Throughout the centuries, homosexual literature has remained hidden in plain sight, never far from view but elusive to all except those who created and read it. Thus ghettoized, gay literature was the furtive province of imagined moral guilt and perceived deviant sexuality, inhabited by doomed homosexuals and social outcasts. The past twenty-five years have witnessed the emergence of gay literature from the realms of the clandestine into the maincurrents of cultural thought, and the establishment of a major literary movement with an ever-increasing canon of work. It is a movement that, by reaching deeply into the shared and individual experiences and complexities of homosexual life, is laying claim to all the potential for expressive thought that literature offers, taking issue with the untrue and illuminating the universal human need and desire for self-worth, affirmation, pleasure, gratification, and love. It has been suggested that, like other literary movements, gay literature requires its own critical standard or aesthetic, an all-encompassing queer aesthetic. Others believe that gay literature should be held to the same critical standards as other literary movements. The debate over the purpose and future of gay literature and its relation to a larger cultural landscape will continue. A resolution to the conflict between gay assimilationists and gay militants over legitimacy versus liberation is nowhere in sight. That the controversy can take place, and in the clear light of day, may be the most significant achievement of all. Everything contained in this site, selective, illustrative list of imaginative works of literature is chosen to provide an overview of modern lesbian literature.