Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America's Debate on Homosexuality

In 1977 and 1978, voters across the country went to the polls in a series of referenda to decide whether lesbians and gay men were citizens deserving equal protection under the law—or perverts and outcasts. These contests served as the first national debate about gay rights, and set the pattern that still shapes this controversy today. Focusing on the first major referendum battle in Miami and moving outward, Gay Rights and Moral Panic is a lively and detailed account of these campaigns, which pitted the civil rights claims of America’s lesbians and gay men against society’s powerful beliefs and fears about homosexuality.