The rich history beneath the rainbow flag

By Alexandra Berrocal

The American LGBTQ Rights Movement: An Introduction was written by Kyle Morgan and Meg Rodriguez. Morgan is a librarian at Cal Poly Humboldt. Rodriguez spent many years as an AIDS researcher. It is impossible to know exactly when this book was written, because it isn’t copyrighted. However, it was definitely written after 2016 because it mentions Pete Buttigieg as a historical figure. 

This book is mainly about the history of the LGBTQ+ movement in America, from Stonewall to other lesser-known events. This book is shorter than some other books out there on the subject — but boy, is it dense. There is a lot of information packed into this book and reads more like a textbook than it does an ordinary book. This is the sort of book that you would be expected to be assigned in your average women’s studies or critical race theory class, which isn’t a bad thing. However, it does mean that there is a lot to take in at once.

The book is very much written like a story. The famous people, like Marsha P. Johnson, who is famous for instigating the Stonewall riots, which were the beginning of the modern Pride movement, are given blurbs on the side. There are so many blurbs in this book that I have trouble remembering them all. However, the photos are excellent. Each photo portrays the person tastefully, and not in a demeaning light in the least.

They even talk about lesser-known figures, like Dr. Harry Benjamin. Benjamin was one of the first doctors to treat transgender people and assisted them in getting medical help. This took the form of helping them change their bodies, and getting them social and legal support. He also published a book called Transgender Phenomenon. He retired in the 1970s.

The book also mentions Bayard Rustin, who was the person who schooled Martin Luther King Jr. on Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. He organized the March on Washington, where King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. However, he was forced out of the civil rights movement because he was an openly gay man in a time when that wasn’t as accepted as it is today.

Consider reading this book multiple times. If you really want to learn from it, I suggest you take notes. I personally was dismayed at the lack of asexual representation in this book, as this book was written fairly recently. There is a fair amount of awareness of asexuality within the modern LGBTQ+ movement. Yes, I know that there hasn’t been a distinct movement for very long; they were considered bisexual for many years, until the Internet came around. I wish that there had been more on this dynamic. 

As it is, this book is great, but it isn’t all-inclusive. However, if you are looking for a book on LGBTQ+ history from 1900 to now, you could do worse than this book. For something that reads like a textbook, is pretty dense, and isn’t inclusive of asexuals as part of the LGBTQ+ movement, this is a pretty good book.

Alexandra Berrocal is a self-published author who has written fifteen books. She likes to crochet and draw, as well as read and write. She is from Orange County. They like dogs, and they sing alto in Humboldt Chorale. If you have an idea for a book she could review, email them at alexandraberrocal@gmail.com.