Description
Book SynopsisOut in the Union tells the continuous story of queer American workers from the mid-1960s through 2013. Miriam Frank shrewdly chronicles the evolution of labor politics with queer activism and identity formation, showing how unions began affirming the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers in the 1970s and 1980s. She documents coming out on the job and in the union as well as issues of discrimination and harassment, and the creation of alliances between unions and LGBT communities. Featuring in-depth interviews with LGBT and labor activists, Frank provides an inclusive history of the convergence of labor and LGBT interests. She carefully details how queer caucuses in local unions introduced domestic partner benefits and union-based AIDS education for health care workers-innovations that have been influential across the U.S. workforce. Out in the Union also examines organizing drives at queer workplaces, campaigns for marriage equality, and other gay civil rights issu
Table of Contents Acknowledgments
A Brief Chronology of LGBT Labor History, 1965–2013
Prologue: Love and Work and Queer Survival
I Coming Out
1 From Construction to Couture: Coming Out in Unionized Workplaces
2 Outsiders as Insiders: Sexual Diversity and Union Leadership
II Coalition Politics
3 From Common Enemies to Common Causes: The Labor Movement and the Gay Movement in Action and Coalition
4 The Heart of the Matter: Union Politics, Queer Issues, and the Life of the Local
III Conflict and Transformation
5 Organizing the Gay Unorganized: Talking Union, Talking Queer
Epilogue: When Connie Married Phyllis
Notes
Bibliography
