A compelling memoir of social life in the queer underground of San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles at a time when the manic frivolity of gay rights and youth collided with the deadly reality of plague.

When 14-year-old Leonard decides to quit being a Dweeb and instead joins the Burnouts, his “good boy” persona is abandoned as he embarks on a comically painful journey of self-discovery through an unconventional friendship with Rick, an older Jesus-freak barefoot hippie. Growing up in the 1970s has never before been portrayed with such delightful ludicrousness and heartrending tenderness.

Gay bars have operated as the most visible institutions of the LGBTQ+ community in the United States for the better part of a century, from before gay liberation until after their assumed obsolescence. In The Bars Are Ours Lucas Hilderbrand offers a panoramic history of gay bars, showing how they served as the medium for queer communities, politics, and cultures. Hilderbrand cruises from leather in Chicago and drag in Kansas City to activism against gentrification in Boston and racial discrimination in Atlanta; from New York City’s bathhouses, sex clubs, and discos and Houston’s legendary bar Mary’s to the alternative scenes that reimagined queer nightlife in San Francisco and Latinx venues in Los Angeles. The Bars Are Ours explores these local sites (with additional stops in Denver, Detroit, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Orlando as well as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Texas) to demonstrate the intoxicating---even world-making---roles that bars have played in queer public life across the country.

Gutter Boys is a twisted tale of steamy gay sex and unrequited love in Lower Manhattan in the early 80s. Filled with scenes of humorous debauchery and explicitly depicted anonymous sex, this wanton outing portrays a carnal world of orgiastic delights that may never exist again. Jeremy, a shy 19 year old falls madly in love with Colin, a disturbed, yet brilliant, older hustler. Though he rejects Jeremy as a lover, Colin takes him on as his protege, and introduces him to the hilariously depraved world of new wave nightclubs and gay bars in the days before AIDS.

A whirlwind tour of San Francisco's fabled queer bohemia in the waning days of the 20th century, as the city's budget bon vivants work to save their eccentric lifestyles in the face of tech gentrification by LAMBDA award finalist Alvin Orloff. Harris, San Francisco's most annoying gay barfly, doesn't mean to be bitchy, passive aggressive, or insulting. But he's so bedazzled by his own critical brilliance he feels morally obliged to share his scathing opinions with the world at any and every opportunity. This irritates no one more than his roommate, Maxine, an avant-garde transsexual cabaret singer. When she overhears him badmouthing her on the phone she flies into a rage and expels him from their apartment. This crisis couldn't come at a worse time. The year is 1999 and the "dot com" boom has rendered cheap housing nonexistent, and Harris, who works as a part-time telemarketer, is--as usual--low on funds. Will he be able to convince one of his eccentric, semi-dysfunctional friends with a rent-controlled apartment to let him move in? Vulgarian Rhapsody immerses readers in a fading bohemia of queer dive bars, drag clubs, and countercultural cafes. The book's narrator (a longtime frenemy of Harris who's every bit as snarky and annoying as he is) tells the story with sadistic relish and an ironist's eye for the absurd. Anyone feeling sickly from too many uplifting stories of personal empowerment, precious coming-of-age tales, or sugarcoated romances will find the perfect antidote in this hilariously acidic comedy of manners.

Introduction by Exene Cervenka In the wake of hit movies TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERY THING, and PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT comes a personal account of one individual's evolution from innocent, suburban Johnny Purcell into fabulous, sophisticated Bambi Lake. From a fantasy filled childhood to San Francisco's queer salad days in the 70's absolutely nothing is off-topic in this sexy, revealing drama.

The 170-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area told through its crimes and how they intertwine with the city’s art, music, and politics In The Murders That Made Us, the story of the San Francisco Bay Area unfolds through its most violent and depraved acts. From its earliest days when vigilantes hung perps from downtown buildings to the Zodiac Killer and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, murder and mayhem have shaped the city into the political and economic force that she is today. The Great 1906 Earthquake shook a city that was already teetering on the brink of a massive prostitution scandal. The Summer of Love ended with a pair of ghastly drug dealer slayings that sent Charles Manson packing for Los Angeles. The 1970s come crashing down with the double tragedy of Jonestown and the assassination of Gay icon Harvey Milk by an ex-cop. And the 21st Century rise of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump insider Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Vice President Kamala Harris is told through a brutal dog-mauling case and the absurdity called Fajitagate. It’s a 170-year saga of madness, corruption, and death revealed here one crime at a time.