A Queer Version of Howard Zinn

Thanks to my friend Brad for inspiring this story.  Here we are on the final day of May, the day before TSM will do a month long celebration of LGBT History.  June is typically LGBT History Month in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots.  In preparation of celebrating LGBT history, I would like to strongly recommend a new book by Michael Bronski

A 21st Century Howard Zinn

, A QUEER HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. I have been a great fan of Howard Zinn since the first time I read A People’s History of the United States, in the late 1980s.  Bronski, like Zinn has crafted a piece of non-fiction that reflects our history through a more accurate lens.  Bronski focuses on tracing the history of the LGBT community in the United States.  Bronski starts with the Puritans and shows the beginning of how America justified the marginalization of people:

The acceptance of slavery as a philosophical concept and political reality laid the groundwork for the justification of ‘othering’ — designating a group of people as ‘different,’ placing them outside of the legal, social, and moral framework granting full citizenship.

Bronski takes a very needed integrated approach in including the voices of the LGBT community.  Click here to see the full article. I hope that my month of celebrating LGBT people will help to hearing our voices in American history become fully integrated.

Here is a nice update thanks to a kind soul that follows TSM:

I thought you might like the video we did for Michael Bronski’s A Queer History of the United States:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJ7X2Uavyc

Please share if you like it!

Best,

Jessie Bennett