Leading the Parade: Conversations With America's Most Influential Lesbians and Gay Men

Rating:
Summary: An excellent effort!
Review: Paul Cain has written a wonderful book, profiling 39 of the outstanding figures in the struggle towards gay acceptance and rights that went on from 1940 to 1990. All of these chapters were the result of his drive and desire to get to know these people. Along with his personal interviews, he did an enormous amount of research which makes each chapter a thorough study of each individual. The book includes chapters on such lights as Rita Mae Brown, Frank Kameny, Troy Perry, Miriam Ben Shalom, Dorr Legg, Urvashi Vaid, and many more. It's well worth the money! Just in time for gay pride, too!

Rating:
Summary: Voices from the "Pioneer" days of gay liberation
Review: There have already been some memorable books profiling the best known of the leaders in the fight for equal rights for gays and lesbians in America. The first thing that makes author Paul D. Cain's first book unique is that he goes beyond the "usual" names to feature an extremely diverse group of 39 men and women, who indeed have all significantly influenced our community in some way. Some are front line activists, but many are better known for their efforts "behind the scenes" as teachers, artists, authors, composers, publishers, preachers, or simply openly living their lives at a time or place where role models made a great difference in the lives of young gay men and lesbians.

The book is divided into five logical sections, charactizing the nature of the individuals' contributions. Each individual has his or her own chapter containing an interview in which the author takes an active part, adding his own non-judgemental observations and opinions based on his experiences. It is obvious from his enthusiasm in his questioning that this was a labor of love, one that his notes says took him over five years to put together, crisscrossing the country. Many of his interviewees are no longer in the public eye, and live very private lives, which made it more of a challenge to locate them and get their cooperation to be interviewed. And his chapters are full of interesting comments from each interviewee's friends and associates, providing additional insights into their lives by those who knew them best.

This engaging book makes for an interesting read, and a valuable lesson for gays and lesbians of all ages about the pioneers to whom we owe a great deal of thanks for the advances made by our community over the past half century.