An Anthology of Early Erotic Writings Illustrating the Development of a Gay Consciousness; In the histories of the modern gay movement, the beginnings are nearly always cited in political terms and usually with the Stonewall Inn riots of 1969. But before there could ever be a recognisable gay movement, the very possibility of a gay community first had to be imagined. In this anthology of largely underground and little known gay erotic writings from the late Victorian age to the late 1960s, cultural critic Michael Bronski explores the ways in which the erotic imagination ultimately led to gay identity and the creation of gay culture.