A New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize\, The Deviant's War uncovers the secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall\, told through the life and unprecedented legal efforts of astronomer Franklin Ed ward Kameny. This discussion will be moderated by Jasmine Allen of PBS NH. \;
\nIn 1957\, Frank Kameny\, a rising astronomer working for t he U.S. Defense Department in Hawaii\, received a summons to report immedi ately to Washington\, D.C. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a hom osexual\, and after a series of humiliating interviews\, Kameny\, like cou ntless gay men and women before him\, was promptly dismissed from his gove rnment job. Unlike many others\, though\, Kameny fought back.
\nBase d on firsthand accounts\, recently declassified FBI records\, and forty th ousand personal documents\, Eric Cervini's The Deviant's War unfolds over the course of the 1960s\, as the Mattachine Society of Washington\, the gr oup Kameny founded\, became the first organization to protest the systemat ic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement\, the New Left\, lesbian a ctivism\, and trans resistance. Above all\, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads\; of shocking\, byzantine public battles with Congress\; of FBI informants\; murder\; betrayal\; sex \; love\; and ultimately victory.
\nAbout the author: \;Eric Cer vini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ culture and politics. He grad uated summa cum laude from Harvard College and received his Ph.D. in histo ry from the University of Cambridge\, where he was a Gates Scholar. The De viant&rsquo\;s War is his first book.
\nThis program is a partnershi p with Nashua Public Library. \;
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