Product Description
In Perfect Enemies, Chris Bull and John Gallagher trace the origins and growth of both groups from the seminal year 1969, when the Stonewall Riots ushered in the modern gay rights movement and when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell embarked on direct political action to bring strict biblical interpretation to bear on public policy. The skillful grassroots organizational efforts of both movements, based on a mutual demonization of each side by the other, resulted in growing political clout that developed under the radar of mainsteam political commentators--and exploded upon the scene in a series of bitter and, to most Americans, bewildering political conflicts.

Bull and Gallagher offer the first comprehensive account of the rhetoric and strategies--often remarkably alike--of both sides, and of how the mutual passion of these perfect enemies is influencing electoral politics from the state houses to the White House.Amazon.com Review
Journalists Chris Bull and John Gallagher argue in their newbook, Perfect Enemies, that the national social politics of the1990s are being increasingly defined by the conflict between theconservative religious right and the gay rights movement. Thischallenging thesis examines in meticulous detail the legal battles theChristian Coalition has waged against gay rights laws across thecountry. The authors' analysis of the gays-in-the-military fight is ontarget as they dissect the mistakes made by both gay leadership and theFederal government. Endlessly provocative and highly charged, Bull andGallagher convincingly hammer home their point that the fight about gayrights effects everyone, not just the gay community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Exciting case studies...not a contradiction in terms!
Irrespective of the reader's own personal politics, the highly charged political nature of GLBT rights means finding 'balanced' academic works is incredibly difficult. Most titles either soley focus on the glbt OR far right without attempting some sort of journalistic mediary between the two.

As a diehard liberal, my politics personally go with the former group, but my need for balance in classroom assigments (which included a mock curricula)left me in a quandry. How would I teach about a social group I inately despised (the religious right) while giving my potential students the required information they would need to discern a broader picture?

Looking through the right's own books seemed boring and actual field interviews also seemed dangerous because of the unknown communication problems I was potentially setting myself up for in the arrangement (people spamming me with information after the fact, attempting to change my own politics and/or harrassing me).

Thus, I was personally relieved to make Mr. Bull's concise book an addition to my library. The 1990's were both a time of great political gains and setbacks for the GLBT community, and understanding past policy battles in Oregon and Colorado (among other profiles) helps today's activists prepare counter-response to simmilar campaigns in their own muncipaties.

Also helpful is the book's immediate practicality to intended communities. Even if I can decipher advanced queer political theory with my previously aquired political training, such barriers could inadvertently reduce the numbers of movement allies when the need is most critical. Bull's plainspeak language is intentionally utilized to neither speak over or down to his readers, they instantly know they CAN be part of the solution to every identified policy problem.

Both Sides, Present
A well-written book examining the controversial gay movement and subsequent religious right movement in the 90s.The authors write in an anthropological style, representing both sides without displaying their personal disposition.This style of writing is very helpful when trying to establish a position on this controversial issue, or when examining the stance opposing your own position.For a novice in the issue of the religious right versus the gay movement this would be a wonderful starting point.A reader that has an established position on the issue, they may like a more pro-stance work.

A Compelling Look At The Gay and Evangelical Movements
A good book that does its best to be objective when dealing with an issue that is most decidedly subjective. The book is a careful examination of the political situations surrounding the gay and evangelical communities and their similarities and differences.The authors don't hold back from pointing out the missteps and faults of both movements, and ends with a plea for less fiery rhetoric and a call for civil discussion and compromise. A must read for anyone on either side of this debate ... Read more

Product Description
In the absence of accurate information, American culture has upheld a distorted view of what it means to be an older gay man. Gay and Gray is the first and only scholarly full-length treatment of older gay men in America today. It breaks the stereotype that older gay men are strange, lonely creatures and reveals that most older gay men are well-adjusted to their homosexuality and the aging process.

This second edition contains four new chapters that present additional perspectives on the reality of gay aging. Dr. Minnigerode’s study shows that older gay men do not perceive themselves as growing old faster than their heterosexual counterparts, and that forty is the age at which most gay men believe that the label “young” no longer applies--this finding led Berger and other researchers to define “older” gay men as those over forty. Pope and Schulz confirm Berger’s finding that for most older gay men a continuation of sexual activity and sexual enjoyment is the norm. John Grube’s paper on the interaction of older gay men with younger gay liberationists explores the cultural divide between today’s older gay man and his younger counterpart, filling a gap left in the first edition. And a concluding chapter by Richard Friend on a theory of successful gay aging summarizes much of the current thinking about this topic.

