Like so many closeted gay teenagers who faced this high school rite of passage, David Boyer asked a girl to his senior prom. More than a dozen years later, now openly gay Boyer began collecting stories of this enduring ritual from queers who survived it. These stories form the basis of Kings and Queens: Queers at the Dance. The book is divided into two major sections: Before Stonewall begins around the time of the Depression and ends at the 1969 uprising. These stories suggest what it was like to come of age before the gay rights movement really began, before the word gay assumed its current meaning. After Stonewall charts queers' progression from closet to mainstream. Not intended as a definitive retelling of gay history, Kings and Queens illustrates how growing up gay has -- and has not -- changed over the years. It is a bumpy but irresistible ride through a history that has been unspoken for too long.