The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation?

by Craig A. Rimmerman

Throughout their relatively short history, the lesbian and gay movements in the United States have endured searing conflicts over whether to embrace assimilationist or liberationist strategies. This new book explores this dilemma in both contemporary and historical contexts, describing the sources of these conflicts, to what extent the conflicts have been resolved, and how they might be resolved in future.

The text also tackles the challenging issue of what constitutes movement “effectiveness” and how “effective” the assimilationist and liberationist strategies have been in three contentious policy the military ban, same-sex marriage, and AIDS. Considerable attention is devoted to how policy elites—most notably Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton; Congress; and the Supreme Court—have responded to the movements’ grievances. The book examines the George W. Bush presidency with an eye to assessing how political opportunities have informed the broader lesbian and gay movements’ strategies, and also details the response of the Christian Right to the movements’ various assimilationist and liberationist strategies.

A Choice Oustanding Academic Title 2008

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 24, 2007

Reviews

[Dr. Madeline, AuD · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really interesting and it was extremely accessible, which is surprising because I read this book for an upper division political science class. I just wish Rimmerman had written more about the liberationist perspective, because the book primarily focused on assimilation and the Christian Right. I would recommend this book.