The true situation of the older homosexual male presented in Gay and Gray challenges preconceptions about what it means to be old and gay. It asserts that in most ways, older gay men are indistinguishable from other older people. Because the book portrays older gay men in a realistic and sympathetic light, it is therapeutic for the many gay men who have been burdened with society’s negative and distorted views about them. These men may compare their own lives to those of the respondents described in the book. Gay and Gray offers younger gay men a rare glimpse into their futures and enlightens and comforts those who count older gay men among their family and friends. The conclusions drawn in the book will change people’s perspectives and offer new ways of thinking for and about older gay men.

Gay and Gray is filled with rich case histories and treats its subject with dignity and compassion. Topics of focus include:

• love relationships
• social and psychological adjustment
• gay community
• self-acceptance
• being ”in the closet” and ”coming out” as a gay person
• intergenerational attitudes
• popular stereotypes
  
  As the first intensive interview and questionnaire study of gay men aged 40 and older in America, Gay and Gray examines the lives of these men in light of cultural stereotypes. Author Berger asks about the social lives of these men, their involvement in both the heterosexual and homosexual communities, their ”coming out” experiences, their attitudes about younger gays, their experiences in growing older, and their strategies for adapting to life’s challenges. In the study, Berger reveals that, contrary to stereotypic views, most older gay men are well-integrated into social networks and lead active and generally satisfying lives. He found that few live alone; most scored as well as younger gays on measures of psychological adjustment, such as self-acceptance; many are open about their homosexuality with family, friends, and colleagues; and the most well-adjusted older gay men were integrated into a homosexual community, associated with younger gay men, and were unwilling to change their sexual orientation.

Customer Reviews (1)

Gay and Grey: The Older Homosexual Man
I think it's a great book, Both for old and young gays.
... Read more

Product Description
In his autobiography, John Addington Symonds relates a glorious night of passion, in which he and his lover "lay covered from the cold in bed, tasting the honey of softly spoken words and the blossoms of lips pressed on lips." Christopher Isherwood's first autobiography, on the other hand, was far less direct; he wrote a second autobiography in part because the first was "not truly autobiographical" in that "the author conceals important facts about himself." These contradictions, evasions, and explicit sexual details of the life stories of fourteen men form Gay Lives, a revealing account of homosexual autobiography.

Paul Robinson reads the memoirs of French, British, and American gay authors--André Gide, Quentin Crisp, and Martin Duberman, among others--through the prism of sexual identity, asking fascinating questions about homosexuality and its relation to literary form. How did these authors discover their sexual identity? Did they embrace it or reject it? How did they express often conflicted desires in their words, which ranged from defiant and brutally frank to ambiguous and abstract? Robinson considers the choices each made--as a man and an author--to accommodate himself to society's homophobia or live in protest against his oppression.

Despite the threads that connect these stories, Gay Lives refutes the notion that there is a typical homosexual "career" by showing that gay men have led wildly dissimilar lives--from the exuberant to the miserable--and that they have found no less dissimilar meanings in those lives.Amazon.com Review
Paul Robinson's Gay Lives is a comprehensive study ofhow the gay male memoir evolved over the course of the 20thcentury. Focusing on writers from Great Britain, France, and theUnited States, Robinson creates a series of dialogues among his 14subjects as he examines how each deals with issues such as what itmeans to be a "man," how to view oneself in relationship to a gaycommunity, and how one deals with having, or claiming, an outsideridentity. Quoting at length from writers such as John AddingtonSymonds (who can be viewed as the father of the modern gay memoir),André Gide, G. Lowes Dickinson (a close friend ofE.M. Forster), and contemporary writers including the late PaulMonette and Martin Duberman, Gay Lives is not only a crashcourse on gay literary history but a meditation on how often gay men(in varying degrees of closetedness) have greatly influenced what wecall "mainstream culture." It is perhaps here that Gay Lives ismost startling; Robinson both explicitly and implicitly forces us toreexamine how ideas of the personal, the political, and truth shapeall writing. Gay Lives is an important--andprovocative--addition to the critical literature on lifewriting. --Michael Bronski ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Disappointing
After seeing the reviews and reading so much about John Rechy's novels I feelthat maybe I missed something that other readers 'got'. I found this novel to be confusing from the outset. He introduced too many characters and had them not only all talking to each other - but Rechy would also throw in tidbits of feelings and why this person felt the way he did. I found it difficult to keep track of who was talking to who! It seemed the entire book consisted mainly of these 4 people talking, talking. Too me the story didn't move anywhere. I finally started skimming the pages looking for something more that the unending conversation. Finally I read the last chapter in which the same characters were still conversing! Extremely disappointing and a time-waster!

