Queering Tourism: Paradoxical Performances of Gay Pride Parades (Routledge Studies in Human Geography)

Queering Tourism: Paradoxical Performances of Gay Pride Parades (Routledge Studies in Human Geography) Review

Queering Tourism: Paradoxical Performances of Gay Pride Parades (Routledge Studies in Human Geography) Overview

Gay Pride parades are annual arenas of queer public culture, where embodied notions of subjectivity are sold, enacted, transgressed and debated.

From Sydney to Rome, Queering Tourism analyses the paradoxes of gay pride parades as tourist events, exploring how the public display of queer bodies - the way they look, what they do, who watches them, and under what regulations - is profoundly important in constructing sexualized subjectivities of bodies and cities.

Drawing on extensive collections of interviews, visuals and written media accounts, photographs, advertisements, and her own participation in these parades, Lynda Johnston gives a vibrant account of ‘queer tourism’ in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Italy. For each place, she looks at how the relationship between the viewer and the viewed produces paradoxical concepts of bodily difference, and considers how the queered spaces of gay pride parades may prompt new understandings of power and tourism.

Examining the intersection of sexuality, space and tourism, and using empirical data gathered at Gay pride parades such as the Sydney Mardi Gras, New Zealand HERO Parade and World Pride Roma 2000, this important work produces a deconstructive account of tourism and presents new ways of thinking through the powerful processes of subjectivity formation.

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Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide

Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide Review

Contemporary Gay American Poets and Playwrights: An A-to-Z Guide Overview

With a few notable exceptions, gay artists of earlier generations felt compelled to avoid sexual candor in their writings. Conversely, most contemporary gay poets and playwrights are free from such constraints and have created a remarkable body of work. This reference is a guide to their creative achievements. Alphabetically arranged entries present 62 contemporary gay American poets and dramatists. A number of these writers are well known, including Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, and Allen Ginsberg. Others, such as Alan Bowne, Timothy Liu, and Robert O'Hara, merit wider recognition. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, an overview of the author's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies.

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Gay and Lesbian Washington D.C. (DC) (Images of America)

Gay and Lesbian Washington D.C. (DC) (Images of America) Review

Gay and Lesbian Washington D.C. (DC) (Images of America) Overview

In the identity of gay and lesbian America, Washington, D.C., has a history, perhaps unknown, that begs to be acknowledged. This history ranges from the planner of this new city on the Potomac River to generations of gay women who fought, lobbied, and marched for the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Prohibition promoted the rise of underground clubs with back rooms for gays and lesbians to socialize in the 1920s. The history of these clubs and cruise spots reveals the migration of gay neighborhoods across the city, from Georgetown to Lafayette Square to Dupont Circle. In the 1960s and 1970s, gays and lesbians marched with Pride to be recognized. In the 1980s, they covered the Mall with a quilt to finally hear politicians utter the word AIDS. Today, the word is marriage: equal under the law and equal in the heart.

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Amuse Bouche (Russell Quant Mysteries)

Amuse Bouche (Russell Quant Mysteries) Review

Amuse Bouche (Russell Quant Mysteries) Overview

A gay wedding gone bad. A missing groom. An unsullied reputation at risk. Enter Russell Quant—cute, gay, and a rookie private detective. With a nose for good wine and bad lies, Quant is off to France on his first big case. From the smudgy streets of Paris, he cajoles and sleuths his way to the pastel-colored promenade of Sanary-sur-Mer.

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The Gay Almanac

The Gay Almanac Review

If you need to find out about gay organizations, gay friendly insurance companies, gays in the military, support groups, gay writers, lesbian characters in novels or ANYTHING gay related (almost): get that wonderful book!

The Gay Almanac Overview

Compiled by two nationally known and highly respected gay organizations, a unique, comprehensive almanac designed for gay men traces the history of the gay community, offers a directory of gay and lesbian organizations, and much more.

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Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (Caravan Book)

Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (Caravan Book) Review

Johnson, E. Patrick. "Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South", University of North Carolina Press A Caravan Book, 2008.

Hearing What Is Not Usually Heard

Amos Lassen

If there is any group in the GLBT community that we know little of, it is the Southern Black Gay male. I have never understood why this is so but I must congratulate E. Patrick Johnson for helping to fill that void. Incidentally he is now on tour with his one man show based on this book and bringing awareness to the matter.
"Sweet Tea" (what a great title) is a detailed oral history of the subcultures of Black gay men in the South and it covers all milieus. Johnson interviewed sixty-three men to give us a picture of what it is like to be gay and Black. He uses a set slate of questions for all he interviewed and this is one of the two faults of the book in that there is little variety especially in the matter of faith issues. The other problem that I see it that Johnson did not follow up on some of the answers that he received that showed a new insight into Black gay life.
I did like the way that the book is arranged by categories such as love and relationships, coming out, etc. It is extremely difficult for a Black man to claim both Southern and Black cultures as we read here and we are all well aware that racism is not dead. It is indeed difficult to find acceptance in rural areas of the Bible belt south and in many cases identities must be redefined.
Those interviewed are indeed a cross section, Johnson interviewed men between the ages of 19 and 93 and we learn that there is a Black gay subculture in the South and we learn how this community is maintained, Here in Little Rock, for example, we were able to have a Pride celebration in 2008 because of a lack of volunteers. I was very surprised when I learned that there was a very successful Black Gay Pride festival especially since I knew nothing about the local Black gay community. I do not go out much in Little Rock and I do not recall seeing Black gay men when I did.
The book reads wonderfully, almost as if it is a collection of stories instead of honest testimonies and thereby proves that in the South we know how to tell a tale.

Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (Caravan Book) Feature

• ISBN13: 9780807832097
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South (Caravan Book) Overview

Giving voice to a population rarely acknowledged in writings about the South, Sweet Tea collects life stories from black gay men who were born, raised, and continue to live in the southern United States. E. Patrick Johnson challenges stereotypes of the South as "backward" or "repressive," suggesting that these men draw upon the performance of "southernness"—politeness, coded speech, and religiosity, for example—to legitimate themselves as members of both southern and black cultures. At the same time, Johnson argues, they deploy those same codes to establish and build friendship networks and to find sexual partners and life partners.

Traveling to every southern state, Johnson conducted interviews with more than seventy black gay men between the ages of 19 and 93. The voices collected here dispute the idea that gay subcultures flourish primarily in northern, secular, urban areas. In addition to filling a gap in the sexual history of the South, Sweet Tea offers a window into the ways that black gay men negotiate their sexual and racial identities with their southern cultural and religious identities. The narratives also reveal how they build and maintain community in many spaces and activities, some of which may appear to be antigay. Ultimately, Sweet Tea validates the lives of these black gay men and reinforces the role of storytelling in both African American and southern cultures.

