The author goes through a century of the history of the slow but steady change towards equal rights for gay men and women in the United States. The going was tough, after a remarkably good step forward during Prohibition (when the culture of doing things that were not condoned by the main stream became almost main stream by virtue of prevalence), but the book does not have a downbeat tone--quite the contrary, it is uplifting throughout.
The author does not waste any time defending the concept that homosexuals require equal rights--she very appropriately has that as a given. Her contention is that because gays are so much like straight folks it led to a longer time for us all to figure out that we have friends, family members, and co-workers who are gay, and this delay in recognition did the gay community no favors. She argues that it was HIV and AIDS that brought the issue of gay rights to the forefront, for two reasons. One was that it was no longer possible to deny that Uncle Leo was gay--once AIDS was in full epidemic, people became reluctantly openly gay. The equally important effect was that the gay community became an effective and powerful lobby. They worked first for treatment options for HIV, but the networks that developed went on to lobby for gay rights in all walks of life. THe most recent battle grounds--military service and marriage--have taken dramatic strides forward this past several years.
The book is a wonderful read, but it is especially strong in the area of Supreme Court rulings related to gay rights.
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