Overview

"1981. Rich with promise and possibility, the post-Stonewall era saw queer Americans standing up for themselves and each other like never before. With the rise of gay newspapers, bars, clubs, and businesses in cities all over the US, it was a time of hedonism, activism, pride, and community. A scene ripe for exploration and documentation, and journalist JD Doyle hit the road to do just that, traveling through 27 states to create a playful, intimate, profusely illustrated, one-of-a-kind record of gay life, love, lust, and liberation in the heady days before the devastating crisis that would change everything. This is the trip he took. ""A remarkable journey through gay male life in the early 1980s...gay bars, restaurants, sports associations (who knew Houston had 55 gay bowling teams in 1981?), strip clubs, and easy hookups, just before AIDS cast a shadow over everything. Doyle takes us beyond the coasts to highlight the vibrant gay scenes in large cities and small towns across the South and West. From close encounters with Grace Jones and Diana Ross to even closer encounters with the men he met along the way, this book is full of insights and vivid sketches of people and places."" George Chauncey DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University Author of GAY NEW YORK: GENDER, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKING OF THE GAY MALE WORLD, 1890-1940"

Full Product Details

9781943444380

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""This book documents a remarkable journey through gay male life in the early 1980s, when the post-Stonewall fervor for building community institutions made it the heyday of gay bars, restaurants, sports associations (who knew Houston had 55 gay bowling teams in 1981?), strip clubs, and easy hookups, just before AIDS cast a shadow over everything. Doyle's journal is especially valuable because he takes us beyond the coasts to highlight the vibrant gay scenes in large cities and small towns across the South and West, including New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Kansas City, and, yes, LA and San Francisco, too. From close encounters with Grace Jones and Diana Ross to even closer encounters with the men he met along the way, this book is full of insights and vivid sketches of people and places in those pre-AIDS days."" George Chauncey DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 ""In 1981-MY GAY AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, JD Doyle offers a vision in the first-person of what life looked like for many men traversing the gay recesses of post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS America: free, joyous, and full of possibility, even amidst persistent stigma. Doyle's road trip journals and accompanying commentary represent an important firsthand account of a period in gay American history that is too often overlooked."" Eric Cervini, PhD The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America ""Through both words and images, this book offers a window into a lost era of gay cruise bars, restaurants, and bookstores-a time when a handsome young gay man with a mustache could travel across the country and find a cornucopia of gay guesthouses, shops, cultural events waiting for him in every city. And as 'new meat' in town, he often didn't even need to book a hotel room. It also gives insight into the equally lost world of local gay journalism. This was when scores of newspapers served local communities and were beginning to organize nationally. It reminded me of Alan Helms' YOUNG MAN FROM THE PROVINCES: A GAY LIFE BEFORE STONEWALL. David K Johnson The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government and Buying Gay ""JD Doyle, producer of the radio show and website Queer Music Heritage, peoples' historian and archivist extraordinaire, presents the diary of his 1981 road trip, south, west, and north, age 34, across 24 states and 180 bars. The fabulous photos and valuable text document just before the year AIDS hit, creating a chasm between a modern liberatory era and a nightmare time. Recording visits with fellow liberationists, friends, and family, Doyle documents a moment in his and our history. Thanks, JD!"" Jonathan Ned Katz The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams and Gay American History ""JD Doyle's road trip book is unique and valuable. His journal records his experiences as a sexually active gay man in the 1970s and early 1980s in many cities in the USA, including smaller ones. As a memoir, the writing is personal but it is also journalistic and reflects a way of being that ended with the arrival of AIDS and the Internet. Think of this as a fun-loving and adventuresome history book."" Allen Young The Gay Report, Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, and Lavender Culture (all co-authored with Karla Jay)"

Author Information

"JD Doyle (b. 1947) is an American LGBT music/history archivist and radio producer. In addition to his engineering job, he did volunteer work as the Editor of Our Own Community Press, a gay newspaper based out of Norfolk, Virginia. In 1981, Doyle moved to Houston, Texas, where he later produced the radio programs QUEER MUSIC HERITAGE on the station KPFT, and OUTRADIO, heard on the internet. His currently active works include the Texas Obituary Project and the Houston LGBT History website, all part of his 501(c)(3) non-profit, the JD Doyle Archives. Those archives also contain one of the largest collections of queer music in the country. In 2019, the United States Library of Congress selected the archives for digital inclusion in a collection of LGBT history. He believes that history exists to be shared, not hoarded, and strives to make his collection accessible to all. Doyle's work has been honored by numerous awards, such as the Legacy Award from the Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce (2023); Trailblazer Award from Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (2021); a Proclamation from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner during LGBT History Month (October 2022) naming it ""JD Doyle Day;"" from the Houston LGBTQ Political Caucus, given the Lifetime Achievement Award (2019) and Kristen Capps Social Conscience Award (2021); Legacy Community Health Mint Julep Award (2023); Male Grand Marshal for the 2014 Houston Pride Parade; and the Alan Bérubé Prize, from the Committee on LGBT History (2012).1981-MY GAY AMERICAN ROAD TRIP is his first book."

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available