A dark and engrossing look into the leather bar scene
"Rushes" tells the stoyr of one night spent at a seddy leather/uniform night club in an unspecified warehouse district along the waterfront. It's a dark place, filled with sexual odors, drugs, hidden faces and lusts, and dark corners wherre anything and everything could be happening.Four friends - Endore, Chas, Bill and Don - spend the evening trying to find the one person to go home with.Endore is a columnist who writes about the gay lifestyle and his belief that there is no such thing as love in the gay world; Chas views the rushes as his hunting grounds, where he is the ultimate prize; Bill wants to see how many men he can connect with but his pickiness sometimes cluds his own judgement of people; and Don is the oldest of the group, feeling his age everytime he invites himself to join his friends at the Rushes.

Each has his own insecurities which come out in full force on this particular evening.Sides are taken when a woman named Lyndy - a fashion designer - is grudginly allowed into their macho, all-male domain.Her appearance and her banter act as a catalyst between Chas and Endore, alternately setting them against on another or forcing them to join the same side.Later, a drag queen and her female companion cause a stir near the entrance to the Rushes which forces Endore to take a closer look at how gay men have been forced to find places where they can be themselves, and any intrusion into that world is angrily looked down upon.This novel also touches on ageism and the fear of the gay community with the character of Don - who feels that no one wants anything to do with him because he's slightly older; he remembers the days before clubowners put up signs such as "Under 35s Only" when everyone went out to have fun and to enjoy each others company.Sure, everyone had to keep their sexual preferences hidden for fear of the police, but nowadays, you had to creep around to avoid the violent, name-calling youths would would very easily bash in your head with fist or pipes.

To get the feel of spending the night with this group in the Rushes, author John Rechy tells the story in present time, allowing the reader to feel and to see what each character does as if he/she were with them.Also, the chapters jump from character to character, almost giving the reader a sense of the darkness, the confusion and the electric atmosphere of the place.A dark and engrossing look into the leather bar scene.

Glory! Glory!Ahh Men!
A novel of grandeur in style, structure, and substance.Theatrical, ritualistic, and elegant!

Filled with insight, rage, power, and beauty, _Rushes_ is a novel that deserves high praise, even among its brilliant predecessors.Rechy's other literary works deserve elevation to a class by themselves, and this novel is no exception.From the careful highlighting of a bar's most subtle nuances, to a sophisticated social critique that remains unmatched and unanswered even today, _Rushes_ exhibits a complexity and depth that allows it to remain both contemporary and classic.

Drenched in metaphor, symbolism, wit, and charm, _Rushes_ is a sensual, exotic delight of a novel.Even as the politics and passion may challenge you, the atmosphere will seduce you.Face your desires, fears, friends, and enemies.Breathe deep and indulge yourself._Ruhes_ is a novel worthy of your consideration and admiration.

A WorldAgo
John Rechy has been around for years and written many novels relating to life on the fringe. In Rushes he creates a dark forbidding and harsh world that repelled and excited this reader at various times. The characters are slightly cliche and generally not very nice. It is still a good read charged with high sexual tension and what now could be regarded as a histoical account of life in the late 1970's.

