Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. There's a real dark dynamic laid out in

historian Margo Kennedy's new book, Queer Career, Sexuality, and Work in Modern America. Through

interviews with people who were there, the book covers queer people in the workplace starting in the

60s. And I would have figured that if some bigoted boss

found out one of their workers was queer, they'd just fire that worker. Instead, according to

Kennedy, what would often happen is that the boss would use that information as a way of

exploiting the queer worker, paying them less, making them do stuff other workers they

don't want to do, etc.

Kennedy spoke with NPR Stacey Vennick-Smith about that dynamic, but also about how, in spite of all that, queer people did find meaning and worth in their jobs.

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In Margo Kennedy's new book, Queer Career, Sexuality and Work in Modern America,

Kennedy explores how LGBTQ workers' sexuality shaped their professional lives and looks at this idea of work in the U.S., both in terms of the economic opportunity

and community it can offer,

and also the abuse and oppression that can happen in the workplace.

Margot, you start your book out talking to people who are working roughly between 1960 and 1990.

...