Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of P

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A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean—one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC! Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean’s autobiographical chronicle,... Read more

A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean—one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC!

Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean’s autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the political activism of building grassroots support systems, fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives.

Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress dynamically recounts Endean’s activism and instrumental leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the “dos and don’ts” of political activism is peopled with well-known and lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape.

Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress gives an inside look at the political process, discussing:

the political roots of Steve Endean—from his activist beginnings in Minnesota
his rise from state to national politics
the basics of fundraising
lobbying representatives
the LGBT internal conflicts
building grassroots support
the hypocrisy and lack of courage inherent in politics
protest activities

From the book:

“I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight, coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never looked so appealing.”

Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean. Read less

Editor’s Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Rules of the Road
PART I: THE ROLLER COASTER
Chapter 1. My Minnesota Roots
Chapter 2. Pushing the Pedals of Power: From Minnesota to the Gay Rights National Lobby
Chapter 3. Money Talks: Gay and Lesbian Political Clout and the Founding of Human Rights Campaign Fund
Chapter 4. We’ve Met the Enemy . . . and the Enemy Is Us: Internal Conflicts Can Be Far More Painful Than Fighting Homophobes
Chapter 5. Beginning Again: Building an Effective Capacity to Generate Grassroots Mail to Congress
Chapter 6. Speak Out
PART II: REFLECTIONS OF AN OLD, TIRED ACTIVIST
Chapter 7. If It Ain’t Broken . . . : Demonstrating a Need for the Gay and Lesbian Rights Legislation
Chapter 8. One-to-One Lobbying
Chapter 9. Do Dog and Pony Shows Make a Difference? How Much Do Hearings Really Matter?
Chapter 10. Thoughts on Fund-Raising
Chapter 11. Of Battles Lost and Opportunities Missed
Chapter 12. Bedfellows Make Strange Politics: Of Hypocrisy and Honesty, Coming Out and “Outing”
Chapter 13. The Politics of Self-Indulgence? A Self-Confessed “Insider” Assesses His Experience with Protest Activities
Chapter 14. Wrapping Up a Movement Career: Retiring on Disability, Acknowledgment, and . . . Victory!
Editor’s Afterword
PART III: APPENDIXES
Appendix A. Membership Lists of Boards of Directors
Appendix B. Cosponsors of the National Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Bill
Appendix C. African-American Support for Lesbian and Gay Rights
PART IV: TIMELINE AND REMEMBRANCES
Stephen Robert Endean: Time Line
Congressional Tribute to Steve Endean (Martin Olav Sabo)
Tribute to Steve Endean (Robert R. Meek)
Steve Endean: A Remembrance (Allan H. Spear)
Notes
Index

Author(s)

Biography

Vern L Bullough, Vicki Eaklor, Robert R Meek

Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream Twenty Years of Progress

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

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