The Deviant’s War by Eric Cervini

The Deviant’s War

The Homosexual vs. The United States of America

Eric Cervini

In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny, like countless gay men and women before him, was promptly dismissed from his government job. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back. Based on firsthand accounts, recently declassified FBI records, and forty thousand personal documents, Eric Cervini’s The Deviant’s War unfolds over the course of the 1960s, as the Mattachine Society of Washington, the group Kameny founded, became the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism, and trans resistance. Above all, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads; of shocking, byzantine public battles with Congress; of FBI informants; murder; betrayal; sex; love; and ultimately victory.

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Details

ISBN 9780374139797
Genre History; LGBT Studies/Social Sciences
Publication Date 02-Jun-20
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Format Hardcover
No. of Pages 497
LoC Classification HQ75.8.K35 .C47 2020
Language English
Rating NotRated
Subject Gay Rights – History. – United States; Gays – Biography. – United States; Gays – Legal Status, Laws, Etc. – United States
BookID 15481

Author: LFWBooks