Tuesday on Political Rewind: It has been 50 years since Atlanta’s first gay pride parade kicked off on Peachtree street in Atlanta. It was a small but momentous event. At the time, homosexuality was illegal under Georgia law, and members of the queer community typically lived lives in the shadows. But on June 27, 1971, marchers in Atlanta demanded an end to persecution and marginalization.

To write her book, Real Queer America , Samantha Allen traveled red states as a transgender women and formed unexpected connections with the people she...