With one steamy reference to the homosexual underworld, any writer transformed his or her novel, no matter how conventional its shape, into something outré and avant-garde. But with liberation, the subject was effectively normalized. So began the age of the traditionally plotted, realistic, worldly gay novel in which likeable gay characters dealt likeably with traditional everyday traumas.

Cooper

this is the central question of queer life now--were the hisotorical choices that we made through the 80s to systematically dismantle the underground the best choices for the perservation of our culture, ethically and morally.