Bibliogr. Index

Over the past decade, homosexuality has become visible as never before in Western culture. What was once considered an individual, psychological state has become a collective, sociological one, increasingly seen as a viable basis for an individual identity, a community, a culture. How did it happen? What does it mean, both for individual homosexuals and for the larger society? Dennis Altman [...] now surveys the last ten years to trace the emergence of the gay community, its impact upon American society and life, as well as the impact of America upon its gay subculture.
Informed by his own experience and observations, as well as an unusual conceptual clarity, Altman explores the invention of the new homosexual, the theoretical as well as concrete distinction between homosexuality and homosexuals, the unexpected merger of sexe and consumer capitalism in the seventies, the gay political movement and its enemies, the emergence of a gay culture, the achievement of unheard sexual freedom, the end of romance, and concludes with an examination of the differences between this book and his groundbreaking work of ten years ago.