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Without Condoms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barebacking

Without Condoms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barebacking Review

If you work with gay men as a health care provider, especially as a psychotherapist or health department prevention case manager, this book is a must. It is directed at professionals, and is quite scholarly, with thirty-three pages of references. However, the fact that the author talks about his own experience as a clinical social worker in private practice, and also the fact that he, himself has HIV, makes the book all the more compelling. It is extremely thorough (with one exception), and explores, in depth, the many reasons that gay men choose to have sex without condoms. The conclusion is that there is no simple answer, and clinicians need to individualize their assessments. No broad brush can put the crystal meth party boy in the same category as the committed couple who stop protection. "Barebacking" can be too easily demonized. The bare, unvarnished fact is that the majority of gay men are not 100% safe, 100% of the time. As health care workers we must be realistic, and look for other interventions besides, "Just say no". In this vein Shernoff discusses the "harm reduction model", offering very specific suggestions. Our challenge is to accept our clients where they are, without condemnation, if we are to truly engage them in a process of change. At the same time we must acknowledge it can be a challenge to witness what seems to us to be provocative behaviors. Shernoff explores his own reactions to his clients' confessions, and how he deals with them; encouraging all of us to do the same.

The one exception to this extremely thoughtful and in-depth examination has to do with Shernoff's cursory treatment of sex addiction. He devotes less than a page to the subject, and describes it as "controversial" and "based on a heteronormative concept". Sorry, I beg to differ: it is based on an addictions concept. If you substitute "sex" for "alcohol" in the criteria for alcoholism, the many parallels are obvious. In no way does this mean that the sex gay men have, even in a casual context, is a sex addiction, just as a gay bar patron is not necessarily an alcoholic - but in some cases both meet the criteria of addictive behaviors. The significance of this is that groups such as Sex Addicts Anonymous and the 12-Step process can offer significant support for alternative ways to cope with life, and better choices for harm reduction. For more information the interested reader can get another perspective from Robert Weiss's book, Cruise Control: Understanding Sex Addiction in Gay Men (LA: Alyson Books, 2005).

This, however, is a very minor drawback to an otherwise exhaustive examination of the issues. I have worked in this field since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic both as a private therapist and health department consultant. Even with an extensive background and experience this book had much to say to me, and much that I could apply to my own practice. If you work in a related field, this should be required reading.

Michael E. Holtby, LCSW, BCD

Without Condoms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barebacking Overview

After years of activism, risk awareness, and AIDS prevention, increasing numbers of gay men are not using condoms, and new infections of HIV are on the rise. Using case studies and exhaustive survey research, this timely, groundbreaking book allows men who have unprotected sex, a practice now known as "barebacking," to speak for themselves on their willingness to risk it all.

WithoutCondoms takes a balanced look at the profound needs that are met by this seemingly reckless behavior, while at the same time exposing the role that both the Internet and club drugs like crystal methamphetamine play in facilitating high-risk sexual encounters. The result is a compassionate, sophisticated and nuanced insight into what for many people is one of the most perplexing aspects of today's gay male culture and life style. Michael Shernoff digs deep and forces us to see that the AIDS epidemic is not over. We must now ask the hard questions and listen to the voices that answer. The stakes are too high to ignore.

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The Struggle Over Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights: Facing off in Cincinnati (New Approaches in Sociology)

The Struggle Over Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights: Facing off in Cincinnati (New Approaches in Sociology) Review

The Struggle Over Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights: Facing off in Cincinnati (New Approaches in Sociology) Overview

Using qualitative data, Kimberly Dugan captures the dynamics and interdependence of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual movement and the Christian right as they engaged in conflict over Issue 3 by focusing on cultural factors relevant to movement mobilization, strategies, and success.

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Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East Review

Whitaker, Brian, "Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East." University of California Press, 2006.


Arab Love

"Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Lover in the Middle East is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I suppose one of the reasons I found it so fascinating is because I spent so many years of my life in that section of the world. Brian Whitaker has dome an admirable job in collecting research for this book which reads quickly and says much.
At this time in the mind of America, the Arabs have gained a new minority status, especially because of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Arab world has always been one of mystery to the Western man. Information on homosexuality there has always been shrouded from us Whitaker opens the door on that part of the world and lets us look inside of those countries that consider being gay a major crime, not just against humanity but against the Moslem religion It has always been a taboo subject in Arab countries. The press, when it does write about it, calls homosexuality "shameless and Moslems say it is "heinous". In a world where diversity has finally begun to come into its own, the Arab countries are moving the other way.
What gave Whitaker the "inspiration" to write "Unspeakable Love" was the now famous incident in 2001 when Egyptian police raided a boat on the Nile River and arrested many men. Both the arrest and the ensuing trials caused many lives to be ruined and attracted worldwide attention. Shortly afterwards, Whitaker met two of the men who had been closely involved in the case and what began as a feature article grew into this wonderful book. The incidents of the boat raid and arrests and imprisonments raised the issue of homosexuality in the entire Arab world. Quite naturally it would have been impossible to cover all of the twenty-two countries of the Arab League so Whitaker has concentrated on the issues that are common to all of the countries. The basic problem is that the Arab nations do not even acknowledge that homosexuality even exists today. In the past, homosexuality was by and large ignored or people looked the other way but this is still intolerance. If a person's sexuality departs what is considered the "norm", he can have no legal rights and is forced to live a secret life, constantly afraid of discovery and blackmail. The fact that sexual issues in the Arab world become a part of international politics makes the situation even more difficult and is regarded as a barrier to social progress. Because sexuality is not regarded rationally except as a means for procreation, reform and open discussion are impossible. Worst of all is that there is pessimism among the Arab gay men and women that there is any change in the offing. It is a dismal conclusion but unfortunately this is what the author was able to surmise from the research that he did.
Whitaker seems to express some hope that things will change however. It also appears that tradition and family honor are the major issues that stand in the way of acceptance of gays in the Arab world. I must Say that the book held me captive as I turned the pages. I have known "gay" Arabs--basically Palestinians--and I have heard their stories. Again, I was amazed at how brutal man can be because of what he does not understand. Whitaker's details are both accurate and highly disturbing but his book does give us a good deal of insight into the nature of social pressure as well as the sense of being alone that Arab homosexuals feel. If you are interested in reform, this is an ideal book to read. The Arab nations that wish to move forward into the modern world must realize that the enslavement of any singular group is inhumane and modernity can only come with enlightenment. Anxiety, fear and trauma are what should be the taboos, not men loving men and women loving women.

