Suitable for gay and lesbian readers, this collection of essays, commentaries, and interviews features a stellar line-up of writers and activists. It takes on contemporary issues of gay rights and identity politics as well as recover the pre- and post-Stonewall literary heritage that gives shape to gay culture.

Among the periodicals targeted to gay and lesbian readers, "The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review" stands out as the forum for the serious discussion of contemporary politics and culture. This collection of lively and accessibly written essays, commentaries, and interviews features a stellar line-up of writers and activists. Engaging with a wide range of subjects that particularly interest gays and lesbians, these provocative essays take on contemporary issues of gay rights and identity politics as well as recover the pre- and post-Stonewall literary heritage that gives shape to today's gay culture. Author note: Richard Schneider, Jr., is the editor of "The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review".

Series Foreword
Robert Dawidoff
Foreword
Edmund White
General Introduction
Richard Schneider, Jr. Being There 1. My Harvard
Andrew Holleran 2. A Tragedy of Bees
Patricia Nell Warren 3. Russia: "Invitation to a beheading"
Yaroslav Mogutin 4. Remembering the Gay Old Times
Edmund White Origins of an Orientation 5. The Genetic Theory of Sexual Orientation
Richard Pillard 6. Varieties of Biological Explanation
William Byne and Ed Stein 7. Genes in the Service of Gay Pride
Vernon Rosario 8. Do Women Choose Their Sexual Identity
Karla Golden 9. Where Gay Boys Come From
Camille Paglia Early Outbreaks 10. Lesbians in Ancient Rome
Bernadette Brooten 11. A Gay Civil War Novel Surfaces
Douglas Shand-Tucci 12. Review of George Chauncey's Gay New York
Robert Dawidoff 13. Deciphering the Gay Halocaust
Lev Raphael 14. Hollywood Watering Holes
Lester Strong The Gay Decades 15. Lesbian New York
Karla Jay 16. The Real Violet Quill Club
Felice Picano 17. Behind the Door at Red Dora's
Gabrielle Glancy 18. Reverberations of "The NEA Four Affair"
Holly Hughes Literary Heritage 19. On Emily Dickinson
Martha Nell Smith 20. On Willa Cather
Marilee Lindemann 21. Stein's Style
Renate Stendhal 22. Review of Auden
Richard Howard 23. Five Houses of Gay Fiction
Reed Woodhouse 24. Review of Saphire's Push
Cheryl Clarke 25. David Leavitt's Inner Child
Michael Schwartz 26. Interview
Edward Albee On Liberation Strategy: An Exchange 27. Three Articles Exerpted
Barney Frank 28. Reply to Frank
Rich Tafel 29. Interview
Urvashi Vaid 30. Interview
Larry Kramer Assimilation Versus Ghettoization: An Exchange 31. Open Letter to Bruce Bawer
David Bergman 32. Reply to Bergman and Bergman's Rebuttal
Bruce Bawer Postmodernism and its Discontents 33. The Perils of Postmodernism
Richard Mohr 34. The Politics of Sexual Identity
April Martin 35. Review of Boswell's Same Sex Marriages
Denise Kimber Buell 36. Review of David Halperin's Saint=Foucault
Andrew Holleran About the Contributors