IMPROPER BOSTONIANS CL

A Harvard student expelled for cross-dressing in the early 1700s, seventeenth-century citizens fined for same-sex cohabitation, touring female impersonators of the nineteenth century, early twentieth-century women who passed as men and married other women...PSurprising, fun, and magnificently illustrated, Improper Bostonians is the first book to depict Boston's three centuries of gay and lesbian life, and -- as it treats the American city with the longest gay and lesbian history -- the most comprehensive gay city history ever written. Drawing on newspaper accounts, private archives, advertisements, and other sources, Improper Bostonians introduces us to men and women who flaunted conventional gender rules, were unapologetic about their lifestyles, and tried to make sense of their sexuality -- sometimes at great cost.PAs Improper Bostonians delves into its subject through an extraordinary variety of perspectives and periods, subjects and sources, it also explores the impact of historic events and trends -- Prohibition, censorship, World War II, the Kinsey reports on human sexuality, urban development in the 1960s. Featuring two hundred images, this is a fascinating introduction to the rich gay heritage of the Athens of America.