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East Overview

Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Arab countries. Clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, while newspapers write cryptically of "shameful acts." Although many parts of the world now accept sexual diversity, the Middle East is moving in the opposite direction. In this absorbing account, journalist Brian Whitaker calls attention to the voices of men and women who are struggling with gay identities in societies where they are marginalized and persecuted by the authorities. He paints a disturbing picture of people who live secretive, fearful lives and who are often jailed, beaten, and ostracized by their families, or sent to be "cured" by psychiatrists.
Whitaker's exploration of changing sexual behavior in the Arab world reveals that--while deeply repressive prejudices and stereotypes still govern much thinking about homosexuality--there are pockets of change and tolerance. The author combines personal accounts from individuals in the region with a look at recent Arab films and novels featuring gay characters and conducts a sensitive comparative reading of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic strictures around sexuality. Deeply informed and engagingly written, Unspeakable Love draws long overdue attention to a crucial subject.
Copub: Saqi Books

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Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama

Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama Review

Scholar John Clum's critical textual analysis of Gay Theatre, is not a historical account of the plays themselves. In this work, he critically looks at a wide variety of gay plays, some well known others not. In conclusion Clum writes that this type of drama has much wider universality to audiences (both gay and straight) than what is often perceived. A must for scholars of both Theatre and gay studies!

Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama Overview

Still Acting Gay is a revision and expansion of Clum's celebrated book, Acting Gay. The book focuses on the relationship between American and British dramas written by and about gay men and the changing gay culture those plays reflect, from the carefully enforced closet to liberation politics to AIDS to the qualified security of the present. Still Acting Gay chronicles the transition of the gay man as subject for sensational melodrama to creator of many of the most powerful and celebrated plays of the late 20th century.

Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama Specifications

This reprint (with some revision and a new chapter) of John Clum's classic 1991 study should be shelved beside Alan Sinfield's Out on Stage (1999) in the library of anyone interested in theater or gay culture. In his introduction to this new edition, Clum offers his work as a "testament to the importance of gay playwrights in the history of American and British theatre," while acknowledging that in the 21st century, the stage no longer holds a central role in gay cultural life, especially for young urban queers: "We're the subjects of serious, gay-created movies. Gay writers and pundits are on chat shows. There are celebrated openly gay rock stars. Which is to say that gay men no longer need to go to the theater to see ourselves and our lives and that gay dramatic writers no longer see the theater as the only medium open to us." Nevertheless, as Clum argues, gay drama of the past 70 years is a good place to look for both sanctioned and unsanctioned representations of homosexual characters and gay life, and perhaps (given the historical association of queers and theater) the best place to trace these changing images. His section on Tennessee Williams (updated here) is especially good, as is his long and celebratory treatment of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. --Regina Marler

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No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-73 (Lesbian & gay studies)

No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-73 (Lesbian & gay studies) Review

No Bath but Plenty of Bubbles: An Oral History of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970-73 (Lesbian & gay studies) Overview

This text examines the workings of the London Gay Liberation Front between 1970 and 1973. It gathers the accounts of people who were involved and the papers they wrote, as well as the comments of bemused bystanders. A chronology gives context to the GLF against a background of events of the time.

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Monique Wittig: At the Crossroads of Criticism (Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies)

Monique Wittig: At the Crossroads of Criticism (Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies) Review

Monique Wittig: At the Crossroads of Criticism (Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies) Overview

"Lesbians are not women." This (in)famous statement by renowned theorist, writer, and activist Monique Wittig marked a watershed moment in critical understandings of gender and sexuality.Wittig's mise en question of the notion of "woman"--a term she argued was necessarily enmeshed in heterosexual and patriarchal systems of knowing--unsettled seemingly self-evident relationships between language and reality, signification and subjectivity, and even, if not especially, women and feminism. Recalling Wittig's project and practice of lexical disidentification, by which gender and other signs of identity are ruptured and reworked, this special issue of GLQ offers a variety of often conflicting views on Wittig's aesthetic, political, and theoretical work.

Contributors provide critical and disparate snapshots--some more theoretical and abstract, some more experiential and concrete--of debates on, and investments in, Wittig's theoretical legacy. Judith Butler analyzes Wittig's "particular" universalism and offers a careful exposition of her worldview. Diane Crowder studies Wittig within a context of materialist inquiry that has often been ignored or misunderstood. Robyn Wiegman examines the complex nature of memorialization and inquires into Wittig's place in contemporary queer theory. Seth Clark Silberman, calling attention to Wittig's fiction, reverses the usual ascendancy of critique over narrative fiction and produces a formally innovative, if willfully "parasitic," account of Wittig's claim on the contributor's imagination as he watches his mother slowly die of cancer. Alice Jardine, who situates Wittig as a disruptive and disorienting force in a mother-centered feminism, provides an autobiographically charged review of the recent history of feminism, queer studies, and the still uneasy relations between them. The issue also includes a detailed introduction by Brad Epps and Jonathan D. Katz; a brief personal reflection by Sandra Soto, a close friend and colleague of Wittig's; and two texts by Wittig, one critical (with a foreword by Sande Zeig) and the other creative, both previously unavailable in English.

Contributors. Judith Butler, Diane Crowder, Brad Epps, Alice Jardine, Jonathan D. Katz , Seth Clark Silberman, Sandra Soto, Robyn Wiegman, Monique Wittig, Sande Zeig

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Gay & Lesbian Theologies: Repetitions With Critical Difference

Gay & Lesbian Theologies: Repetitions With Critical Difference Review

Gay & Lesbian Theologies: Repetitions With Critical Difference Overview

Gay and lesbian theology has been one of the most distinctive voices to have emerged in Christian theology in the last 30 years. It has placed lesbian and gay experience at the heart of the theological process. Elizabeth Stuart, one of the most prominent theologians in this field, presents a critical survey of gay and lesbian theology. She charts the development of gay and lesbian theology from an early apologetic phase, to a more confident liberationist outlook which owed much to Latin American liberation theology and feminist theology, and finally to its current wrestling with queer theory.

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An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies)

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies) Review

Beck, Gad. "An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Germany, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.

