In the decade following the 1969 clashes at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, the emergence of communities among Southern lesbians, bisexuals, gay men, and transgendered persons acquired new vibrancy. Where isolation and accommodation had characterized queer Southern life since World War II, the seventies were marked by networking and activism. In Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones, award-winning writer James T. Sears tells the stories of queer history in the South through characters who shaped and were shaped by the events ushered in by the antiwar, civil rights, women's liberation, and gay movements. Sears builds upon his own earlier acclaimed book, Lonely Hunters, which details the post-World War II generation of Southern homosexuals. Sears interweaves stories of people and places to chronicle a distinctly Southern panorama of queer life in a time of transformation. He brings to light unforgettable people and events whose effect on America is still with us: A psychedelic queer wedding. Drag pageants. Motorcycle runs. Dyke softball. Fairy gatherings. Sears follows a dozen characters as they build communities of the heart, work for social change, construct sexual identities -- and muster the political clout to take on Anita Bryant and march on Washington. He describes the evolution of music and literature, the bar and disco scenes, and gay spirituality in cities and towns from Virginia to Texas. In rich, novelistic fashion, Sears explores how Southern queer communities emerged from a region and culture uniquely contoured by the divisions of race, social class, religion, and gender, showing how the newly constructed communities of the seventies both owed a debt to theirprecursors and looked hopefully to the future.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Boring history, confusing descriptions, good footnotes:

This is basically a textbook, written by an academician, and the poor fella has amassed plenty of data, but how about a logical narrative format?
He jumps around too much, from this person to that person. It's too hard to keep up with who's who. Sure, if you were a person IN the book, like Jesse (below), you maybe understand who these people are. I didn't, didn't know a one of them, well, take that back. I know who Jim Garrison was (is?...is he still alive?), and who Clay Shaw was...Rita Mae Brown I've... more info

Needed stories:

With this landmark study, James T. Sears provides not only an important document of hidden American history but also an entertaining and sometimes disturbing narrative of struggles for freedom and equality. Sadly, though, he sees the same racism and sexism inside gay communities that he saw working against those very communities. While women in general kept fighting to dress as they like, work where they like, and express themselves openly, gay women faced a male-dominated gay movement. While encountering... more info

Gay Southern History by Those Who Lived It:

As one of the 1970's activists featured in Jim Sears's book, I am naturally biased. But as a student of lesbian and gay history, I enjoyed and appreciated his take on lesbian and gay life in the South in the decade between Stonewall and AIDS. Like Barbara Tuchman's "Stilwell" and "A Distant Mirror", Sears combines biography and history, which directs the narrative and makes it more interesting to the average reader. People like Jack Nichols, Lige Clarke and Merrill Mushroom, who appeared in Sears's previous... more info

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