Cincinnati Before Stonewall: The Untold Queer History of the Queen City - Paperback

by Jacob Hogue (Author)

Long before Stonewall, queerness thrived in the Queen City.

From queer soldiers in 1862 to drag kings and queens who lit up saloons and concert halls, Cincinnati's early LGBTQ+ history reaches into the forgotten corners of the city's past, introducing unlikely and extraordinary figures. Like Mary Ann Jefferson, a Black transgender woman who, in the late nineteenth century, became a fixture in the criminal underworld of Rat Row, Cincinnati's most dangerous neighborhood. Or Julius "Junkie" Fleischmann, a gay man who, even as the U.S. government launched a purge of homosexuals from its ranks, secretly served as a covert operative for the CIA at the end of World War II.

Charting the rise of pre-Stonewall bars, brothels, and hidden sanctuaries that offered fleeting refuge amid relentless repression, historian Jacob Hogue offers a bold, long-overdue reclaiming of queer Cincinnati's place in the American narrative.

Author Biography

Jacob Hogue is a public historian with a master's degree from Northern Kentucky University. He serves as the History and Legacies Chair for Cincinnati Pride and is the creator of Queen City Queer History, an Instagram project dedicated to uncovering the region's overlooked LGBTQ+ past. Jacob lectures at universities and businesses across Ohio and Kentucky, and his work has been published in Ohio Valley History Magazine, Queer KY Magazine, and the NKY Tribune. His work centers on revealing the lives of queer people who have too often been erased from history.