Sexual politics, sexual communities : [electronic resource] the making of a homosexual minority in the United States, 1940-1970 / John D'Emilio.

Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1981.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Homosexuality and American society: an overview -- Forging a group identity: World War II and the emergence of an urban gay subculture -- The bonds of oppression: gay life in the 1950s -- Radical beginnings of the Mattachine society -- Retreat to respectability -- Dual identity and lesbian autonomy: the beginnnings of separate organizing among women -- The quest for legitimacy -- Gay life in the public eye -- Civil rights and direct action: the new East Coast militancy, 1961-1965 -- The movement and the subculture converge: San Fransico during the early 1960s -- High hopes and modest gains -- A new beginning: the birth of gay liberation.

Gay Book Award (American Library Association), 1984