The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After

By Lucas Hilderbrand Gay nightlife, LGBTQ, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf

The Bars Are Ours is the first nationwide history of gay bars in America during the period of gay liberation and after.


Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Legal Recognition

By Marie-Amélie George 20th and 21st Century United States, LGBTQ, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf

Family Matters offers a new way of understanding how beleaguered minority groups may be able to secure meaningful legal change.

Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo

By Elyssa Ford 20th and 21st Century United States, LGBTQ, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf

Slapping Leather traces gay rodeo as a space where queer people have been able to both embrace and challenge the idealized masculinity associated with the iconic cowboy of the American West.

A Queer New York: Geographies of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers

By Jen Jack Gieseking 20th and 21st Century United States, LGBTQ, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf

A Queer New York traces the gentrification of and by lesbian and queer people from the early days of the AIDS crisis to the last season of The L Word.

Will the Sissy be Triumphant?

By Marlon Ross 20th and 21st Century United States, LGBTQ, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf, Race and Ethnicity

The concept of sissiness, and the way the epithet is employed, is neither static nor universal.

The Italian Invert: A Gay Man’s Intimate Confessions To Emile Zola

By Michael Rosenfeld LGBTQ, Modern Europe, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf

A very queer tale, The Italian Invert is one man’s story of love affairs, sexual adventures, and the pursuit of happiness at the end of the nineteenth century.

(Safe) Sex, Leather and Zines: Lisbon’s GayClub and early HIV/AIDS information activism

By Joana Matias HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ, Modern Europe

A discrete Portuguese members’ club GayClub, through its publication Órbita Gay Macho, promoted safe sex, curated news from abroad, and warned against media hysteria around HIV/AIDS.