Alyson in Context

In the spring of 2024, the "Humanities Startup" course at Davidson College decided to create a brief timeline to provide historical context and convenient points of reference for those first encountering Alyson Books' corpus. In addition to the dates we've included below, we've incorporated a timeline that allows visitors to view the progression of Alyson's publications.

1969	Stonewall Riots take place at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, transforming the gay liberation movement and twentieth-century gay rights activism in the United States.
1977	Sasha Alyson founds the distribution company Carrier in Boston in order to meet the needs of small progressive and feminist publishers in the U.S. and the UK.
1979	Carrier becomes Alyson Publications as Alyson begins publishing new works, which primarily focus on social, health, and environmental issues.
1980	Alyson Publications begins focusing on gay and lesbian books, filling a preexisting gap in the publishing industry.
1981	The first case of AIDS is reported in the U.S., and the AIDS crisis begins.
1987	AZT, the first antiretroviral drug to treat HIV infection, becomes available in the U.S., giving way to a decrease in the number of deaths caused by the disease.
1992	Heather Has Two Mommies becomes the second most banned book in America.
1993	Daddy’s Roommate becomes the most challenged book in the U.S., according to the American Library Association.
1995	Alyson Publications reports that it has over 200 titles and is continuining to publish an average of 25 books a year.
1995	Amazon is opened as an online bookstore, changing the way readers buy and consume books.
1996	Developments with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) mark a “post-crisis” response to the AIDS epidemic (Dion Kagan, Positive Images, 2018).
1996	A United States federal law known as the Defense of Marriage Act was passed into law and declared that no state would be required to recognize a same-gender marriage performed in another state.
2005	In August of this year, Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans and the surrounding area.
2010	Alyson Books experiences financial trouble and switches to only publishing e-books.
2015	Gay marriage is legalized by the Supreme Court in all 50 states of the U.S.