After the Ball (Kirk and Madsen book)

Last updated
After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s
After the Ball (book).jpg
Cover of the first edition
Authors Marshall Kirk
Hunter Madsen
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject LGBT rights in the United States
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date
1989
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages398
ISBN 0-385-23906-8

After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s [1] is a 1989 book by neuropsychologist Marshall Kirk and advertising executive Hunter Madsen about LGBT rights in the United States. The book was expanded from a 1987 article by Kirk and Madsen (who wrote under the pen-name "Erastes Pill") called "The Overhauling of Straight America", published in Guide magazine.

The book advocates a change in the national discourse in regards to gay and lesbian Americans in an effort to curb homophobia. A review in the Los Angeles Times called it "a stubbornly revisionist critique of the conventional wisdom of gay activism over the last two decades." Kirk and Madsen also call for the gay community to examine themselves. [2] [ further explanation needed ]

Legal scholar Didi Herman writes that, despite being widely criticized and non-influential within lesbian and gay communities, the book has been strategically used by members of the Christian right as proof of a secretive "gay agenda" to subvert American Christianity and "traditional" definitions of the family. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattachine Society</span> American gay male advocacy group

The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, preceded by several covert and open organizations, such as Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection of male friends in Los Angeles to protect and improve the rights of gay men. Branches formed in other cities, and by 1961 the Society had splintered into regional groups.

Anti-LGBT rhetoric comprises themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. They range from the demeaning and the pejorative to expressions of hostility towards homosexuality which are based on religious, medical, or moral grounds. It is a form of hate speech, which is illegal in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Family Association</span> American nonprofit organization promoting fundamentalist Christian values

The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States. It opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. It also takes a position on a variety of other public policy goals. It was founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Values Coalition</span> American conservative Christian organization

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) was an American conservative Christian organization. It was founded in 1980 at Anaheim California by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon to oppose LGBT rights. Sheldon's daughter, Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, was initially the executive director and presently serves as president. TVC was influential in the 1980s and 1990s in lobbying for government policy based in Christian fundamentalism.

"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troy Perry</span> American activist and clergy

Troy Deroy Perry Jr is an American cleric and the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, with a ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968.

Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, may be based on irrational fear and may sometimes be related to religious beliefs.

Marshall Kenneth Kirk was a New England Historic Genealogical Society librarian, and a noted writer and a researcher in neuropsychiatry. He is, however, best known as one of the co-authors of After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s, a strategy for the LGBT movement in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Kight</span>

Morris Kight was an American gay rights pioneer and peace activist. He is considered one of the original founders of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Ben</span> American writer

Edythe D. Eyde better known by her pen name Lisa Ben, was an American editor, author, active fantasy-fiction fan and fanzine contributor, and songwriter. She created the first known lesbian publication in North America, Vice Versa. Ben produced the magazine for a year and distributed it locally in Los Angeles, California in the late 1940s. She was also active in lesbian bars as a musician in the years following her involvement with Vice Versa. Eyde has been recognized as a pioneer in the LGBT movement.

Gay Community News was an American weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1973 to 1999. Designed as a resource for the LGBT community, the newspaper reported a wide variety of gay and lesbian-related news.

Colorado for Family Values was a socially conservative advocacy group in Colorado, United States. It existed from 1990 to 2002.

LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allied movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century and influential in achieving social progress for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people.

This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the 1970s.

After the Ball may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jones (activist)</span>

Michael Jones is an American web and application developer, music producer, and author. From 1984 to 1988, he was an activist credited with enabling the gay and lesbian community of Indianapolis to become more active and visible. During his time of advocacy in Indiana, he was involved in helping Ryan White and working to advance the rights of gays and lesbians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Córdova</span> German writer

Jeanne Córdova was an American trailblazer of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and proud butch.

<i>Lesbian Tide</i> Periodical

The Lesbian Tide (1971-1980) was a lesbian periodical published in the United States by the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. It was the first lesbian periodical in the US to reach a national audience and the first US magazine to use the word "lesbian" in the title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara May Cameron</span> Native American author, artist, and activist (1954–2002)

Barbara May Cameron was a Native American photographer, poet, writer, and human rights activist in the fields of lesbian/gay rights, women's rights, and Native American rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society</span>

GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society is one of the first LGBTQIA+ rights non-governmental organizations founded by Armenian Americans. GALAS was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in West Hollywood, California. Its mission is to serve and support the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals of Armenian descent, to promote their human rights protection, and to advocate for the change of public policy around LGBTQ+ issues.

References

  1. Kirk, Marshall; Madsen, Hunter (1989). After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s (1st ed.). New York: Doubleday. ISBN   0-385-23906-8.
  2. Kirsch, Jonathan (October 4, 1989). "Book Review : Provocative Call to Arms on Gay Rights" . Los Angeles Times.
  3. Herman, Didi (1997). The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right . University of Chicago Press. p. 86. ISBN   0-2263-2764-7.