Violence against LGBTQ people has a long history in America, culminating in last week's mass murder of 49 people at a gay dance cub in Orlando.
The carnage comes right when things seemed to be looking up, when gay rights have never been more openly discussed and demanded through policy change.
Journalist Kerry Eleveld chronicled these policy shifts in her recent book Don't Tell Me To Wait: How the Fight for Gay Rights Changed America and Transformed Obama's Presidency.
Harvard historian Jim Downs delves into the trying decades before recent watershed moments in his book: Stand By Me: The Forgotten History Of Gay Liberation. Both authors revisit the Exchange with reactions to Orlando.