Best of
Queer

1972

The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps


Heinz Heger - 1972
    Since that time, books such as Richard Plant's The Pink Triangle (and Martin Sherman's play Bent) have illuminated this nearly lost history. Heinz Heger's first-person account, The Men with the Pink Triangle, was one of the first books on the topic and remains one of the most important. In 1939, Heger, a Viennese university student, was arrested and sentenced to prison for being a "degenerate." Within weeks he was transported to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp in East Germany, and forced to wear a pink triangle to show that his crime was homosexuality. He remained there, under horrific conditions, until the end of the war in 1945. The power of The Men with the Pink Triangle comes from Heger's sparse prose and his ability to recall--and communicate--the smallest resonant details. The pain and squalor of everyday camp life--the constant filth, the continuous presence of death, and the unimaginable cruelty of those in command--are all here. But Heger's story would be unbearable were it not for the simple courage he and others used to survive and, having survived, that he bore witness. This book is harrowing but necessary reading for everyone concerned about gay history, human rights, or social justice. --Michael Bronski

Lesbian/ Woman


Del Martin - 1972
    Lesbian/Woman, written by the founders of the Daughters of Bilitis, is a comprehensive account of the lesbian world by two of the GLBT community's legendary activists.

The Life of the Theatre


Julian Beck - 1972
    "He did what he wanted to do: with his wife Judith Malina he created the Living Theatre . . . Not an ivory tower, however: a headquarters of revolution, a guerrilla theater, though a pacifist one . . . He didn't get the kind of death he wanted . . . but . . . he had had the life he wanted . . . When such a life has been lived, who dares say theater is just a business? Who dares say it is just an art?" Eric Bentley

Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation


Karla Jay - 1972
    In the tradition of Sisterhood is Powerful, Out of the Closets presents, in their own words, the views, values attitudes, aspirations, and circumstances of the early generation of gay and lesbian liberationists. Highlighting both how much and how little has changed since Stonewall, this work is essential reading for anyone concerned with the history of sexuality and the legal and social status of lesbians and gays in contemporary America.

The Lord is My Shepherd and He Knows I'm Gay: The Autobiography of the Rev. Troy D. Perry, as Told to Charles L. Lucas


Troy D. Perry - 1972
    and a homosexual. Here, he shares his own life story with the world in the hope of creating greater understanding and ending the evils of prejudice.

Screening The Sexes


Parker Tyler - 1972
    Devoted to homosexuality in films, it aims to look beyond the obvious and to observe the psychology of sex roles, at the same time recognising film as the realm of contemporary mythology. Tyler was once described as one of the most consistently interesting and provocative writers on film that America has produced, well-informed and free of cant.