An angel in Sodom : Henry Gerber and the birth of the gay rights movement

Elledge, Jim 1950- (author.).

Summary: "Born in 1892 in Germany, Henry Gerber was expelled from school as a boy and lost several jobs as a young man because of his homosexual activities. He emigrated to the United States and enlisted in the army for employment. After his release, he explored Chicago's gay subculture: cruising Bughouse Square, getting arrested for "disorderly conduct," and falling in love. He was institutionalized for being gay, branded an "enemy alien" at the end of World War I, and given a choice: to rejoin the army or be imprisoned in a federal penitentiary. Gerber re-enlisted and was sent to Germany in 1920. In Berlin, he discovered a vibrant gay rights movement, which made him vow to advocate for the rights of gay men at home. He founded the Society for Human Rights, the first legally recognized US gay-rights organization, on December 10, 1924. When police caught wind of it, he and two members were arrested. He lost his job, went to court three times, and went bankrupt. Released, he moved to New York, disheartened. Later in life, he joined the DC chapter of the Mattachine Society, a gay-rights advocacy group founded by Harry Hay who had heard of Gerber's group, leading him to found Mattachine"--

Record details

ISBN: 1641606053
ISBN: 9781641606059
ISBN: 1641605685
ISBN: 9781641605687
ISBN: 1641605669
ISBN: 9781641605663
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xiv, 290 pages) : illustrations
remote
Publisher: Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, [2023]
Copyright: ©2023

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Part I. Chicago -- Part II. New York -- Part III. Washington, DC.
Biographical or Historical Data:	Jim Elledge, award-winning author of The Boys of Fairy Town, Henry Darger, Throwaway Boy, and over twenty other titles, has won two Lambda Literary Awards.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.