The book is a fascinating discussion of the complex political, economic, and cultural machinations leading to the rise of a particular kind of influence in a particular kind of politics by a particular—and increasingly narrow—segment of the LGBT population. I enjoyed the book tremendously.

I am fascinated to observe the interest of the geographers on the panel in San Francisco in parts of my story—such as the controversy over the construction of “four-plus-one” apartment buildings in Lakeview, and the history of the Sandburg Village redevelopment project—that my fellow historians less often picked up on. Reading these three comments as a historian, I am reminded of how useful and productive it is for scholars to converse across disciplinary lines, and I appreciated the chance to learn what geographers found useful or significant in my work.

There is much to be glad about Queer Clout. It is a book situated at the intersection of social, political, and public histories, and it is of great value to geographers and other social scientists. Admittedly, it is not primarily focused on Chicago’s queer geographies.

"Queer Clout" is a detailed and energetic history of post-war queer Chicago in which the story of queer emergence into city politics is revealed and told. By so doing, Stewart-Winter hopes to add to the texture and thickness of U.S. queer history by navigating away from cities like San Francisco and New York to the U.S. mid-west, to the heartland, so to speak, to demonstrate both similarities and profound differences.