The novel of depth
Late 70's.Four men.Gay sex bar;Rushes.John Rechy approachs them brutaly,cooly,but gently.Yes,gentlythan amyl.And Rechy will leave readers feel unsubstantial. ... Read more

Product Description
A gay African-American fiction anthology features works by award-winning authors and promising newcomers including A. Cinque+a6 Hick, Bil Wright, Larry Duplechan, and Jaime Manrique, and pays tribute to a range of cultural events. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an okay anthology about a great topic
This is an anthology about black gay men.Unfortunately, the tales inside are not as fierce or defiant as the title would suggest.In many of the pieces, issues of race and sexuality take the back seat to "l'art pour l'art", typical literature.The pieces near the back are better than the introductory ones.The piece by James Earl Hardy (who almost never writes short stories) is great.Jaime Manrique has a piece here and I've never seen him write about black issues (he writes almost exclusively of latino ones).I am glad I have a copy of this book, but I liked "Brother to Brother" and other books on the topic much better. ... Read more

Product Description
In Freedom, Glorious Freedom, acclaimed author John J. McNeill shows how lesbian and gay Christians can achieve full spiritual maturity and self-acceptance. McNeill discusses freedom of conscience and discernment of spirits, ancient teachings of the Christian church that have a special urgency for lesbian and gay people who need to free themselves from all the homophobic authorities and deal with God on a direct and personal basis. The liberating process of coming out of the closet is seen as a spirit-filled effort to achieve the glory of God by becoming fully alive. McNeill offers a twelve-step spirituality as a spiritual process of liberation from all addictions in order to experience the love of God in its fullness. The epilogue expresses in detail a philosophical vision, looking both to the past and to the future, of how gay liberation fits into the Spirit-directed evolution of human history and its role in the ongoing struggle for human liberation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Gift of a faith-filled servant of God.
This is an enlightening book and a gift to gay and non-gay people of good will. I found "Freedom, Glorious Freedom" to be both healing and a celebration of the love of God for all people. McNeill's scholarship, love of God and gift as teacher are as clearly present here as in his previous two books. I found Part 4 ("The Gay Love of God And God's Love Of Gays") most helpful in its eye-opening understandings of the New Testament. I doubt any reader could follow McNeill's explications in this section without forever seeing the New Testament in a new and more loving light - the love that Jesus not only preached but lived.

Sad
Freedom is found in chaste love, not in the libertarian distortion of the gospel offered by this former priest.

If you're seeking freedom as a homosexual Catholic, contact your local Courage chapter.

Pro Gay and Pro Christian!!!
I am a gay, ordained minister of the gospels.This book is superbly written and researched.A must for me on coming out, and a must for anyone who ministers to the gay community.God bless this author for taking thischance in his life. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Time capsule of a brief era
Back in the late '70s when this book first came out I remember snatching up a copy at the college bookstore. I was already familar with John Rechy after reading his groundbreaking 1963 novel City of Night. In The Sexual Outlaw I found a book that was as brutally honest as it was searing.

The book alternates between chapters in which "Jim" (the stand-in for Rechy) cruises the parks, bars, bathhouses and beaches of L.A. for sex and chapters in which Rechy turns his attention to such subjects as police corruption, the court system, discrimination, S&M, and a subject he returns to frequently - promiscuity as a revolutionary act.

As a Midwestern guy in his late teens, the book was both offputting and a revelation. Offputing because the open embrace of sexuality was an aspect of being gay I hadn't seen in the Midwest and a revelation because the arguments that Rechy put forth against those who would condemn gay sexuality gave me my first answers to refute the anti-gay attitudes that were prevalent at the time. (In fact, I was surprised to be reading a section of the book when I came across a statement I have used many times in support of gay issues. It hadn't occurred to me where the statement came from until I found it as I re-read the book.)

The Sexual Outlaw stands as a statement of its times. It's difficult to read it now without thinking of how many lives have been lost to AIDS. Looking back, it's hard to imagine how different life was in that brief 12-year period between the Stonewall riots and birth of the modern gay liberation movement in 1969 and the discovery of AIDS in 1981. This book is a sort of time capsule of that brief era.

Important as a Social Document of the Era
Described as "A Documentary," THE SEXUAL OUTLAW is an unexpected construction and as such it is an extremely, extremely difficult work to describe--part fact, part opinion, part autobiography, and part fiction--and often blurring the distinction between the four.

Published in 1977, the book is essentially a snapshot of the underbelly of the Los Angeles community through John Rechy moved in that decade.The fictional material concerns Jim, a man that the rest of the book encourages us to read as Rechy himself, who travels a stream of sexual contacts over the course of a long weekend: sex at the beach, in the park, on the street, in the bar, in the alley.And always running one step ahead of a highly hypocritical society and police department that is forever in hot pursuit to arrest, eradicate, and destroy him and his kind forever.

