This volume brings together ten core thinkers in the field of lesbian and gay studies. Participants in the outstanding Kessler series, hosted by CLAGS, the premiere US think-tank in the field, they present ten diverse approaches to the experiences, history, and culture of lesbian and gay people, and in the process they think new and queer ideas into being. Beginning with Joan Nestle, who explores the outsider status of lesbians through the complex life a black lesbian domestic worker, and ending with Judith Butler, who speaks on human rights in the aftermath of September 11. The collection includes the pantheon of queer theorists: Edmund White on queer fiction and criticism, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on the dialogics of love, and John D’Emilio on gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.