Second Tuesday Presents “The Deviant’s War”: A Conversation with Eric Cervini and Hugh Ryan

This conversation with Eric Cervini, author of “The Deviant’s War,” and Hugh Ryan, author of “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” centers on Frank Kameny who in 1957 was questioned by the Pentagon about his homosexuality. This conversation will discuss some of the humiliating interviews that Kameny and countless gay people before him went through, and how they fought back.

Eric Cervini’s “The Deviant’s War” unfolds over the course of the 1960s, as the Mattachine Society of Washington, the group Kameny founded, became the first organization to protest the systematic persecution of gay federal employees. It traces the forgotten ties that bound gay rights to the Black Freedom Movement, the New Left, lesbian activism and trans resistance. Above all, it is a story of America (and Washington) at a cultural and sexual crossroads; of shocking, byzantine public battles with Congress; of FBI informants; murder; betrayal; sex; love and ultimately victory. To purchase “The Deviant’s War” or “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” please order from The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division bookstore. Visit bgsqd.com/store for more info.

RSVP to receive meeting information prior to the event. Please note that this online event will be recorded.

ABOUT ERIC CERVINI
Dr. Eric Cervini is an award-winning historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 2014 and received his PhD in history from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. As an authority on 1960s gay activism, Cervini serves on the Board of Advisors of the revived Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of gay American history. His award-winning digital exhibitions on the Mattachine have been featured in Harvard’s Rudenstine Gallery, and he has presented his research to audiences across America and the United Kingdom.

ABOUT HUGH RYAN
Hugh Ryan is a writer and curator, whose LGBTQ history of Brooklyn, “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” was published in March of 2019 by St. Martin’s Press. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, BuzzFeed, the LA Review of Books, OUT, and many other venues. He has an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars, and is the recipient of the 2016-2017 Martin Duberman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, a 2017 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction Literature and a 2018 residency at The Watermill Center. He is the Founder of the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, and for the Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art. @Hugh_Ryan