A History of Homosexuality

About the Book

Through centuries of acceptance and non-acceptance, the history of the homosexual, the gay man and lesbian, parallels the history of mankind. Gay history is a part of the minority movement toward the recognition of acceptance, equality and diversity toward the struggle of fitting into today's society. Are some people born gay or do they become gay? Have we always had gay men and lesbians? How has history treated the gays? What can the gay man or lesbian do to be accepted into society?

About the Author

I was the second accident of married parents of the Depression in 1934. My brother and I were reared in a middle class steel town of Massillon, Ohio, of a working mother and a bruised sports jock father. I was effeminate and hid behind humor and books. My mother died when I was 13, and I felt unrecognized and unimportant to everyone.

I put myself through college at Ohio State, a security of belonging that I had not known. I "came out" in college. Working, traveling, and teaching while not flaunting my homosexuality, I received a Ph. D. in philology with emphasis in psychology from Ohio State. I taught at a variety of colleges for twenty years to become an Associate Dean of Humanities while not publicly exposing my sexuality.

It was the period when homosexuals were thought to be psychologically unbalanced, deviate criminals. I never found that "one person", but found security in eventually leaving my college professor's grounds to become an openly gay painter, clay sculpture artist and landlord in a most liberal city in the early 1960's. In the anti-gay world, I never found a long term lover, nor wanted one, so I now say.

I watched the attitudes of straight people and watched the gay movement turn from ignorance, prejudice and hatred to a form of diversity and acceptance. I saw gays lose their jobs, reputations, respectability and some lost their lives. I watched the once accepted criminal, deviate gay become a recognized, respected minority. A lot had happened in the world of the gay man and lesbian during my lifetime. A lot more must be accomplished.

- Lee Dode', Ph. D.

Lee Dode' has written A Growin, a collage of life's fragments (a/k/a Stewart Lee), Memories of Key West for AIDS charity, Gay Happiness and how to get it, Cruisin' Duval, the making of gay Key West, and Gay, Alone, and Lovin' It, a study of the homosexual personality.