Gay America by Linas Alsenas

This juvenile nonfiction book came to our library highly recommended as not just niche "Gay History" but as simply American History. I agree, and the book is well done.

But the first half of the book - the "history" history section - is much, much stronger than the "current" history section. I understand that it's always a challenge to look at your own times and determine what will become important to history. But it seems to me that at a certain point the author decided to just throw in references to a bunch of people, just to make sure everybody was covered in case something becomes critical.

The sections dealing with the Victorian era, the Depression, and the early days of AIDS were certainly the strongest and most interesting. It really does help to frame current news items when you understand the origins of the struggle.