The story of the early struggle for LGBTQ+ rights has typically been told from the perspective of coastal cities like New York, San Francisco, and Miami. But Lawrence, Kansas, was also a hotspot for activist organizations in the 1960s, and the work that was done there reverberated across the country.

Liberating Lawrence tells the first-hand story of the Lawrence Gay Liberation Front (LGLF), a University of Kansas student organization launched in 1970. Using material from 67 interviews with people involved at the time, author Katherine Rose-Mockry writes about the group’s formative years, during which the members of LGLF had to fight for their right to exist on campus as an official student group.

After three rejected requests for recognition, the group filed a lawsuit against KU in 1971. The famous cause lawyer William Kunstler, who had defended the Chicago Seven in 1969, agreed to represent them – a development that received national media attention. While the LGLF lost the legal battle, they ultimately won the war to change campus culture.