9th Ave: James Polchin

Wednesday, June 26, 2019 - 7:30pm

This event will be held at our 9th Ave. location.

James Polchin discusses his new book Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall.

About Indecent Advances

A skillful hybrid of true crime and social history that examines the relationship between the media and popular culture in the portrayal of crimes against gay men in the decades before Stonewall.

Stories of murder have never been just about killers and victims. Instead, crime stories take the shape of their times and reflect cultural notions and prejudices. In Indecent Advances, James Polchin recovers and recounts queer stories from the crime pages--often lurid and euphemistic--that reveal the hidden history of violence against gay men.

What was left unsaid in the crime pages provides insight into the figure of the queer man as both criminal and victim, offering readers tales of vice and violence that aligned gender and sexual deviance with tragic, gruesome endings. Victims were often reported as having made "indecent advances," forcing the accused's hands in self-defense and reducing murder charges to manslaughter.

Published in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising on June 28, 1969, Indecent Advances investigates how queer men navigated a society that criminalized them and displayed little compassion for the violence they endured. Polchin shows, with masterful insight, how this discrimination was ultimately transformed by activists to help shape the burgeoning gay rights movement in the years leading up to Stonewall.

Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall By James Polchin Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781640091894
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Counterpoint - June 4th, 2019

Edgar Award finalist, Best Fact Crime
American Masters (PBS), “1 of 5 Essential Culture Reads”
One of CrimeReadsBest True Crime Books of the Year


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