Triumph of Will

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

We all have a great deal of trouble understanding the Holocaust and what it did to so many people. We have been slowly getting the stories of the Nazi persecution if gays and if one was both gay and Jewish, he had real troubles. Gad Beck was a man like that but he survived and was able to tell his story as he does so eloquently in "An Underground Life". Even though his book begins slowly, it picks up pace quickly and as you read your mouth falls open to see stories about man's inhumanity to man. When the Nazis began their reign of terror he was living underground and was sought by the Gestapo. Beck was an organizer and helped many who lived illegally by finding them shelter and food as well as providing a listening ear and support in any way that he could. The fact that he was gay was secondary to the fact that he was Jewish.
In this memoir Beck brings to life both the cruelty to the Jews but the cruelty to the gays as well. This is a shocking and horrifying account as he writes about a gay man's coming of age in Nazi Germany. It is an erotic tale but also shows how love should be considered. This was probably the first time in the modern age that the gay spirit managed to triumph over intolerance and bigotry--even against the greatest crime ever against humanity.
The fact that Beck survived in itself is miraculous but even more amazing is that he was able to write about what he endured. When Robert Plant published "The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War against Homosexuals" in 1986, the door was opened to a new aspect of the Holocaust. Several personal accounts followed, but few have been published that talk about the Nazi treatment of gays ad I imagine that this is because so few survived and those that did could not think about what they had endured. This makes this book that much more valuable.
Beck's own story is unique in that he was born of a mixed marriage in 1923 to a Jewish father and a Christian mother thereby not Jewish according to strict Orthodox law. Nonetheless, the Nazis did not care--if he had a drop of Jewish blood, as far as they were concerned, he was Jewish. As the Nazi party rose to power and began their housing relocation plan, forced labor and transport to death camps, Beck organized a resistance movement to hide others and to smuggle food and drugs to them, He even once wore a Nazi uniform to rescue a doomed gay man from the camps. He does not in any way disguise his sexuality and he gives details of his own sexual liaisons. He gives us an amazing picture of the horror of Nazi rule. He was one of the fortunate gay men whom his parents loved and accepted his sexuality and was very lucky that the Christian side of his family felt the same. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, he was forced to attend a Jewish school to reinforce his identity and to be visible to the ruling party and he immersed himself in Judaism and embraced the idea of the Zionist movement. He also embraced a great many men and he hides nothing about his sex life (except for actual sexual descriptions) as well as writes openly about his secret political activities. He rose in power in the Zionist movement and became a central character in working to establish a Jewish homeland. He survived the Nazis by living illegally in Berlin. Because of that he was able to write this wonderful memoir.
This is a book that holds you from the beginning to the end, so much so that you want a sequel. He embraced his gayness at the same time that he embraced his Jewish--at a time when it meant death to be either. There are stories of betrayals and back stabbings and secret meetings and the memoir reads like a combination thriller/spy novel. That he survived s incredible and even more incredible is that he endured all that he did.

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies) Overview

That a Jew living in Nazi Berlin survived the Holocaust at all is surprising. That he was a homosexual and a teenage leader in the resistance and yet survived is amazing. But that he endured the ongoing horror with an open heart, with love and without vitriol, and has written about it so beautifully is truly miraculous. This is Gad Beck's story. "There may be other books by other Jewish Berliners, but surely none as riveting as this one." -Frontiers "Born to an interfaith couple, Beck . . . discusses the near-simultaneous embrace of both his Jewish and his gay identities in the most unlikely of settings: a Nazi Germany that was intent on eliminating both groups." -Publishers Weekly "An extraordinary tale. . . . Beck's stories of secret meetings, backstabbing betrayals and Nazi interrogations are the stuff of spy novels-only here they are real, with a hauntingly young protagonist." -Wayne Hoffman, Washington Post "The person you meet in the pages of An Underground Life is far from pitiable. [Gad Beck] is instead a proud, insouciant man. . . . His involvement in the traumatic events of his time is so intense and authentic that his narrative pulls you along."-Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times "Despite the grim backdrop, Beck's reminiscences are sensual, passionate, and strangely joyful." -Out Magazine "An inspiring tale that should serve as a reminder that straight people don't have a monopoly on courage." -Deborah Peifer, Bay Area Reporter

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Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers

Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers Review

Mastbaum, Blair and Will Fabro, editors." Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers", Running Press, 2008.

18 New Stories

Amos Lassen

Today gay young people have it so much easier that I did. They can, in most cases, come out without the fear and pain that many of us felt and they are certainly more open that my generation was. This collection of short stories, wonderfully edited by Bair Mastbaum and Will Fabro is full of the excitement of youth and the stories deal with all of the aspects of GLBT life. These are the voices of the young and they bring a new dimension to gay literature--one we have not had much of. They look at sexuality in a different way, it is not a struggle for them and their coming out stories are wild, happy and enthusiastic and not important as they once were.
The stories are like the colors of the rainbow--diverse and beautiful. I do not have much is common with the writers in this anthology as they did not face the same challenges and obstacles as I did but that does not mean that these stories do not speak to me. The writers here are also searchers and they sometimes find and sometimes don't. And as they search, they also flee from certain issues. What they do more than anything else is give us a picture of what it means to be young and gay today. They are also willing to write down their experiences and share them with us.
The stories deal with drug abuse, looking for sex, imagining sex with Brad Pitt, of an eco-terrorist action plot, of a dead boyfriend, and other topics. They represent youth in all of its aspect and they are great reading.

Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers Feature

• ISBN13: 9780786720118
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction from Young American Writers Overview

Lambda Award-winning novelist Blair Mastbaum and writer Will Fabro have put together a fun and edgy anthology of hot new fiction by young gay writers. With works by Mastbaum, Fabro, Mark Edmund Doten, Michael Tyrell, Sam J. Miller, and more, Cool Thing has something for everyone.

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Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men

Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men Review

Written in 1992, when perceptions of LGBT lifestyles were culturally far worse than today, this book was an uncommon voice.

"Coming Out Within" - by Craig O'Neill, a Catholic Priest, and Kathleen Ritter, a psychotherapist and professor at CSU Bakersfield - asserted a premise (in 1992) that many (if not nearly all) non-heterosexuals developed their gender, sexual, familial, work, role, and relationship identities in a "heterosexual-only" Western Culture environment. In the late 20th Century, LGBT self-images were often created in dramatic and constant incongruities with popular "acceptable imagery."

It is important for everyone, in any era, to have easily available access to healthy portrayals, imagery, and written contextual reasoning to support our honest feelings and desires.

If you want to understand why I work so consistently to highlight intelligent, healthy, and considerate LGBT images of relationships and sexuality, then reading this book will give you more cultural imagery and self-perception concepts to consider.

I would not be surprised if Deborah Tolman, who in 2005 wrote "Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk About Sexuality," read "Coming Out Within" before writing her introduction to her book. Tolman's discussion of a "heterosexual exclusive" culture has many similarities to the authors' ideas in "Coming Out Within".

"Coming Out Within" may help homosexuals recognize some of their likely unrealized hurt, loss, and pain they took onto themselves as "expected" or "part of being gay in a straight society." The authors suggest it may be more healthy to acknowledge the mistreatment and unfairness they've grown accustomed to receiving from heterosexually-dominant families and communities.

"Some lesbians and gay men achieve success in the workplace at the expense of their integrity. They pretend that they are not who they are and, as a result, live distant from their inner beings, often in a world of fear and denial. The trappings of success that come with buying into a hetrosexually based life image are exchanged for the turmoil of incongruity and the pain of living separated from their souls. Peter Tchaikovsky described this well when he said, 'All that is left is to pretend. But to pretend to the end of one's life is the highest torment.' " p. 26

The authors then outline a therapeutic 8-Step process from "Loss to Transformation," giving many illustrative and practical examples each step of the way.

