2025 marks the 32nd
anniversary of Queers in History, first released in 1993 on diskettes
and later on CD-ROMs as the first widely available “new media” title in
bookstores. Constantly updated, it was republished 16 years later in 2009 as
a trade paperback, reflecting a time when many public figures began coming
out, making it difficult to keep up with new entries.
Now, another 16 years
later, this revised edition expands further with new figures, corrections,
and a continued focus on a historical timeline spanning 5,000 years. Trans
people have been included since the start, though earlier editions had
omissions this update aims to address. The hardcover has outgrown the bounds
of a single volume and must now be split in two parts (A–K and L–Z) by last
name. This format will be easier for readers to handle.
One of the original intentions for Queers in History was that it should eventually become unnecessary. The hope was that the value of the contributions queer people have made and continue to make to society would become widely known and accepted. In the years following publication of the paperback, that seemed to be happening.
In 2025, however, we see governments erasing words like “trans” “non-binary”, “gender” and “pronoun” from publications, websites, libraries, archives, scientific studies, schools and even the signage of national monuments like The Stonewall Inn. In the US, Executive Orders mandate dropping the “T” from LGBT+ (as if they didn’t exist) and promulgate the easily-disproved fiction that people are born and remain as one of only two pure genders. The “B” is next to go and eventually “L” and “G” too. It looks like there may be as much need for this book and more like it, as ever there was.
Specs:
Title: QUEERS IN HISTORY: The encyclopedia of historical LGBTQ+; A thousand and one short stories about prominent people from 2450BC to the 21st Century. In two volumes (A-K) and (L-Z)
Author Name: Keith Stern; Foreword by Ian McKellen
Publisher: Shoreham House
Genre: Non-fiction
Publication Date: May 27, 2025
Page Count: 755
Illustrated with hundreds of historical photographs
Price: $49.90 for two hardcover volumes
ISBN: TBA
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Copyright and Trademark 1993-2025 by Keith Stern