And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts

As is true for most gay people, my knowledge of queer history is pretty sketchy and consists of four basic (and possibly incorrect) facts:

1. A whole lot of famous historical figures--Gandhi, Willa Cather, Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, Henry James, Julius Caesar, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln--experienced same-sex attraction.

2. Other cultures have different ki…