GLR September-October 2023

from home. Lister was the more ambitious traveler, not surprisingly, and she pushed them further and further into Russia on their final trip. By the time Lister fell ill, they were too far from a medical facility to get help. When Lister died, Walker was left with the not inconsiderable task of transporting the body back to England. The remainder of Walker ’ s life did not go well. She was declared a “ lunatic ” by her sister and institutionalized until her death. We know from Lister ’ s diary that Walker had long been treated by a Dr. Belcombe for “ melancholia ” and other mental issues, but we don ’ t know whether she was institutionalized for these reasons or because it was expedient for the sister. Walker left no diary of this time and wrote no letters to confidants, so her state of mind is unknown. Did she go along pas

course of her marriage was tracked in de tail — at times, heartbreakingly so. Lister ’ s diaries are written in two hands. The largest portion is in common script and describes her daily activities in great detail. They offer an unparalleled in sight into 19th-century Yorkshire. The other entries are in code and deal with her relationship and sex life. The sexual de scriptions are so frank that they may even raise a few 21st-century eyebrows. The earlier diaries contain many more entries in code than we find in the Liddington volume. As a single person, Lister ro manced women and had torrid affairs, which she vividly recounted in the diary. In the period covered in this volume, she ’ s a married woman, has settled into domes tic life, and is apparently not having as much sex as she ’ d previously had with other lovers.

Anne Lister. Portrait by Joshua Horner, ca. 1830.

sively, or did she fight for her freedom? As the scholarship on Anne Lister grows, so too does the possibility of a more definitive book on Ann Walker. There will undoubtedly be more books about Lister, who is a singularly fascinating figure to modern queer women who marvel at such a radical woman operating in the early 1800s. But Lister was not the only radical in the marriage. Walker, overwhelmed by religious guilt and family pressure, was equally courageous in embracing married life with a woman. Both were extraordinary people for their time.

The coded entries between 1836 and 1838 deal mainly with the disintegrating relationship between the two women. There are entries in which the women seems compatible and mutually supportive, but, as time goes by, Lister is increasingly annoyed byWalker ’ s moods and temper. Often she wouldn ’ t quarrel with Walker but instead sat in silent resentment. Walker also prac ticed the silent treatment, leaving a lot unsaid. The time they spent together when traveling was a calm amid the storm, as they seemed to treat each other better and get along while away

Community of the Dispossessed

J OSEPH PLASTER ’ S Kids on the Street is an in-depth sociological study of “ throwaway kids ” : aban doned and runaway queer youths marginalized by their sexuality and/or gen der identity, who forged informal networks of mutual support to navigate and survive on the streets and alleys and in flophouses in the vice-ridden districts of America ’ s major cities. Although the book focuses pri

tricts, ” sharply delineated and easily recog nized “ zones of abandonment where the degradation and immorality associated with the poor, sexual and gender deviants, and racialized populations could be contained and cordoned off from respectable white families and homes. ” Marked by dilapi dated SROs (single-resident-only rooms in hotels), peepshows, porn theaters, dive bars, seedy pool halls, cheap diners, all

H ANK T ROUT

KIDS ON THE STREET Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco ’ s Tenderloin by Joseph Plaster Duke Univ. Press. 368 pages, $28.95

marily on San Francisco ’ s Tenderloin district and the adjacent Polk Street area from the 1950s to the present, Plaster also dis cusses the history of other cities ’ Tenderloin counterparts. Com bining secondary research in various archives with his own participation in on-the-street support efforts and his tape recorded interviews with dozens of street kids and others, Plas ter presents an alternative queer history that ’ s largely disregarded in the prevailing account of LGBT history as a long but steady march from subjection to equality. “ Tenderloin districts ” can be thought of as “ red-light dis Hank Trout has served as editor at a number of publications, most re cently as senior editor for A&U: America ’ s AIDS Magazine.

night coffee shops, and other “ dirty, dangerous, and duplicitous ” enterprises, Tenderloin districts are “ the dumping ground ... [for] the people and problems [that] our society ... decided to ignore: the older person, the homosexual [and transgender], the alcoholic, the dope user, the Black, the immigrant, the unedu cated, the dislocated alienated youth ... [and other] dangerous blights on downtowns, in need of arrest, punishment, or re form. ” The street kids are generally unhoused, alcohol- and/or drug-addicted, and either the perpetrators or the victims (or both) of the district ’ s violence and criminality. Think of the Times Square area of New York City before Mayor Giuliani ’ s crackdown and the “ Disneyfication ” of the area. Historically, these cities ’ laws against homosexuality, cross

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