The Lexington Six

Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards

"It is an amazing story, one made for the movies and emblematic of the idealism and the excesses of a turbulent era in American politics . . . Through personal interviews as well as substantive research, [Donovan] brings us into the minutia of these lives and how they are trapped by circumstance, history, and a legal system run rampant. More important is her ability to place all of this in the wider social and political contexts."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Donovan’s book supports the fleshing out of a more multi-dimensional history that contributes to an ongoing reorientation of queer politics today. The book highlights the historical connections between the Lexington Six, a group of young white people embedded in a white lesbian community, and Native American, Latinx, and Black grand jury resistance movements across the country."—Women's Review of Books

"Josephine Donovan's intimate chronicle of why five lesbians and one gay man went innocently to jail rather than collaborate with a corrupt FBI is an essential story of 1970s America that relates to today's contests of privacy and power."—Carol Mason, author of Reading Appalachia from Left to Right: Conservatives and the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy

"Through telling this harrowing story, Donovan introduces readers to the era's stark political and legal realities. She reviews the significant connections made among a variety of forces that fought against Grand Jury abuses, from lesbian feminist groups and newspapers, grassroots organizations and networks, and national entities such as the National Lawyers Guild and Center for Constitutional Rights."—Marcia M. Gallo, author of Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement