book review

The POLITICS of HOMOSEXUALITY TOBY MAROTTA

How lesbians and gay men have made themselves a political and social force in modern America

TOBY MAROTTA, author of THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY, to be published by Houghton Mifflinon May 25, 1981. ($16.95 Hardcover, $9.95 Paperback). Photograph by H. Grant

tachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis were formed, with early members using pseudonyms and meeting semi-secretly (remember, this was the McCarthy era) in their apartments, and how idealogical differences within these groups frustrated early drives in the 1960's for homosexual civil rights. Marotta also records the Stonewall. Riots, which gave birth to the gay liberation movement, and the influences of the New Left and the sixties counterculture that shaped the rise of gay militancy. He discusses in depth the issues and conflicts within both the gay men's and the lesbian feminist movement which eventually split and polarized the early activists into numerous groups and factions.

THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY is based on seven years of research and centers primarily on activities which took place in New York City, which Marotta feels, influenced the rest of the country. "Things tend to happen first and very dramatically in New York," he writes, "and what happens there is extensively publicized." Indeed, there is little information in Marotta's 333 page volume that has not been hitherto published elsewhere. Although he does mention many of the early leaders of the gay movement, there are not interviews with any of them; no fresh insights on the events and people which took place almost a decade ago, thus giving the impression that most of Marotta's material was gleaned from other writers' books, magazine, and newspaper articles. This is evident in his extensive, but dated bibliography. Other than a brief epilogue devoted to "Where are they now?", THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY tells nothing of what has happened in the gay

struggle since the early 1970's. Omitted completely are Anita Bryant and Dade County, Leonard Matlovich, Harvey Milk, and the rise of the Moral Majority.

After describing at length such issues as sexism, racism, radicallyversus-moderate-versusconservative politics, Malotta ends his account of the gay/lesbian political movement with a rosy picture of life on Christopher Street. "Businesses run by gay people line both sides of the street. The Oscar Wilde Memorical Bookshop (is) just a few hundred yards from the site of the Stonewall Riots. The, pornographic bookstore further down bears a lambda (symbol)." Fine, I suppose, if you live in the Village, but rather naive an assessment of the political struggle of lesbians and gay men on the whole in America. Gay people are still summarily dismissed from the armed forces (Sgt. Matlovich's handsome settlement notwithstanding), harrassed at international borders, discriminated against in housing, employment, and custody of their

J

children, and no nearer to passing a homosexual civil rights bill in Congress than they were twenty years ago when it was first initiated by early rights activist Frank Kameny.

Malotta would do well to examine the lesbian/gay political movement in light of today's political climate and beyond the confines of his cozy Village ghetto and dated research material.

Nevertheless, THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY is a useful work for those interested in the origins of the lesbian/gay movement, and the issues, ideals, and aspirations of it, which continue to influence, divide, and sometimes unite us today.

Toby Marotta, a graduate of Harvard College, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, is a Senior Research Associate at URSA, Urban and Rural Systems Associates, a consulting firm based in San Francisco. He lives in Berkeley, California.

A Smile In His Lifetime by Joseph Hansen

Hardcover, $13.95

Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston

BOOK REVIEW BY G. ADAMS oseph Hansen, the highly acclaimed author of the gay private-eye series, has written his first "gay novel." "What's this" you say? "Weren't the other books gay novels?" No, my friends, they were books wherein the hero just happened to be gay; but that was almost incidental to the story line. A Smile in His Lifetime, however, does deal with

the hero's gayness as a primary force in the work..

More specifically, the book tells about the life of Whit Muller, a writer who seeks out a meager existence by writing cheap porno novels. He has married despite his homosexuality and is miserable because, besides being poor, he wants a man, the man next door in fact. When he finally has him, it leads to further problems with his

Todd's Disco Presents Sunday, June 21st

"DREAMS" starring Fran Jeffries

doing impressions of:

Aretha Franklin with Sister of Souls

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Lolita Holloway and the Harletts

Jennifer Foxx with Male Dancers

Showtimes Promptly at 10:30 p.m. & 12:30 No Reservations (so get there early) Adv. Tickets $4.00 At Door $5.00

The Politics of Homosexuality by Toby Marotta Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981

Cloth $16.95; Paper, $9.95

D

r. Toby Marotta, a gay social scientist, has written his first book, THE

POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY, based on his Harvard Ph.D. dissertation. Dr. Marotta documents lesbian/gay political activity in America, from the homophile groups in the 1950's to the emergence of the gay liberation and lesbian feminist movements in the early 1970's. He describes how gay and lesbian political organizations, such as the Mat-

METRA MAGAZINE 12

TODD'S

8139 E. Seven Mile Detroit, MI (313) 892-4296

Bobby Bruno Emcee

Tickets on Sale at: Bookies, Gigi's, Menjo's, Bush Floral Gardens

Todds