This book examines the fluctuating place of sexuality in LGBTQ mobilization in the US. It contends that, while politically successful, the US LGBTQ movement has a record of neglecting a key aspect of LGBTQ militancy-sexuality-and analyses grassroots efforts at re-politicizing sexuality and re-sexualizing LGBTQ politics.

Guillaume Marche is a Professor of American society, politics, and culture at Université Paris-Est Créteil (France) specializing in contemporary social movements in the US. His publications deal with the LGBT movement, sexuality, subjectivity, and collective mobilization. His current work also addresses the use of biography in social science, and infrapolitical forms of intervention in public spaces in San Francisco.

PrefaceChapter 1 IntroductionSubjectivity, militancy, and political opportunitiesA micro-sociological approach "from below"Why the united states?TerminologyChapter 2 Of homosexualities and movementsThe homophile movementThe gay liberation movement and the eruption of sexualityGay communitarianism and the privatization of sexualityThe advent of aids and the resurgence of activismSexualization and strategic essentialismLegitimation, integrationism, and desexualizationRecognition of marriage and desexualizationChapter 3 From fragmentation to coalescenceThe moral conservatism of the 1980sAct up: provocative lesbian and gay activismAids, lesbianism, and male homosexualityDepolarization, appeasement, and assimilationismInstitutionalization, status, and conductSubstantive rights and collective mobilizationChapter 4 Sexual fulfillment and political disenchantmentMilitant disengagementPrivatization and commodificationLGBTQ pride controversiesAn idealized identityAuthenticityGratification, engagement, and disappointmentIdealized identity, homogeneity, and aidsReasons for engagement, reasons for withdrawalChapter 5 Sexuality and empowermentSubjectivity, erotics, and mobilizationYoung people's sexualityLGBTQ youth as social actorsDaring to talk about lgbtq young people's sexualityHomosociality, desire, and ethnicity/raceSexuality and public spaces: sex panic!Sexuality, intimacy, and empowermentSexualizing lesbianismThe "doldrums" and abeyance structuresRefocusing action on pleasureChapter 6 Mobilization on the threshold of the politicalGuerrilla theaterMaintaining grassroots activismSubaltern actionInfrapoliticsAn extreme case: the sisters of perpetual indulgenceThree sistersThe significance of insignificanceChapter 7 Conclusion: toward new identity formsA winning movementPolymorphic mobilizationWhat can we learn from this?The intervieweesReferencesIndexAcknowledgments