I don't recommend the book because I think their 8-phase healing process is the way to address related issues. I recommend the book because their 8-phase process is one more way to consider addressing related issues. The authors also wisely recommend individual counseling in addition to taking self-therapeutic steps.

Coming Out Within: Stages of Spiritual Awakening for Lesbians and Gay Men Overview

Loss--feeling unacceptable to family, church, or workplace; losing loved ones to AIDS; being despised by segments of society--is universal among lesbians and gay men. Using an eight-phase model illustrated with real case histories, the authors explore loss as a catalyst for growth and personal and spiritual transformation.

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The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography

The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography Review

For mystery buffs or fans of gay literature, The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film by Drewey Wayne Gunn is a must-have. The book is pretty evenly divided between a fascinating look at the gay male sleuth throughout history and a comprehensive bibliography of books featuring gay male sleuths.

It's obvious that Gunn has done his homework here, and equally obvious that this is a genre he loves. While academic in nature, the book is easy to read and understand, and actually quite enjoyable. It certainly fills a void. While there have been a few other studies and bibliographies on LGBT mystery and detectives novels, they missed many titles and practically ignored books featuring gay males. There were virtually no books indexing gay male sleuths in film.

There is much to learn in these pages, even for a writer of a gay male sleuth! For instance, did you know that the first recognizably gay detective did not appear until 1953 in an English novel The Heart in Exile by Rodney Garland? However, it was not marketed as a gay mystery and so it is often overlooked. The first actual gay sleuth presented as such appeared in 1961 in a pulp novel by Lou Rand titled The Gay Detective. It too was largely overlooked because of its pulp origins. It was only recently that gay mystery novels really took off and became truly a marketable subgenre.

Gunn breaks his history into bite-sized sections based on authors, characters, themes, and sometimes the target audience. For instance, you'll find Bleeding Hearts listed under Teenage Sleuths (for Teenage Readers). The bibliography claims to be the most comprehensive ever offered on this subject, including more than 600 novels, over 100 movies, and nearly 20 television or video series.

If you enjoy mysteries in general, and gay mysteries in particular, then you'll want to be sure to pick up a copy of this book. It will provide you with a reading list to last a long, long time!

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The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law

The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law Review

This is a fascinating book, targeted at lawyers, but readable by the informed lay person. Koppelman begins with an overview of Romer, in which the Supreme Court held that a Colorado state constitutional amendment violated the United States Constitution by providing that "neither the state nor any of its subdivisions could prohibit discrimination on the basis of homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships." Justice Kennedy wrote that the Amendment "has the peculiar property of imposing a broad and undifferentiated disability on a single named group," and Koppelman summarizes the decision as saying "if a law targets a narrowly defined group and then imposes on it disabilities that are so broad and undifferentiated as to bear no discernible relationship to any legitimate government interest then the court will infer that the law's purpose is simply to harm that group, and so will invalidate that law." *

He provides background on homophobia, quoting from a 1950 Senate committee investigation on the employment of homosexuals that "Even one sex pervert in Government tends to have a corrosive influence on his fellow employees... One homosexual can pollute a Government office."

He also points out that a recent study by the US Department of Justice found that homosexuals are "the most frequent victims [of hate violence today]," and public opinion polls show that homosexuals are the least liked group in America, with 28.2% giving homosexuals a zero ranking (on a scale of 0 to 100) with only 9% doing so for illegal immigrants and 2 percent doing so for Blacks.

Some of the book is spent trying to reconcile Romer with Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) in which the Supreme Court held that a law criminalizing homosexual sodomy did not violate the Due Process Clause. It is fascinating to see him struggle with Bowers when you know that his argument against this decision, which he characterizes as "a disastrously bad piece of judicial craftmanship," was to win the day only months after the book's publication in the Lawrence decision of 2003.

The thrust of the book is to examine four arguments for gay rights in general and gay marriage in particular:

The Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment
The Due Process clause of the 14th amendment
The "Right to Privacy" arising out of Griswold and also Roe
Sex discrimination


In one fascinating section he shows how the Federal DOMA removes the full faith and credit assumption only from judgments in which the rendering court recognizes same-sex marriage but not in which the rendering court denies it. Thus, in a hypothetical wrongful death case, if the defendant "filed a counterclaim for declaratory judgment and relitigated in the liability in a new forum, and that court held that no wrongful death suit could lie because no marriage ever existed, that judgment would be entiteled to full faith and credit everywhere, even in the state that recognizes same-sex marriage....If on the other hand the new forum state refused to collude in this evasion and confirmed the judgemetn,t he second judgment, too, would under DOMA not be entitled to full faith and credit, because that second judgment too would have recognized the existence of a same-sex marriage. The defendant would then be free to relitigate the question anew in a third forum and a fourth and so on. When at last he found a court that would cooperate with his scheme, the judgment issued by that forum would then be entitled to full faith and credit throughout the United States!"



Koppelman's conclusion is that not only is the Federal DOMA unconstitutional, but it is so clearly targeted at homosexuals as a class that it strengthens the argument in favor of treating homosexuals as a suspect class, and thus laws against homosexuals are more suspect and held to a harder-to-defend standard. Thus, in the long run, he argues, DOMA will strengthen gay rights.

The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law Overview

The gay rights question is whether the second-class legal status of gay people should be changed. In this book Andrew Koppelman shows the powerful legal and moral case for gay equality, but argues that courts cannot and should not impose it.

The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law offers an unusually nuanced analysis of the most pressing gay rights issues. Does antigay discrimination violate the Constitution? Is there any sound moral objection to homosexual conduct? Are such objections the moral and constitutional equivalent of racism? Must state laws recognizing same-sex unions be given effect in other states? Should courts take account of popular resistance to gay equality? Koppelman sheds new light on all these questions. Sure to upset purists on either side of the debate, Koppelman's book criticizes the legal arguments advanced both for and against gay rights. Just as important, it places these arguments in broader moral and social contexts, offering original, pragmatic, and workable legal solutions.

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The Gay Academic

The Gay Academic Review

"...a refreshing collection of essays by some of today's leading gay spokespersons on national campuses. Gay/lesbian movement activities and gay research are analyzed by gay professionals from a broad cross-section of scholarly disciplines. Endnotes, bibliographies and a comprehensive index are especially helpful for scholars and the scope and diversity of the general material can benefit anyone interested in the subject of homosexuality."

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The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs

The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs Review

After years of avoiding Nietzsche, I recently tried reading him again, inspired by Hollingdale's biography "Nietzsche: The Man and his Philosophy." Looking for one of Nietzsche's works that would give me a better general understanding of his philosophy and outlook on life, I turned to "The Gay Science" -- and was immersed in a world of explorations (of knowledge, truth, and morality), inspiring challenges ("Live dangerously!"), infamous declarations ("God is dead"), and a constellation of poems -- one of which, "Star Morals," could summarize Nietzsche's entire philosophy: "Called a star's orbit to pursue, / What is the darkness, star, to you? / Roll on in bliss, traverse this age - / Its misery far from you and strange. / Let farthest world your light secure. / Pity is sin you must abjure. / But one command is yours: Be Pure!"

