Liberating Lawrence

“Liberating Lawrence movingly documents how a few college students created a community where none existed, confronted hostile power structures, and helped launch decades of progress for LGBTQ people in Kansas. By centering the voices of the people who did the work, Kathy Rose-Mockry charts a course for younger generations to keep making progress and honor the legacies of their elders.”—C. J. Janovy, author of No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas

“Katherine Rose-Mockry’s captivating narrative is built from in-depth personal interviews with the founding and early members of gay liberation groups in Kansas. She provides a colorful portrait of the intersections of politics, locality, personalities, identity- and community-building, and, of course, sex. This is an excellent expansion of the history of early queer organizing in the Midwest.”—Patrick Dilley, author of Gay Liberation to Campus Assimilation: Early Non-Heterosexual Student Organizing at Midwestern Universities and Queer Man on Campus: A History of Non-Heterosexual College Men, 1945–2000

“With its sustained romp through the archives and keen consideration of gender dynamics, Liberating Lawrence reconfirms that Kansas was integral to post-Stonewall LGBTQ politics. Rose-Mockry’s exhaustive account is important for those interested in queer campus life as well as the wide geographic reach of gay liberation across the late modern United States.”—Scott Herring, author of Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism

Liberating Lawrence is a riveting and thoroughly researched account of early LGBTQ student organizing at the University of Kansas. Despite the messiness of their early organizing efforts and opposition from many university leaders, the brave student activists profiled in this book ultimately succeeded in building a revolutionary LGBTQ student organization in the middle of the heartland. The deeply moving stories at the heart of this book serve as a reminder of the power of student activism and should surely inspire those who continue to mobilize for LGBTQ equality today.”—Jonathan S. Coley, author of Gay on God’s Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities

“Gay and lesbian stories of the 1960s–80s come alive in this deeply researched history. Illustrating the importance of campus organizations to the larger project of LGBTQ+ liberation, Rose-Mockry illuminates how the Great Plains served as a center of gay activism and cultural life. The result offers a fresh perspective on movements for social justice.”—Amanda L. Izzo, coeditor of Left in the Midwest: St. Louis Progressive Activism in the 1960s and 1970s

“In Liberating Lawrence, Katherine Rose-Mockry provides a comprehensive look at the history of the Lawrence Gay Liberation Front and the organizing climate in which it emerged. The book documents the political, cultural, and social impact of the organization on campus and in the community, giving us deep insight into the challenges students and their allies faced, the joy they found in collaboration, the impact they had, and the fault lines within their own ranks. Informed deeply by dozens of oral history interviews, and detailed in its coverage, Liberating Lawrence is an enlightening new resource for understanding LGBTQ+ student organizing histories of the 1970s and into the 1980s.”—David A. Reichard, author of Here Are My People: LGBT College Student Organizing in California