As far as I’m concerned, this is essential reading for queer people and allies alike. I ado. “Kameny”, says Cervini in the fast-paced video was “the grandfather of the gay rights movement”. Mostly pre-stonewall history of activism. Far fewer people are aware that the fight for gay rights didn't start there or know the names of the generation of activists that came before. It was so frustrating and upsetting to read about all these people losing their jobs and being continually discriminated against when they tried to appeal and fight back. June 2nd 2020 Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Eric Cervini’s “Deviant’s War” gives us our history back—the pre-Stonewall LGBT American history too long fragmented and forgotten, deleted, indeed erased. I’m so glad it was all here in one place and so well-narrated. From a young Harvard and Cambridge-trained historian, the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall. The secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism, and trans resistance. I've always wanted to know more about Frank Kameny. Learn More The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics . The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020) Please join us on Thursday, October 8, at 5 p.m., for a 2020 Virtual History Book Festival “Spirited Discussion” with Eric Cervini, author of The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020). Want to keep up with breaking news? Dr. Eric Cervini: The Deviant's War is the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before the Stonewall Riots of 1969. 168 Comments. Kameny and his colleagues laid the groundwork for the rights we have today. He was not ready to tear down that thin wall.”, Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History & Biography (2020), The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs The United States of America. The Deviant’s War is a brilliant new book that ought to change that forever. Dr. Cervinis effervescent personality that is showcased in his instagram and social media presence is marvelously translated into one incredible, impeccably researched book that will take it’s place as a classic text of LGBTQ+ history. The Deviant's War. Equal parts inspiring and sobering, The Deviant’s War avoids empty valorizing and focuses instead on what it takes to survive in a world that wants to erase you. Although they are fairly short in context; Bayard is mentioned as being significant for the civil rights movement, but then once he’s discovered performing fellatio on two men he becomes no longer relevant to the story until the epilogue in a brief passage. I will likely not recall every detail nor did I recognize every political figure mentioned, BUT I have absolutely absorbed some eye-opening information and have been deeply moved. Author Eric Cervini combed over 40,000 documents to create a biography rich in facts and allowed him to paint an honest and authentic portrait of Kameny as the grandfather of our LGBTQ Civil Rights movement. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual. Subscribe to our email newsletter. Explore over 350 million pieces of art while connecting to fellow artists and art enthusiasts. This is a stark reminder. 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. 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