Impressive poet, intriguing psychologist, intimidating philosopher: Nietzsche is also a superb writer; and although I've never read Nietzsche in the original German, this translation by Walter Kaufmann, the foremost translator of Nietzsche, is excellent. However, Kaufmann's notes sometimes seem less than helpful in elucidating the text, seem to focus mainly on mechanical matters of translation, and contain numerous references to his own works -- which strikes me as slightly pompous. But I'm neither a Nietzsche scholar nor an expert on translation, and these are merely a lay-reader's observations.

In his introduction, Kaufmann notes that "The Gay Science" is "a microcosm in which we find almost all of Nietzsche" - Nietzsche as poet, as psychologist, and as philosopher. Because Nietzsche's writing is so vibrant and his thoughts and ideas so compelling and complex, "The Gay Science" is worth reading, and re-reading, and reading again - for a single reading doesn't begin to do Nietzsche justice.

The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs Feature

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The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs Overview

Nietzsche called The Gay Science "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God -- to which a large part of the book is devoted -- and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.

Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.

Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche's most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.

Walter Kaufmann's English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche's major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.

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The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: 'An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail' (Studies in American Popular History and Culture)

The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: 'An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail' (Studies in American Popular History and Culture) Review

This is a sensitive and very important book about a topic that has been barely scratched by the media: the radical genesis of the gay liberation movement. There are numerous books that whitewash this, that try to make the beginnings of the movement squeaky clean, but this is one of the few that covers it as it was. It also deals with what is now a very difficult subject to handle: queer youth and sex. It is incredibly well researched, has a huge bank of footnotes and bibliography, and profiles too many people who are prenaturely dead, so they will not get to speak for themselves as much as they can. They've been silenced, but they speak beautifully here. The real great beauty of this book though is that the writing is clear, lively, and intriguing. You want to read it. For a book with an academic premise from an academic press that is a reason to rejoice and experience this account of lgbt youth in the late 60s and into our time.

The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: 'An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail' (Studies in American Popular History and Culture) Feature

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The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: 'An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail' (Studies in American Popular History and Culture) Overview

Between 1966 and 1975 North American youth activists established over 35 school- and community-based gay liberation youth groups whose members sought control over their own bodies, education, and sexual and social relations. This book focuses on three groundbreaking New York City groups -- Gay Youth (GY), Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), and the Gay International Youth Society of George Washington High School (GWHS) -- from the advent of gay liberation in NYC in 1969 to just after its dissolution and the rise of identity politics by 1975. Cohen examines how gay liberation -- with its rejection of stultifying sex roles, attack on institutional oppression, connection between personal and political liberation, celebration of innate androgyny, and resolute anti-war and anti-capitalist stance -- shaped understandings of sexual identity, membership criteria, organization, decision-making, the roles of youth and adults, and efforts to effect social change.

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Latino Gay Men and HIV: Culture, Sexuality, and Risk Behavior

Latino Gay Men and HIV: Culture, Sexuality, and Risk Behavior Review

Dr. Diaz talks about the multiple factors which may contribute to gay Latino men's susceptibility to contract HIV/AIDS. This book is great in that it does not assume that all Latinos associate gays with whiteness or that those who are attracted to men refrain from identifying as gay. It ends with a promotion of activism and a description of a gay Latino organization that is fighting the disease. Every GLM that I know in San Francisco owns a copy and every gay person of color should go out and buy one for themselves. This book is an important contribution to gay studies and Latino studies.

Latino Gay Men and HIV: Culture, Sexuality, and Risk Behavior Overview

With research based on focus group and individual interviews in the United States, as well as a thorough and integrative review of the current literature, LatinoGay Men and HIV discusses the six main sociocultural factors in Latino communities -- machismo, homophobia, family cohesion, sexual silence, poverty and racism--which undermine safe sex practices. In an attempt to explain the alarmingly high incidence of unprotected intercourse in this population, this in-depth cultural and psychological analysis shows how an apparent incongruence between knowledge or intention and behavior can possess its own sociocultural logic and meaning.

Latino Gay Men and HIV: Culture, Sexuality, and Risk Behavior Specifications

Over the past 10 years, AIDS educators have consistently had one truth driven home to them: it is impossible to talk about HIV, AIDS, and safe sex without talking about how people live their lives. This is the message that resonates through Rafael M. Diaz's Latino Gay Men and HIV. Diaz, trained as a social worker, is a Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and has created a panoramic portrait of the wide range of issues that Latino gay men deal with in making decisions about safe sex. Discussing issues of poverty, class, ethnicity, and gender as well as concepts of "manliness" in Latin culture, Diaz supplies us with some steps that might be taken to help stop the spread of AIDS among Latino men. Perhaps more important, his writing conveys an insightful, nuanced portrait of gay Latino men's lives. Perceptive, intelligent, and sensitively written, Latino Gay Men and HIV is an important addition to AIDS literature and to the growing body of work that examines the diversity of gay life and culture.

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Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division

Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division Review

Ginoli, Jon. "Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division", Cleis Press, 2009.

Out and Proud

Amos Lassen

It's been a Pansy Division week for me. I received both the DVD, "Life in a Gay Rock Band" and "Deflowered", the book by the band's founder, Jon Ginoli. I have already reviewed the film so I will concentrate on the book here. I have long been a fan of "Pansy Division" as I admire them for singing about the things they do and I believe they have a positive influence of our community. Jon Ginoli shows us his pride in his memoirs here and as you can imagine his road to success was not easy. The book looks at two different aspects of his life--the recording industry and being gay and out.
Ginoli was born in Illinois and he grew up there but it was not until the got to college that the idea of having a gay band actually became a reality. In his book he takes us with him on his journey of self-discovery as well as his passion for music. What is interesting about his passion for music is that it led him to write songs like "Queer to the Core", "Fem in Black Leather Jacket" and many others that amazon.com would not welcome me to write here.
Pansy Division was and still is the first out and proud queer band to go big time but it was a struggle to get to that point. Jon together with Chris Freeman worked their "buns" off to get to be where they are.
Ginoli is a good writer and his book reads smoothly. I felt as if I was with the guys as they forged their way and I have a sense of pride that they made it.
It is hard not to repeat what I said in my review of the film because the two are so similar and both are great. Get them both and be twice as knowledgeable---then drop them a line at
info@pansydivision and let Jon know how much you enjoy what he does.

Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division Feature

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Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division Overview

"We're the buttfuckers of rock-and-roll, We want to sock it to your hole!" With these words written in a notebook, Jon Ginoli sets off on a journey of self-discovery and musical passion to become the founding member of Pansy Division, the first out and proud queercore punk rock band to hit the semi-big time. Set against the changing decades of music, we follow the band from their inception in San Francisco, to their search for a music label and a permanent drummer to their current status as indie rock icons. We see the highs—touring with Green Day—and the lows—homophobic fans—of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock. Replete with the requisite tales of sex, drugs, groupies, band fights and label battles, this rollicking memoir is also an impassioned account of staying true to the artistic vision of queer rock'n'roll.

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Gay Rights

Gay Rights Review

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Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities in Families: Psychological Perspectives

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities in Families: Psychological Perspectives Review

This book has been helpful to dispel many myths related to gays, lesbians and bisexuals. I feel that every public library should have one for reference.

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities in Families: Psychological Perspectives Overview

Breaking through long-held presumptions about family relationships, this volume focuses on lesbian, gay and bisexual identities as an important facet of life in many families. For the first time, it examines the entire multifaceted experience of such relationships, in contrast to studies which have looked exclusively at the lives and origins of lesbian and gay couples. The editors bring together the most important recent scholarship on lesbian, gay, and biosexual identities in families, and identify directions for future research and theory in this area. The first section of the book discusses different perspectives on sexual orientation in families. It highlights important and controversial new research on sexual orientation and emphasizes the interplay of continuities and discontinuities across generations. The next section focuses on key aspects of interpersonal relationships within the families of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals. The relationships between children and parents of different sexual orientations are discussed. The final section of the book focuses on the community and contextual issues. It explores the economic issues, antigay attitudes, policies, and social structures. This volume, the first to discuss the family relationships of gay men, lesbians, and bisexual men and women, will be interesting to psychologists, scholars of gay/lesbian/bisexual studies, as well as lay audience.

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Cut to the Bone: A Novel

Cut to the Bone: A Novel Review

Let me start off by saying that I have a real weakness for revenge books. There is just something truly decadent and delicious about taking a well-orchestrated (and violently nasty!) vengeance against those responsible for the murder of...the only person you've ever loved! Even more impressive is solid writing and interesting dialogue (how often can you say that?) which are accented by a tight plot that actually avoids the usual genre-driven pitfalls. Oh, and the hero is _totally_ hot (or at the very least, smart and charismatic).

Santos De La O (yep, it's a fake name) is a half Italian, half Mexican gunrunner/enforcer for a drug cartel in Mexico. He has family connections in the Italian mob, but leaves to start his own business because he's gay and his uncle, Vito the fixer, "can't employ no finocchio in this business, if you'll pardon the expression."

We get to watch Santos be really clever, make lots of money selling cool high-tech guns and missiles, and discover his softer side by of course falling in love with Tony. (All this happens in only about 70 sparse but perfect pages. The novel is only 200 pages long.) I can't express what a pleasure it was to read a book that has NO wasted filler, yet manages to convey a clear and emotional impact. When Santos is standing over Tony's body at the morgue "he kissed his fingertips and pressed them gently against the empty face" and says "Te amo...te amo tanto, tanto. I love you. I love so very much." Yes, my eyes actually teared up.

Without giving the rest of the book away, let me just mention some of the things the book doesn't do.

(1) Santos doesn't magically know who is responsible. We have an actual witness. And a license plate number. Wow.
(2) The drug cartel has nothing to do with Tony's murder. Yes, we were spared the tired and annoying drug cartel conspiracy plot.
(3) Not all of the cops are stupid and corrupt.
(4) Not one of the cops is a genius. ;-)
(5) Santos only does "normal" stupid things and he's only mostly lucky. We are not subjected to plot holes a 12 year old can figure out.
(6) There is no impossible action. No one jumps through a second-storey window and survives.
(7) The violence is not our usual boring blah, blah, blah violence. Really. Santos's revenge against one of the murderers is, um, original.

Hopefully I've convinced you to try this book. Oh, and if you're worried about the gay sex angle, well I'm sorry to have to say, it's of the boring ...and the next morning they woke up together...variety. Alas there is no explicit sex.

Cut to the Bone: A Novel Overview

"Stupidity. The unforgivable sin, stupidity. The only sin, to tell the truth. Never to be pardoned, not in this world nor in the world to come. Greed, treachery, blowing your cool at the check-points, not having your papers in order, playing both ends against the middle, cutting yourself a piece, yes, there were a hundred ways of being stupid for every one way of being smart. But losing a shipment? Now that was the ultimate stupidity. Losing a shipment demanded exemplary punishment, a very public auto da fe, so the less afflicted might be warned off by the ostent-tious sufferings of the hopelessly lost. Santos, one of the avenging angels of this moral order, knew that when Gregorio Olivares turned a deathly shade of purple and ranted about stupidity, retribution had taken wing."—From Chapter One

It was his last job. Santos de la O would make a mint smuggling the most sophisticated weaponry across the Texas-Mexico border for a Mexican drug lord, then retire, take his lover Tony and find the good life for both of them far from the danger and violence of El Paso–Ciudad Juarez. But a celebratory night ends in gunfire, Tony dies in Santos’s arms, and things go downhill from there. Instead of arming warring factions in the drug war, the weapons are used to assassinate a U.S. official, and then Santos is on the run from the DEA and the Mexican mob. But the only thing on his mind is revenge against Tony’s killers. With multiple parties scrambling to cover their tracks, the body count continues to rise, as Santos and Fernando, a young hustler who witnessed Tony’s murder, ruthlessly conduct a manhunt across Texas while pursued by relentless homicide detective Jenna Lessing. Santos de la O is perhaps the most morally ambivalent character to ever appear in gay literature, and Robert Conner’s unflinching portrayal of a merciless man seeking redemption behind the barrel of a gun offers a blistering update on the traditional western, where bad men inadvertently become heroes and the law is often irrelevant.

Robert Conner lives in San Francisco. He has experience with and knowledge of sophisticated weaponry. Cut to the Bone is his first novel.

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Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area

Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area Review

As a long time gay resident of San Francisco, I was thrilled when this historical pictoral tome came out way back then.
I bought the book and have it sitting proudly on my coffee table - after all these years.
It has great text and even more wonderful photos of personalities and memorabilia from decades of historical gay & lesbian San Francisco. Van Buslkirk and Stryker know their stuff and I appreciate all the research and the historical facts that come out in this masterfully produced work.
The photos are well reporduced and there is even the great reprodcution of the hilarious 1982 SURRENDER DIANE campaign poster from Sister Boom Boom's historical SF supervisorial run against then and unpoular Mayor Diane Feinstein. Classic. BUY THIS BOOK.

Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area Overview

A fabulous montage of word and image, this book is the first-ever to chronicle the origin and evolution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender culture. Capturing the international center of the gay experience as never before, Gay by the Bay features over 200 photos of historical memorabilia, 80 in full color.

