From my perspective as a Queer Nation member starting in 1990, the divide between these two sorts of forces was not always obvious on the ground.

Even as Corporate Queer like HRC, AVP, and GLAAD were emerging as counter anchors to the more radical street activist types, the players often mingled.

I’m going to have to read this book, and I don’t know if it goes as far as through the 1990s, but from a personal perspective it was always interesting to me to see how the membership of Corporate Queer and radical activism could overlap.

It wouldn’t be unusual for example to see somebody marching in a Queer Nation zap on a Saturday chanting about radical liberation, and then putting on a shirt and tie to go prepare legal briefs at AVP on Monday morning. (I’m thinking about Matt Foreman in particular, but he was far from alone in having a foot in each camp.)

Also, in retrospect, it’s a lot easier to see the broader sociocultural trends of the movements now than it was then while they were happening.

Today, it’s easy to say, oh yes, these particular organizations were about radical liberation and those particular organizations were more about assimilation or moderation.

At the extremes it’s easy to classify leaders, but not so many leaders actually took positions on the extremes.

Clearly, of the activist leaders I knew personally, Michelangelo Signorile was a radical while Andy Humm was a solid moderate. But I can’t so easily classify Matt Foreman, even today.

Then, it was much harder.