"Queer Encounters offers many . . . counterintuitive surprises. Sokolová finds that the socialist Czechoslovak state did not target homosexuals for persecution. In fact, the offices of sexologists became in the 1970s places for gay, trans, and lesbian men and women to hang out. Most surprisingly, Sokolová argues that by refusing to diagnose and name 'homosexuality' in Czechoslovak society, the state gave individuals the freedom to choose their own sexual identities and genders and to live them out in fascinating ways. Based on oral history and archival research, Queer Encounters will change the way we view socialist culture."–Kate Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology