The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City

Description

Written in 1965 about a same-sex sexual scandal that occurred in 1955 in Boise, Idaho, John Gerassi's classic study depicts both middle America's traditional response to homosexuality and an era in the country's history before the modern gay rights movement really got underway. Because much of what Gerassi wrote about persists in today's struggles over gay and lesbian issues, his book still has much to tell us about how contemporary society reacts to, and misunderstands, homosexuality. -- from the new Foreword by Peter Boag On the morning of November 2, 1955, the people of Boise, Idaho, were stunned by a screaming headline in the Idaho Daily Statesman, THREE BOISE MEN ADMIT SEX CHARGES. Time magazine picked up the story, reporting that a homosexual underworld had long operated in Idaho's staid capital city. The Statesman led the hysteria that resulted in dozens of arrests--including some highly placed members of the community--and sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment. Peter Boag's Foreword places the book in historical perspective, summarizing the popular psychological theories and legal conceptions that helped to shape Gerassi's research. He discusses advances in Idaho's public approach to homosexuality and ways in which the provincialism chronicled by Gerassi persists to this day. Author description: John Gerassi (July 12, 1931 – July 26, 2012), also known as Tito Gerassi or mononymously Tito, was a French-American leftist professor, journalist, author, scholar, political activist, and revolutionary. He was one of the most important and influential thinkers and participants in the U.S. and International Left movements throughout his lifetime. As a New York Times correspondent he became a supporter of the Cuban revolution, a friend of Che Guevara, and a voice for revolutionary movements throughout Latin American and the world. Gerassi also worked as a professor of political science at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City College of New York. He authored 14 books, including Jean-Paul Sartre: Hated Conscience of His Century.