Garry Wotherspoon’s Gay Sydney: A history is an updated version of his 1991 classic, City of the Plain: History of a Gay Sub-culture, written in the midst of the AIDS crisis. In this vivid book Wotherspoon traces the shifts that have occurred since then, including majority support for marriage equality and anti-discrimination legislation. He also ponders the parallel evaporation of a distinctly gay sensibility and the disappearance of once-packed gay bars that have now become cafes and gyms.

This book also tells the story of gay Sydney across a century, looking at secret, underground gay life, the never-ending debates about sex in society and the role of social movements in the ’60 and ’70s in effecting social change.

About the Author
The author, Garry Wotherspoon, is a former academic and former NSW History Fellow, whose books include Sydney’s Transport: Studies in Urban History and ‘City of the Plain’: a history of a gay subculture. He was awarded Australia’s Centenary of Federation medal for his work as an academic, researcher, and human rights activist.
Garry works as an editorial consultant on the Dictionary of Sydney Project and was commissioned by the Board of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts to write its history to commemorate its 180th anniversary.