Native American and gender-bending people, Gay American History provided documents showing that there was such a thing as LGBTQ American history. The book helped to found the current lively field of queer history research, demonstrating that there exist fascinating documents to be analyzed, daring people to be discovered.

Hosted by Hugh Ryan, lead historian at the American LGBTQ+ Museum, the evening will feature readings from Gay American History, an excerpt from filmmaker Philip Harrison’s documentary-in-progress, “Do You Know Jonathan Ned Katz?,” conversation between Katz, John D’Emilio, and other LGBTQ scholars, and audience questions and comments.