Mark Thompson is a renowned journalist who until recently remained for nearly twenty years at the helm of The Advocate--both as Cultural and Senior editor. He has constructed a remarkable gift to the nation's gay communities by editing Long Road to Freedom, a magnificent coffee table tome that chronicles gay and lesbian history with gripping on-the-spot news reports, startling photographs, and thought-provoking essays introducing each year between 1967 and 1992. This book is now available in paperback.

Contributors and essayists include literary and scholarly luminaries such as Martin Duberman, Lillian Faderman, Jim Kepner, Arnie Kantrowitz, GayToday's Jack Nichols, Lige Clarke, Karla Jay, Sasha Lewis, John Preston, Joan Nestle, Robert Davidoff, Malcolm Boyd, James M. Saslow, Torie Osborn, Lawrence D. Mass, Felice Picano, Stuart Timmons, Michael Bronski, Pat Califia, Cheryl Clarke, Betty Berzon, Paul Gunn Allen, Allan Berube, Richard Rouilard, Masha Gessen, and Urvashi Vaid.

"The pages that follow," writes the late Randy Shilts in his foreword, "chronicle the growth of The Advocate from its earliest amateurish efforts to its most recent well-polished pages. The excerpts do not trace the growth of a publication as much as they outline the growth of a new movement in the throes of self-creation. Few other books offer such a sweeping insight into the social dynamics that brought the lesbian and gay movement to the place it is in today."

Facing the book's introduction by editor Thompson is a cartoon by artist Dennis Forbes (circa 1977) celebrating a host of gay movement luminaries, friends and foes, including Johnny Mathis, Elton John, Gore Vidal, William S. Burroughs, Rex Reed, Morris Kight, Anita Bryant, Bette Midler, Jack Campbell, Bella Abzug and Frank Kameny.

Thompson himself writes how "any publication of conscience has a reason for being--a fact made evident by this short history of one of the world's most important gay institutions. The Advocate has been a witness to courage--the stamina, outrage, bravery, and love that have propelled the gay and lesbian struggle for civil rights on its course. No single book can fully tell that story; many volumes are now required. This compilation of writings and photographs services as a testament to the countless individuals who have staked their hopes and dreams on the freedom the newsmagazine has upheld. As shown here, that road has been long. And, as The Advocate continues to remind, the journey is far from over."