In 1869, in response to the impending adoption of an anti-homosexual law in Germany, a doctor named Benkert wrote an open letter of protest. Developing over the next quarter century, the first wave of the homosexual liberation movement moved into open struggle with the founding of the first gay group in 1897. The new movement actively advanced the cause of gay rights- legally, scientifically and culturally-until the 1930s when Stalinist and Nazi repression obliterated virtually all traces of it.

This pioneering book carefully uncovers the lost history of this period. The authors highlight interesting events, such as the Oscar Wilde trial, and the relationship between the gay and socialist movements around the turn of the century; additional notes on five pioneers (among them Sir Richard Burton and Edward Carpenter) are also included. This is the early history of a movement generally thought not to have an early

history.