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Reviewed by:
  • The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation?
  • Colin R. Johnson
The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation? By Craig A. Rimmerman. Boulder: Westview Press. 2008.

Nothing makes a young man feel old faster than reading a book that dwells primarily on the "history" of the 1980s and 90s. At least for me, this is particularly true when the history in question is the history of conflict between LGBT Americans and members of the right-wing under the past four presidential administrations. After all, for many people, including myself, these conflicts—conflicts that political scientist Craig A. Rimmerman seeks to put in some historical perspective in his new book—still have an overwhelming sense of ongoingness about them. Nevertheless, Rimmerman is arguably justified in stepping back a bit to ask "How much progress have the lesbian and gay movements made over the years in achieving larger movements' goals?" and "What political organizing strategies are the most effective, and which are the least effective?" (xi). As the book's interrogative title suggests, Rimmerman's answer to these important questions begins with an acknowledgement that the LGBT movements, as the author pluralistically refers to them, have themselves vacillated between two ideological dispositions: a desire to win equal inclusion within American society as it is, and a more confrontational drive to upend [End Page 250] fundamentally the gender and sexual normativity that underwrites homophobic antipathy in the United States. Somewhat reductively, Rimmerman lumps these impulses under the descriptors "assimilationist" and "liberationist" respectively, and then proceeds to weigh and consider their relative merits and demerits as political strategies within the context of four historical case studies: the homophile and gay liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s, debates surrounding the formulation and implementation of HIV/AIDS policy during the 1980s and 1990s, the controversy over gays in the military that erupted when President Clinton announced that he would end the ban during his first campaign for the White House, and the rancorous squabble over gay marriage that is currently raging today. Ultimately, Rimmerman politely advocates what he calls "a dual organizing strategy, one that builds on the best of the assimilationist perspective, but one that also considers the possibilities for more radical, liberationist, structural, social and policy change" (147). As concluding recommendations go this one is certainly tidy, optimistic, and just about as even-handed as they come. But it also seems rather hollow given the fact that he has just spent almost a hundred and fifty pages demonstrating that these competing impulses began to emerge almost sixty years ago and have been with us, to one extent or another, ever since. Fortunately, there is much to recommend this book other than its argument, such as it is. Among other things, Rimmerman offers readers a detailed yet admirably concise survey of most of the major political and legislative skirmishes that have surrounded lesbians and gay men in the United States over the past half century. This alone makes the book a valuable resource for anyone wanting to inject some official political history into gender or LGBT studies courses—courses which often tend to huddle exclusively around "culture" as the proper domain of analysis. Additionally, Rimmerman's book also contains a nicely chosen collection of supplementary materials for which any teacher will undoubtedly be grateful. Along with chapter specific discussion questions, the book includes a glossary of terms, a relatively detailed timeline chronicling major events during the first twenty-five years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the exact language of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, and the names, telephone numbers, and website addresses for major U.S. LGBT organizations and advocacy groups associated with the Christian right. In other words, The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation? is a volume that was quite obviously written to be taught—in undergraduate LGBT history courses, in courses dealing with the history of civil rights movements in the United States, and in courses that examine sexuality and American public policy. Readers who turn to Rimmerman's book with this purpose in mind will undoubtedly be pleased with much of what they find there.

Colin R. Johnson
Indiana University, Bloomington

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