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QUEER TANGO HISTORIES: MAKING A START…
By Ray Batchelor
Preface to 2026 Edition, © 2026 Ray Batchelor
Published by Birthe Havmøller / The Queer Tango Project in May 2026
Queertangobook.org
ISBN number 978-87-974183-1-4 (POD Paperback)
The book is available on Amazon around the world

This was originally a free, share-alike eBook. It still is.
Except for the new cover and a new preface the contents of the print on demand paperback version of Queer Tango Histories is the same as the ebook version below.  Scroll for your FREE eBook.

About the Book

Queer Tango Histories: Making a Start was first published in 2020 as a free eBook (pdf) by the Queer Tango Project run by Birthe Havmøller. This is its first publication as a paperback.

Queer Tango Histories is an anthology of Ray’s historical queer tango academic papers written between 2014 and 2019. These are for the most part based on the rich collection of historical visual material to be found in The Queer Tango Image Archive. The Archive is an online collection of historical imagery which relates to the themes touched on by queer tango and is curated by Ray on behalf of the Queer Tango Project.

Ray and Birthe have elected to re-issue the book in paperback form because they believe that the material in it remains relevant today (2026) to anyone who wants properly to understand queer tango, and the historical contexts out of which it emerged. A paperback can reach a whole new group of interested readers.

Inevitably since the book was first published, our understandings of those contexts has moved on. In a preface to this edition, Ray Batchelor acknowledges the progress which has been made in terms of the scholarship underpinning this work, and highlights some of the changes which readers will want to bear in mind as they read it.

We (Ray and Birthe) hope that you’ll read the book and let us know what you think about it.

 

Free eBook: Queer Tango Histories

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QUEER TANGO HISTORIES: MAKING A START… (PDF 5.2 MB)

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Human Dignity Trust

QUEER TANGO HISTORIES: MAKING A START…
By Ray Batchelor
Published by Birthe Havmøller / The Queer Tango Project
Queertangobook.org
ISBN 978-87-998024-3-2 (PDF)
July, 2020

Ray Batchelor writes,
‘I have always argued that queer tango as political action is at its most effective when it is danced.

This has not prevented me from seeing value in researching into it, thinking about it, writing about it and presenting papers about it. Normally these are complementary activities, with each informing the other, with the non-dancing work a useful branch of queer tango politics. If, for the foreseeable future, I cannot effect change by dancing queer tango, it occurred to me that I might use some of my time to review what I have done to date. I have decided to make this small, digital book out of some of the papers relating to queer tango history which I have presented at various conferences. Most of these papers, bar two, analyse the historical imagery I have digitally curated since 2016 for The Queer Tango Project in The Queer Tango Image Archive. I suggested to Birthe Havmøller, who runs The Queer Tango Project, that the Project should publish it. Birthe agreed, and the present volume is the result.’

Make a Donation
Queer Tango is tango with political purposes. While we are not asking for money, we are asking anyone downloading the book to make a one-off, £5-7 (or equivalent) donation to The Human Dignity Trust. The Human Dignity Trust uses the law to defending the human rights of LGBT people around the world. More than 70 countries across the world still criminalise LGBT people. You can help them bring that number down by donating.