Abstract
In this chapter, Charman remembers and re-constructs being a young gay person who was the intended reader of Young, Gay and Proud (1978). The chapter situates the book in the political history of being gay in Melbourne in the 1970s and pays homage to an older generation of lesbians and gay men who directly or indirectly helped to make a community for Charman. This chapter reflects on difficulties involved with remembering a younger self and it works to understand the personal experience of being 14 years old in 1979 by discussing some of the relevant political and cultural shifts underway at the time. The essay offers a response to the question of what the appearance of the book Young, Gay and Proud demanded of Charman as a young gay person.
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Charman, K. (2021). Coda: Being a Young Gay Person in the 1970s—Reflections on Reading Young, Gay and Proud. In: Marshall, D. (eds) Queer Youth Histories. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56550-1_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56550-1_15
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