We Set the Night on Fire

March 1, 2023
In this partial autobiography, Shelley, a cofounder of the Gay Liberation Front, writes of her years as an activist in the women's and gay liberation movements of the 1960s and '70s. But first she records her childhood growing up in New York in a Jewish family on the cusp between poor and middle class. The quotidian details of her early life are interesting but perhaps excessive; it isn't until a third of the way through the book that she becomes involved with the Daughters of Bilitis at the age of 23 and begins her role as a spokeswoman for that organization and, in due course, goes on to cofound the Gay Liberation Front. It is her subsequent evolution as an activist deeply involved in the early years of the gay liberation movement that makes her story an important contribution to its history. Unfortunately, the book ends in the late 1970s, leaving readers to wonder about her later life and activism, for, as she concludes, "The job of an activist is never done."

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April 1, 2023
The autobiography of a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front. On June 28, 1969, Shelley was giving two gay Bostonians a tour of Greenwich Village in New York City when they "came upon a group of men throwing things at cops." When the women asked what was going on, Shelley answered, "It's just a riot...we have them all the time." It was only later that she realized that the women had passed through the famous riot at the Stonewall Inn that marked a major transition in the movement for gay rights. A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and the City College of New York, Shelley was a tough, precocious New Yorker who began to identify as a lesbian after having an affair with a woman she met in a judo class. At a young age, the author was confident enough in her sexuality to become a public speaker for the New York chapter of a "lesbian organization" called Daughters of Bilitis, a role she wore proudly despite having to hide it from her employer. "Although I was out as spokesperson for the DOB, I couldn't be out at work," she writes. "I was still living a double life." It was through this organization and its male counterpart--the Mattachine Society--that Shelley helped found the radical Gay Liberation Front, a group famous for organizing the march that alchemized the ire of the Stonewall riot into a decadeslong movement. Shelley's frank, conversational tone, wry sense of humor, and keen eye for detail make the text feel like an intimate conversation with a radical friend. At times, her rapid-fire introduction of characters and stream of narration are confusing, but the book is a well-paced, highly informative page-turner about a history that is rarely told. A gay rights activist's funny and thoughtful memoir.

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