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Jim Downs, "Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation" (Basic Books, 2016)
Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. The 1970s represented a moment of triumph -- both political and sexual -- before the AIDS crisis in the subsequent decade, which, in the view of many, exposed the problems inherent in the so-called "gay lifestyle." In Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation (Basic Books, 2016), the acclaimed historian Jim Downs rewrites the history of gay…
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