Gay Liberation after May ’68

Guy Hocquenghem (1946–88) taught philosophy at the University of Vincennes, Paris. An activist and pioneering queer theorist, he was the author of many books, including Homosexual Desire, also published by Duke University Press, as well as a staff writer for the French publication Libération and a founding member of the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire. Gilles Deleuze (1925–95) was one of the most influential and prolific philosophers of the twentieth century. Scott Branson is a writer and translator who teaches at Appalachian State University.

In Gay Liberation after May '68, first published in France in 1974 and appearing here in English for the first time, Guy Hocquenghem details the rise of the militant gay liberation movement alongside the women's movement and other revolutionary organizing. Writing after the apparent failure and eventual selling out of the revolutionary dream of May 1968, Hocquenghem situates his theories of homosexual desire in the realm of revolutionary practice, arguing that revolutionary movements must be rethought through ideas of desire and sexuality that undo stable gender and sexual identities. Throughout, he persists in a radical vision of the world framed through a queerness that can dismantle the oppressions of capitalism and empire, the family, institutions, and, ultimately, civilization. The articles, communiques, and manifestos that compose the book give an archival glimpse at the issues queer revolutionaries faced while also speaking to today's radical queers as they look to transform their world.

A Note on Terminology  vii Translator's Introduction: A Queer Anarchism That Dare Not Speak Its Name  ix Foreword /  Gilles Deleuze  1 Volutions  6 1. Black November  13 2. Cultural Revolution  17 3. After-May Politics of the Self  38 4. Youth Culture/Pop High  62 5. Fags  79 6. Motorcycles  102 7. MLF-FHAR: Toward What End?  107 Translator's Notes  119 Index  153