As couples rush to the altar and their opponents head to the courts, here are some books that can help put the debate over gay marriage into context.
Leaves of Grass
By Walt Whitman
Twelve poems by the great gay grandfather of American poetry, replete with what would now be identified as a gay sensibility.
The Homosexual in America
By Donald Webster Cory
Published in 1951, this was the first comprehensive nonfiction work of the 20th Century about homosexuality in America. It contained the credo of the gay-rights movement that would explode 18 years later in the Stonewall riot in New York City.
Giovanni’s Room
By James Baldwin
The author said this powerful novel came out of “something which tormented and frightened me: the question of my own sexuality.”
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities
By John D’Emilio
Includes an account of the fate of homosexuals during the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s.
The City and the Pillar
By Gore Vidal
Published in 1948 when the author was 21, it was the first important American gay novel after World War II.
The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart
By Peter Gomes
Written by Harvard University’s gay chaplain, this book recast the debate about Christianity and homosexuality.
A Boy’s Own Story
By Edmund White
The best novel by the most-talented gay novelist of our time.
Reports From the Holocaust
By Larry Kramer
A call to arms against the plague of AIDS, by the father of ACT UP.
The Best Little Boy in the World
By Andrew Tobias (a.k.a. John Reid)
A still-beguiling coming-of-age novel about a gay preppie.
Backward Glances
By Mark Turner
A new way of imagining queer urban culture, analyzing fragments of writers from Whitman to the present day.
