Thank you to dreamscape media and netgalley for giving me this audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is coming out at such an important time in American history. This is proof that trans and queer people HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE! It’s proof how often trans and queer people have been the target in society and how hard it’s been for visibility and safety within this world.

Baume takes us on a walk through of the queer liberation movement as he walks us through the important sitcoms that were shaping our world at the time. Biwitched being an allegory for queer people—they’re coming out and fear of being othered. All in the Family who through its decade span on the air LEARNS and grows from the homophobia embedded in earlier seasons to mourning the death of a family member who identified as queer. After the uprising of Stonewall we see how the political movement changes the media made at the time. The Barney Miller show is born out of that era giving us major queer firsts in television history. But this didn’t happen without challenges, and nuanced views of the queerness. Baume continues to take us on the journey of other sitcoms that eventually aired and some that due to bigotry never met the airwaves. He discusses all the hurdles queer creators and queer ally’s go through to tell what was considered “cutting edge” stories for the time. We learn about how Golden Girls coincides with the aids epidemic and how forthcoming they were in especially in gay men characters and challenging marriage equality and coming out experiences. We also learn the history of using queer people as a plot device and how that is just as damaging as not seeing the queer representation at all. We are shown how pop culture navigated the landscape around the queer liberation movement and the legal progress made for queer rights and safety. This book shows us how important having visible queerness in media helps gain acceptance and momentum for queer rights and safety.

Everyone should read this book it is fascinating!