CSUS Graduate Student Workshop:

Transnational Solidarity Networks in the Era of Gay Liberation: The Making of Gay Communities in North America (1970s-1980s)

Juan Carlos Mezo González

Held on:

November 14, 2019
4:00–5:30pm

Room 208N, North House
Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON

This talk discusses the relationship between the gay press and gay liberation movements in North America throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The talk traces how international solidarity efforts and the need to “build community” in order to advance gay liberation politics fueled gay activists’ “desire to connect” in the post-Stonewall era. The discussion is centered around two (interconnected) networks that brought together people working with Toronto’s gay periodical The Body Politic (1971-1987), San Francisco’s Gay Sunshine (1971-1982), Boston’s Gay Community News (1973-1999), Mexico City’s Política Sexual and Nuestro Cuerpo (1979), as well as academics, activists, intellectuals, and other people based in the U.S. and Mexico throughout the period covered in the study.

Juan Carlos Mezo González is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History working on a collaborative program in Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. He holds an MA in History from the University of Toronto (2016) and an Honors BA in History from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2014), where he was the recipient of the Gabino Barreda Medal as the top student in his cohort. His doctoral dissertation examines the transnational gay networks that people working with gay periodicals established across North America throughout the 1971-1994 period. His past and forthcoming publications focus on Indigenous and Colonial history and the history of gay liberation in North America. Juan Carlos is a recipient of the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) Doctoral Scholarship and an Ontario Graduate scholar.