Print

xiii Preface Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience is a com- prehensive, three-volume work that illuminates the issues and hard-won rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States. From documents and historical accounts, the book also traces the historical cultural and legal antecedents that influenced the United States, ranging from the Bible, Native American culture, and early European colonial laws to the present-day struggles for same-sex marriage and complete equality. It will be of interest to all who wish to study the issues and challenges that members of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities face, and this text provides models and contexts for students in high schools through col- lege and all readers. Gay and lesbian individuals have a long history in humankind, but they have long been denied rights, including the basic right to life. People convicted of homo- sexual acts were executed in the United States in the times of the early colonies and young republic. In following years, LGBT people were arrested, imprisoned, fired from jobs, and disowned by families and communities. It has primarily been only in the last 45 years that LGBT Americans have been able to persevere, asserting their rights and seeing laws slowly overturned that ensure their freedom to hold jobs, serve in the armed forces, hold political office, raise and have custody of their children, and currently, to be allowed to marry within same-sex unions, but only in some states. Scope and Arrangement Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience is a refer- ence work focused on the issues that LGBT people in the United States have faced and continue to face, highlighting the milestones and the people who have led the way to ensure equality in their daily lives. The three volumes include: A detailed chronology, which provides historical context and an extensively an- notated chronology of important events in LGBT history, from ancient Greek and Roman times to the present. Part One (in Volume 1) is a section comprising 203 entries, or essays, in A-Z order, ranging from 300 to 7,000 words. They include two lengthy historical over- views of the main periods in LGBT history, profiles of people who have been impor- tant figures within LGBT rights, information on organizations that have been formed