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Don Baker, holding sign that says "March On Washington October 14, 1979" with Texas silhouette.

The Dallas Teacher, Navy Vet, and Devout Christian Who Fought to Overturn Texas’s Sodomy Law

Unlikely activist Don Baker scored a landmark win for gay rights in Texas 42 years ago this week.
"Stalls for All" sign with transgender flag hearts

Transgender Legal Battles: A Timeline

New laws regarding transgender youth are based on the assumption that the gender binary is natural.
The book cover for Vice Patrol

Vice, Vice, Baby

The history of patrolling sex in public.
Illustration of a nineteenth century prison ship offshore.

The Gay Marriages of a Nineteenth-Century Prison Ship

What seemed to enrage a former inmate most was the mutual consent of the men he lived with.

“Sodomy is not Adultery”: The Clinton Sex Scandal as Queer History

Until fairly recently, President Clinton's narrow definition of adultery would have been backed up by the courts.
David Bowie singing into a microphone wearing a feather boa and tights.

How Pop Came Out of the Closet

Jon Savage’s “The Secret Public” traces the influence of queer artists on a hostile culture.
LGBTQ+ Pride balloon arch at parade

Who's Afraid of Social Contagion?

Our ideas about sexuality and gender have changed before, and now they’re changing again.
Black and white photo of a Chicago street at nighttime, 1920s

Why Did Gay Rights Take So Long?

A quiet movement that began in the 1920s didn’t disappear—it just went underground.
Cover of "Bad Gays" book, with subtitle "A Homosexual History" superimposed over a Roman statue's mouth and beard.

What History’s “Bad Gays” Can Tell Us About the Queer Past and Present

A new book examines explores the ways that an uncritical celebration of “good” gays and “good” gayness can cause harm.
A photo of Harrison Post.

“In 1934, My Life Snapped”

Hollywood has long abused conservatorships. I spent the past decade studying one of the darkest cases.
Illustration of Peurifoy and others attempting to find homosexuals within the federal government.

The Homophobic Hysteria of the Lavender Scare

Despite a thriving queer community in Washington, the 1950s State Department fired gay and lesbian workers en masse.

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