In this Book
University of California Press
- Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965
- Book
- 2003
- Published by: University of California Press
summary
Wide-Open Town traces the history of gay men and lesbians in San Francisco from the turn of the century, when queer bars emerged in San Francisco's tourist districts, to 1965, when a raid on a drag ball changed the course of queer history. Bringing to life the striking personalities and vibrant milieu that fueled this era, Nan Alamilla Boyd examines the culture that developed around the bar scene and homophile activism. She argues that the communities forged inside bars and taverns functioned politically and, ultimately, offered practical and ideological responses to the policing of San Francisco's queer and transgender communities. Using police and court records, oral histories, tourist literature, and manuscript collections from local and state archives, Nan Alamilla Boyd explains the phenomenal growth of San Francisco as a "wide-open town"—a town where anything goes. She also relates the early history of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement that took place in San Francisco prior to 1965.
Wide-Open Town argues that police persecution forged debates about rights and justice that transformed San Francisco's queer communities into the identity-based groups we see today. In its vivid re-creation of bar and drag life, its absorbing portrait of central figures in the communities, and its provocative chronicling of this period in the country's most transgressive city, Wide-Open Town offers a fascinating and lively new chapter of American queer history.
Wide-Open Town argues that police persecution forged debates about rights and justice that transformed San Francisco's queer communities into the identity-based groups we see today. In its vivid re-creation of bar and drag life, its absorbing portrait of central figures in the communities, and its provocative chronicling of this period in the country's most transgressive city, Wide-Open Town offers a fascinating and lively new chapter of American queer history.
Table of Contents
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- pp. ix-xii
- ORAL HISTORY. José Sarria
- pp. 20-24
- ORAL HISTORY. Reba Hudson
- pp. 63-67
- ORAL HISTORY. Joe Baron
- pp. 102-107
- ORAL HISTORY. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon
- pp. 148-158
- ORAL HISTORY. George Mendenhall
- pp. 194-199
- CONCLUSION: Marketing a Queer San Francisco
- pp. 237-242
- APPENDIX B: List of Interviewees
- pp. 246-275
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520938748
Related ISBN(s)
9780520204157
MARC Record
OCLC
179137747
Pages
333
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No