A review by sara_m_martins
No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Queer History Project) by Lee Wind

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

"and sometimes, our stories were honored and our history did get told. - This book is one of those times"

simply put / TL;DR: READ THIS BOOK!

This is a really informative, clear and factually correct book, as far as I'm aware, in regards to definitions and describing parts and moments of queer culture. "Well, it's about LGBTQ+ history written by a LGBTQ+ author, shouldn't that be a given?" - you'd be surprised (/appalled) by some (recent) books i read!
The book starts by framing necessary vocabulary and historic/social/cultural context to fully understand the rest of the book, which is one of the reasons i find this book a great resource for any beginners into the subject (LGBTQ+ or allies)!
The rest of the book then is centered in tales of people who were part of the LGBTQ+ community (some more, other less, well-defined historically, but that's half the fun!). It's filled with such great nuggets of knowledge, that I'm sure to bring to the next party! Did you know that Michaelangelo's David has heart eyes? Doesn't the concept of the "power of love" kiss sound so right for a gay love story, actually? Isn't "bittersweet" exactly the kind of word that'd be created by a wlw?
Disseminating queer history in such an accessible, engaging way is so incredibly important for so many aspects of our community! From forwarding civil rights, to educating both LGBTQ+ youth/people and non-LGBTQ+ people, to preserving our history! From showing "it's not a lifestyle - it's a life", to honoring our ancestors, and showing youth (and older people too) that we're not alone in the world, not now and not ever, Lee Wind's Queer History Project is such a necessity. This extraordinary work is held up by amazing referencing, and I know I'll be following up on quite a few of those!
The writing is beautiful and is full of great quotes both from the author and from sources, on being a queer person.
This book will give you Queer History the best way you could receive it; for LGBTQ+ people it'll also tell you "We are not alone"!
"The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you" - Lee Wind

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me an eARC for review