Feeling Backward – Loss and the Politics of Queer History

Feeling Backward weighs the costs of the contemporary move to the mainstream in lesbian and gay culture. While the widening tolerance for same-sex marriage and for gay-themed media brings clear benefits, gay assimilation entails other losses - losses that have been hard to identify or mourn, since many aspects of historical gay culture are so closely associated with the pain and shame of the closet. "Heather Love" argues that instead of moving on, we need to look backward and consider how this history continues to affect us in the present.