A very quick and easy read highlighting moments in history (from antiquity to the present) that illustrate or have a connection to behaviors and lifestyles that modern society would label as "LGBT". None of it was anything too new to me; I'm certain I'd heard most of it before. But I found it nice to just refresh some of that history and to see it put into somewhat chronological order. ( )

Is there such a thing as the first lesbian? Or the first queer pick up line? Is that an ancient painting of two friends or two lovers? Parkinson takes us back to our very early history and all the way up to current events by showing us gay history; the kind we know and the kind we didn't know. It's everything from how the ”Greek gay society” really worked to the evidence of Leonardo da Vinci's possible homosexuality.

It was such an interesting read, it was over before I knew it. Some of it was facts I already knew or had heard of but it was such a nice thing to read about history that has to do with me for once. I'm so tired of cishet history; I want queer history more than anything. And whilst this book only briefs through most of the facts it brings up, it was such a joy to have a history book about queers. I'm kind of disappointed I didn't buy it instead of borrowing it, but this might be one of those books I'll spend a lot of money on even though I've already read it. It feels like an important thing to keep in my bookshelf. ( )