Before Stonewall

BEFORE STONEWALL is an interesting but overloaded and convoluted chronicle of American gay culture from the 1920s through the 1969 Stonewall riot.

In the 1920s, a "homosexual underground" developed in such major American cities as San Francisco, New York, and New Orleans. In Harlem, nightlife thrived around gay entertainers, including Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. The bohemian subculture of the time also encouraged gay expression, inspiring writers like Langston Hughes and Gertrude Stein. During WWII, lesbians in the military won a degree of tolerance because of their willingness, as women, to serve. When the war ended, many gays who served decided to live in l...