The Queerest Places

Paula Martinac

"This spirited and revealing travel guide adds a whole new flair to American history as it retrieves the gay and lesbian past. Imagine what an excitingly different outlook you would have visiting Emily Dickinson's Amherst homestead knowing that the one passionate relationship of her life was with a woman. And what a spin American politics takes on realizing that our "bachelor president" James Buchanan, lived with another man for twenty years. Lively and anecdotal, the guide includes many exciting landmarks, such as the St. Louis apartment where Tennessee Williams grew up and which he used as a setting for The Glass Menagerie, and the hangouts of the blues queens of the 1920s and 1930s. It also explores the lives of prominent figures such as Bayard Rustin, Lizzie Borden, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Allen Ginsberg, Herman Melville, and hundreds of others. This delightful volume provides a vivid overview of gay and lesbian history, covering noteworthy queer meeting places--bars, cafés, restaurants, churches, public halls, and cruising areas such as parks and "tearooms"--and major sites associated with the lesbian and gay liberation movement. Divided into the five major regions of the United States--New England, Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, West--the book is organized alphabetically by state, complete with addresses for each site. This guide takes the reader from early America to the present, bringing people, places, and events together in a refreshing way, and makes the past come alive with great spirit."--Back cover.