Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History

Editors Rupp (A Desired Past) and Freeman (Sex Goes to School) have compiled an excellent and sturdy resource that offers high school and college teachers an entry point into LGBT history by distilling “the best historical scholarship.” Rather than finding small wedges for inserting “another other” into standardized curricula, the authors contribute personal experience, methodologies, and pedagogical practices outlining an “intersectional approach” that gives students “a richer understanding” of these obscured histories. A thick middle section provides several content-specific essays demonstrating that “the queer past runs wide and deep,” from instances of gender-crossing among Native American tribes, same-sex desire in rural America or on the frontier, and intense “romantic friendships” among 19th-century pairs, early-20th-century drag balls, the Lavender Scare, and civil rights activism that began long before Stonewall or the AIDS epidemic. Throughout, contributors deftly tie LGBT content to the broader goals of teaching history, not simply making visible the lives of everyday queer people but prompting critical engagement, showing students how “the ideas and practices of what we consider to be ‘normal’ [are] constructed and maintained, resisted and reshaped.” In all, the volume serves as a valuable reference guide and creates the groundwork for “a usable past” that can “inspire young minds to imagine and work for a more open and accepting future.” Photos. [em](Dec.) [/em]