 Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century
by Graham Robb
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A fresh examination of this forbidden history shows the profound effects of gay culture on modern life.
The nineteenth century was a golden age for those people known variously as sodomites, Uranians, monosexuals, and homosexuals. Long before Stonewall and Gay Pride, there was such a thing as gay culture, and it was recognized throughout Europe and America.
Graham Robb, brilliant biographer of Balzac, Hugo, and Rimbaud, examines how homosexuals were treated by society and finds a tale of surprising tolerance. He describes the lives of gay men and women: how they discovered their sexuality and accepted or disguised it; how they came out; how they made contact with like-minded people. He also includes a fascinating investigation of the encrypted homosexuality of such famous nineteenth-century sleuths as Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes himself (with glances forward in time to Batman and J. Edgar Hoover). Finally, Strangers addresses crucial questions of gay culture, including the riddle of its relationship to religion: Why were homosexuals created with feelings that the Creator supposedly condemns?
This is a landmark work, full of tolerant wisdom, fresh research, and surprises. 16 pages of illustrations
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 Male
Colors
by Gary P. Leupp
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Tokugawa Japan ranks with ancient Athens as a society that not only
tolerated, but celebrated, male homosexual behavior. Few scholars have
seriously studied the subject, and until now none have satisfactorily
explained the origins of the tradition or elucidated how its
conventions reflected class structure and gender roles. Gary P. Leupp
fills the gap with a dynamic examination of the origins and nature of
the tradition. Based on a wealth of literary and historical
documentation, this study places Tokugawa homosexuality in a global
context, exploring its implications for contemporary debates on the
historical construction of sexual desire.
Combing through popular fiction, law codes, religious works, medical
treatises, biographical material, and artistic treatments, Leupp
traces the origins of pre-Tokugawa homosexual traditions among monks
and samurai, then describes the emergence of homosexual practices
among commoners in Tokugawa cities. He argues that it was "nurture"
rather than "nature" that accounted for such conspicuous male/male
sexuality and that bisexuality was more prevalent than homosexuality.
Detailed, thorough, and very readable, this study is the first in
English or Japanese to address so comprehensively one of the most
complex and intriguing aspects of Japanese history.
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 Stranger
Next Door : the Story of a Small Community's Battle Over Sex, Faith,
and Civil Rights
by Arlene Stein
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town believes they are "under siege from homosexuals" as animosity
begins to tear it apart. Author Stein writes as both a community
insider and outsider, drawing upon personal observation, media
analysis and interviews with 50 of the town's residents to
sympathetically and critically reveal how both sides, and those caught
in the middle, responded to this culture war.
Review: "By combining the meticulousness of an ethnographer with a
writer's commitment to storytelling, Stein has written a book that's
surprisingly compelling--or, better, compelling because it's
surprising." Nation, Patrick Smith
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 Natural
Diversity
by Bruce Bagemihl
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Homosexuality in its myriad forms has been scientifically documented
in more than 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and
other animals worldwide. Biological Exuberance is the first
comprehensive account of the subject, bringing together accurate,
accessible, and nonsensationalized information. Drawing upon a rich
body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bruce
Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive
sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world
displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship,
pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting—even instances of lifelong
homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual
bonding.
Part 1, "A Polysexual, Polygendered World," begins with a survey of
homosexuality, transgender, and nonreproductive heterosexuality in
animals and then delves into the broader implications of these
findings, including a valuable perspective on human diversity.
Bagemihl also examines the hidden assumptions behind the way
biologists look at natural systems and suggests a fresh perspective
based on the synthesis of contemporary scientific insights with
traditional knowledge from indigenous cultures.
Part 2, "A Wondrous Bestiary," profiles more than 190 species in which
scientific observers have noted homosexual or transgender behavior.
Each profile is a verbal and visual "snapshot" of one or more closely
related bird or mammal species, containing all the documentation
required to support the author's often controversial conclusions.
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, filled with
fascinating facts and astonishing descriptions of animal behavior,
Biological Exuberance is a landmark book that will change forever how
we look at nature.
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