Making Gay History
The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights
HarperPerrenial
2002
From Eric Marcus:
By the turn of the twentieth century, the original Making History was out of date and out of print. I hated to think that the stories I had found so inspirational would not be available to another generation of gay and lesbian young people. So I spoke with my agent who spoke with HarperCollins and they agreed to publish an updated and revised edition of the book.
The revised Making History, which we re-titled Making Gay History, was supposed to be a six-month project. My plan had been to add about ten interviews to simply extend the original book up to the turn of the century. But after I signed the contract, I went back and re-read Making History. I wasn't happy with what I read—it was way too long and repetitive—so I decided to take the time to write the kind of book I had intended to write in the first place.
From the original 800-page manuscript I extracted 450 pages to which I added a decade's worth of interviews (including interviews with Vice President Al Gore and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres). And instead of making each interview its own chapter, I interwove the stories to create a chronological narrative. I blew my deadline by a year, but I was very happy with the result. Making Gay History is a much more accessible book than the original, and, I'm told (not by everyone), a better read.
Why change the title? In the early 1990s when Making History was first published, my editor and I were both concerned that using “gay” in the title might keep the book from being displayed by bookstore managers and that gay people might be reluctant to buy it. In retrospect, I think we were wrong (then again, who knows —the times were very different).
For this new edition, there was never any question that the title would be Making Gay History. It seemed foolish (and homophobic) to call it anything else.
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