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Conversaciones: Relatos por padres y madres de hijas lesbianas y hijos gay

Conversaciones: Relatos por padres y madres de hijas lesbianas y hijos gay Review

I knew something important happened when my mother saw the film "The Wedding Banquet." She saw a family of color dealing with a gay family member and she saw how the Chinese mother looked silly being so devestated by her son's sexual orientation. This book works in a similar way. This was the first book I've ever read that was entirely in Spanish. The editor had an article in "Companeras", a Latina lesbian anthology, where the editor there said she reprinted whole Spanish dialogues in order to preserve the truth of people's words. Like that editor and others (such as Anzaldua and Moraga), I think Romo-Carmona wanted to be true to the contributors. This is a slim book and the essays are quite short, but as someone who learned Spanish in the classroom, it took me a while to read. It's amazing too that this family-oriented book came from the lesbian sex-positive/radical Clies Press. Like Anglo PFLAG materials, this book began and ended with the parents of famous Latino gays (authors, elected officials, ppl who have been on TV) writing. Almost every author is supportive of their gay child and every submission ends with them saying "I would never kick my child out of the house." The last contributor, noted author Jaime Manrique, even registers his shock about how supportive the parents are here. So this book is positive, rather than normative. The authors are quite diverse in terms of ethnicity/nationality. The book is somewhat scant on bisexual and transgendered issues, but they are covered at least. In many articles, the parents write and then their gay children add in: this gets very repetitive. Probably due to the author's gender, this book is heavily lesbian and woman-slanted (even more mothers write than fathers). That's cool because it fights lesbian invisibility, but we still need to recognize the burden that gay Latino MEN carry. One contributor says straight up that it's okay for her daughter to be gay, but that would not be acceptable for her son. There are many great entries from parents whose gay sons have died of AIDS. Some articles feature gay parents who discover their children are gay. Nevertheless, abuse, alcoholism, custody battles, and other family tragedies do come up often in this book. A big critique that I have of this book is that racism in the US and the US gay community is hardly brought up. For example, many of the gay Latino children seem to have non-Latino partners (including the editor) and the parents never discuss it. Still, I loved this text and want every Spanish-speaking parent of a gay child to read it. My parents never even considered going to a PFLAG meeting until they heard that a black chapter was being formed. If straight people only feel comfortable discussing gay family in race-similar environments, then we just have to deal with that reality.

Conversaciones: Relatos por padres y madres de hijas lesbianas y hijos gay Overview

Comprised of 25 original essays by the parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered children — accompanied by commentary from their queer sons and daughters — Conversaciones furthers the dialogue among Latinos and Latinas on sexuality, acceptance, and family life.

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Unleashing Feminism: Critiquing Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties/a Collection of Radical Feminist Writings

Unleashing Feminism: Critiquing Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties/a Collection of Radical Feminist Writings Review

Unleashing Feminism: Critiquing Lesbian Sadomasochism in the Gay Nineties/a Collection of Radical Feminist Writings Overview

Radical feminist essays, poems and short stories that expand the scope of the discussion about sadomasochism and pornography. Unleashing Feminism is an earnest plea for a revitalized, powerful feminism, in an era where earnestness is caricatured more and more as old-fashioned and silly, uncool, uptight.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 05, 2010 08:49:13

Gay Haiku

Gay Haiku Review

Derfner, Joel. "Gay Haiku", Broadway Books, 2005.

Sweet and Sassy

Amos Lassen

Joel Derfner is my new hero. After reading his new book, "Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever", I made my own quest to find his first book, "Gay Haiku". It sounded like it would be great selection of short jokes but it is so much more than that. Yes, it is funny but it is also insightful and biting. It is a description of the crazy and maddening world of gay dating and it is very easy to relate to the haikus that he gives us. In seventeen syllables he catches each moment perfectly something that authors have written full books about and not managed to get.
The Haiku poem has long been part of the Japanese literary tradition. Usually a haiku expresses peace and contemplation as well as spiritual enlightenment with a balance of rhythm and rhyme. Rather than write about the changing of the seasons or the miracles of nature, Derfner writes haiku about the changing of boyfriends and the miracle of shopping. (How can one not love that?). Included are 110 irreverent and witty haiku poems and each is fresh and original. Topics of the poems include decorating, dating, shopping culture and politics, family and, of course, sex.
"Gay Haiku" is terrific and is a laugh a line. It will probably give you an impetus to write haiku of your own.

Gay Haiku Feature

• ISBN13: 9780767919845
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Gay Haiku Overview

Impossible to resist, this hilariously sassy and sweet collection of haiku turns the perilous sport of gay dating into pure poetry.

For hundreds of years, the Japanese haiku has been equated with peaceful contemplation and spiritual enlightenment. A delicate balance of rhythm and line, the haiku has provided countless readers with an appreciation of the changing of the seasons and the miracles of nature. Now, in Gay Haiku, readers can finally appreciate more important things—like the changing of boyfriends and the miracles of shopping.

Irresistible and irreverent, this collection of one hundred and ten witty and wicked short poems captures the many dating disasters of first-time author Joel Derfner. In a wonderfully fresh and original voice, Derfner shamelessly mines his personal life to send up such broad-ranging topics as gay pop culture, politics, family, sex, and, of course, home decorating.

Gay, straight, or undecided, readers will delight in Derfner’s dry sense of humor and unmistakable charm as he tackles the big questions of life.

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The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica

The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica Review

There are a LOT of stories in this anthology! And a wide variety. Characters of many ages, countries, etc. are included. Some stories are quite funny, some "artistic", some militant. Some "literary", some more typical.

These stories will take you into lives you'll never see. It's an entertaining, sad, happy, and sexy book. A cut or two above much of it's kind.

Hard to go wrong at this price!

The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica Overview

The largest collection of gay male erotica available, featuring a wide range of authors from the United States, Britain, and around the world. Contributors include Edmund White, Andrew Holleran, Oscar Wilde, William J. Mann, D. Travers Scott, and many others .

The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica Specifications

Since the early 1990s gay male erotic writing has gained greater acceptance in the world of mainstream publishing. Fiction and nonfiction erotic anthologies have appeared and titillated millions of men who formally found these delights only between the covers of porno magazines. Lawrence Schimel's The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica is one of the best additions to this growing genre. Schimel has reprinted old favorites by writers such as Aaron Travis and Bill Mann, as well as excerpts from novels by notables such as Christopher Bram, Neil Bartlett, and Alan Hollinghurst. The Mammoth Book of Gay Erotica also features new stories by Paul Elliott Russell, Lars Eighner, and Andrew Holleran and rediscovered writings by Edmund White and Michael Denneny. Sexy, sweaty, sweet, and often very moving, this collection renews your faith in the sexual power and performance of the written word.

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Gay Men, Drinking, and Alcoholism

Gay Men, Drinking, and Alcoholism Review

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 02, 2010 06:00:26