Kings & Queens: Queers at the Prom Edited by David Boyer Soft Skull, 160 pp., $24.95 Buy this book more books most popular most commented Personal Days by Elizabeth Hand The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York by Tom Robbins Welcome to New York Comic Con by Carol Cooper A Voice Poetry Roundup by Alan Gilbert Etgar Keret's Short-Story Overload by Michelle Orange Girls Love Gay Male Porn Pucker Up by Tristan Taormino My Boyfriend's Kink Is Getting Fat. What Do I Do? Savage Love by Dan Savage Sex and the City Spoilers: A Sneak Preview of What Really Happens to Carrie and the Girls by Lynn Yaeger Our Favorite Writers Pick Their Favorite Obscure Books Summer Guide by ALEXANDER NAZARYAN The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo by Maria Luisa Tucker NYPD Inaction Over a Missing Black Woman Found Dead Sparks a Historic Racial-Bias Lawsuit (9) Sean Gardiner Devo-Inspired Art in East Williamsburg (8) Maro The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo (5) Maria Luisa Tucker David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' (4) David Mamet Runnin' Scared: Deep South of Houston: Is a Soul-Food Restaurant Too Black for Soho? (4) Runnin' Scared: Chloe A. Hilliard

He covers newsmakers like Krystal Bennett, a butch teenager elected "Prom King," and Dan Stewart, who loudly protested classmate Aaron Fricke's successful lawsuit to take his male date to the prom in 1980 (Stewart himself later became an openly gay mayor), as well as those who've lived, and made, history more quietly. Boyer adeptly lets voices such as Dick Hewetson (class of '48), who organized an adult gay prom, and author Jenny (born James) Boylan, who recounts struggling with gender issues, speak for themselves. From male high school sweethearts to the teen who envisioned a prom fresh from Pretty in Pink, each contributor approaches the big event with unique motives and memories.

Kings details a range of prom nights, like that of Avram Finkelstein, an ACT UP founder who protested the Vietnam War instead of partying. Boyer's present-to-past chronology helps situate New York's Harvey Milk High School against the evolution of activism and struggle, also tackling racism and class issues. By keeping the oral histories first-person, he fleshes out the yearbook-like labels adorning each tale, providing the human interest story behind the ex-cheerleader or the porn star. From modern gay proms back to Stonewall and paddy wagons, these entertaining histories together showcase just how far the GLBT movement has come, while honoring those who've paved the disco-ball-filled way.