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SUNY Series in Queer Politics and Cultures
Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America
An analysis of unpublished letters to the first American gay magazine reveals the agency, adaptation, and resistance occurring in the gay community during the McCarthy era.
In this compelling social history, Craig M. Loftin describes how gay people in the United States experienced the 1950s and early 1960s, a time when rapidly growing gay and lesbian subcultures suffered widespread discrimination. The book is based on a remarkable and unique historical letters written to ONE magazine, the first openly gay publication in the United States. These letters, most of which have never before been published, provide extraordinary insight into the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of gay men and lesbians nationwide, especially as they coped with the anxieties of the McCarthy era. The letters reveal how gay people dealt with issues highly relevant to LGBT life today, including job discrimination, police harassment, marriage, homophobia in families, and persecution in churches and the military. Loftin shows that gay men and lesbians responded to intolerance and bigotry with resilience, creativity, and an invigorated belief in their right to live their lives as gay men and lesbians long before this was accepted and considered safe. Groundbreaking chapters address gay marriage and family life, international gay activism, and how antigay federal government policies reverberated throughout the country.
“The letters to ONE are terrific, providing a valuable sense of the concerns and perspectives of gay men and lesbians who might be considered rank-and-file homophiles. The book illustrates how people sometimes minimally engaged with the movement negotiated the postwar period and made a difference.” — Leila J. Rupp, author of A Global History of Love between Women
In this compelling social history, Craig M. Loftin describes how gay people in the United States experienced the 1950s and early 1960s, a time when rapidly growing gay and lesbian subcultures suffered widespread discrimination. The book is based on a remarkable and unique historical letters written to ONE magazine, the first openly gay publication in the United States. These letters, most of which have never before been published, provide extraordinary insight into the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of gay men and lesbians nationwide, especially as they coped with the anxieties of the McCarthy era. The letters reveal how gay people dealt with issues highly relevant to LGBT life today, including job discrimination, police harassment, marriage, homophobia in families, and persecution in churches and the military. Loftin shows that gay men and lesbians responded to intolerance and bigotry with resilience, creativity, and an invigorated belief in their right to live their lives as gay men and lesbians long before this was accepted and considered safe. Groundbreaking chapters address gay marriage and family life, international gay activism, and how antigay federal government policies reverberated throughout the country.
“The letters to ONE are terrific, providing a valuable sense of the concerns and perspectives of gay men and lesbians who might be considered rank-and-file homophiles. The book illustrates how people sometimes minimally engaged with the movement negotiated the postwar period and made a difference.” — Leila J. Rupp, author of A Global History of Love between Women
310 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2023
I think I really should have read this one before Letters to ONE because it's not really as interesting as it could have been this way.
June 8, 2026
i had never heard of this magazine before, even though i’m big into queer history! what an interesting way for gay people of the past to find community.
October 24, 2014
I liked it, but it's not as good as it's follow-up book, Letters to One: Gay and Lesbian Voices from the 1950s and 1960s.
There's a saying with writing that you should show your audience, not tell them, and there's quite a lot of telling here. The book is well researched but the letters form a background to the narrative. As the book goes on this increases with a 7 page letter from an African-American gentleman, I think Donny?, getting about 30 pages of narrative. Some of this ends up being conjecture, like at that time this was happening, so this probably also happened to Donny.
I appreciated all things being explained, although I knew a lot of it, it was nice to have it laid out. Just a little more focus on the letters would have been better. Something achieved very well in the second book.
The only quote I highlighted from the book is one where a man voluntarily checked himself into a mental hospital to change his sexual orientation, writing "I suppose I can see you sit back in your chair and give out a big laugh." Proving that gay men can be just as macho and immature as straight men when they want to be.
There's a saying with writing that you should show your audience, not tell them, and there's quite a lot of telling here. The book is well researched but the letters form a background to the narrative. As the book goes on this increases with a 7 page letter from an African-American gentleman, I think Donny?, getting about 30 pages of narrative. Some of this ends up being conjecture, like at that time this was happening, so this probably also happened to Donny.
I appreciated all things being explained, although I knew a lot of it, it was nice to have it laid out. Just a little more focus on the letters would have been better. Something achieved very well in the second book.
The only quote I highlighted from the book is one where a man voluntarily checked himself into a mental hospital to change his sexual orientation, writing "I suppose I can see you sit back in your chair and give out a big laugh." Proving that gay men can be just as macho and immature as straight men when they want to be.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews