Overview
Garry Wotherspoon's Gay Sydney: A History is an updated version of his 1991 classic, City of the Plain: History of a Gay Sub-culture, written in the midst of the AIDS crisis. In this vivid book Wotherspoon traces the shifts that have occurred since then, including majority support for marriage equality and anti-discrimination legislation. He also ponders the parallel evaporation of a distinctly gay sensibility and the disappearance of once-packed gay bars that have now become cafes and gyms. This book also tells the story of gay Sydney across a century, looking at secret, underground gay life, the never-ending debates about sex in society and the role of social movements in the '60 and '70s in effecting social change.
Author Biography
Garry Wotherspoon is a leading historian of many aspects of Sydney. His books include Sydney’s Transport: Studies in Urban History, Being Different: Nine Gay Men Remember (H&I 1996) and City of the Plain: a history of a gay sub-culture. He co-authored, with Clive Faro, Street Seen: A history of Oxford Street published by Melbourne UP in 2000. The Mechanics’ School of Arts: A history was published in 2013 to commemorate its 180th anniversary. Wotherspoon is a former academic at the University of Sydney and a former NSW History Fellow. He was awarded Australia’s Centenary of Federation medal for his work as an academic, researcher, and human rights activist. He works as an editorial consultant on the Dictionary of Sydney Project.