These are the "sexual outlaws."The remaining portions of the book veers from sado-masochism to double sexual standards to corrupt police officers to newspaper headlines--and all, ultimately, in an effort to explain why a person such as "Jim" would actively select such a nihilistic way of life.And Rechy does indeed have a point; to a certain extent, the choice is between rebelling against or being buried by the status quo.

In one sense, the book will--or at least should--make your blood boil in its highly accurate depiction of the horrific repression homosexuals have faced in the past and indeed might again face in the future.It also conveys a sense of the excitement of the illicit sexual chase.At the same time, Rechy does not spare you the emptiness and ugliness of such a lifestyle; indeed, he makes such aspects of wholesale promiscuity extremely apparent.

In the end, Rechy seems to be saying that when the choice is between rebelling or being buried, he prefers to rebel.But there is a catch in here: he presents a street-sex lifestyle as the only possible rebellion and to a certain extent tries to posit his own choices as a commonplace.

At one point in the book, Rechy states that he has had over 7000 sexual contacts up that point--which breaks down to an average of about one contact per day for twenty years.I don't doubt that such people exist and I don't doubt that some of them are homosexual, but I have extreme doubts about how statistically typical this would be of any segment of the population, male or female, gay or straight.

Because of this Rechy tends to undercut his own argument, and a whiff of self-justification begins to enter the mix as the book progresses.That aside, the adventures of Jim become repetitive and seem less included than to make a point than as expertly written pornography.I need hardly add that the advent of AIDS and changing attitudes and laws about homosexuality have left the book extremely dated.

Even so, this is in some respects the best of Rechy's work, very direct, passionate, clearly written in white-hot anger; it is remarkably driven in tone, furious in execution.I would not really recommend it to a casual reader, but I think it is important as a social document, and it deserves to be read on that basis.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A Journey to the End of the Night
Like many of Rechy's books, THE SEXUAL OUTLAW is powerful, fascinating, and very depressing.The themes present in his novels are here in this non-fiction work - the power of physical beauty, narcissm, sex as liberation, unfulfilled desire, etc. Along with a narrative of one hustler's quest for validation through his sexual encounters, Rechy threads in a treatise on what it means to be homosexual in twentieth century America.Much of what he says is relevant to the twenty-first century as well, as the current battle over same-sex marriage attests.

Those looking for explicit sex will find it in abundance here.Rechy pulls no punches in his depiction of homoerotic love.Yet he is wise enough to see the sadness in the "sexhunt," and his "character" Jim, we know, will never find that elusive thing for which he searches, the combination of sexual gratification and personal intimacy.None of us will find it.We hate Jim for his narcissm and his superficiality but admire his rebel stance.He is a man-loving man not ashamed of the fact.

Rechy's accounts of police corruption concerning gay men and the hours spent nabbing "sexhunters" that could otherwise be spent apprehending murderers, rapists, and thieves are enough to make one's blood boil.And I love his comments on gay sensibility.But I find his whole stance on S&M somewhat puzzling and hypocritical.While no advocate of or participant in that particular sexual lifestyle, I fail to see the difference between the physical pain inflicted by "masters" upon "slaves" and the psychological pain engendered in the course of the sexhunt.Indeed it would seem the latter pain would be the more enduring and damaging.

This is an important book, more than twenty-five years old, but still relevant.

The last days of Sodom
A masterpiece of Gay literature, broke so many taboos before its time.I remember reading this novel in the late 70s before AIDSbecame prevelant,when so many queers walked the backstreets and alleys not tomention bathhouses in there search for free sex and lust. This is amonumental exploration into the psyche of homosexuality and being wanted byall means .necessary. I cant wait for the movie! ... Read more

Product Description
Come on a journey of erotic discovery where young guys seek out old gentlemen!

It is well known that to most gay men, a shapely, youthful body is the ultimate turn-on. But a few young guys, sometimes even married ones, are erotically attracted to old men, because of their age. Joseph Itiel (author of Escort Tales; A Consumer’s Guide to Male Hustlers; and Sex Workers as Virtual Boyfriends), now in his early seventies, has discovered such young fellows. In Dirty Young Men and Other Gay Stories, he relates his experiences with them in intimate detail.

Dirty Young Men and Other Gay Stories is packed full of true younger-loves-older stories from all walks of life and from different countries.

From the author: "It took me until my middle fifties to become a sex object. Before reaching this age, nobody had ever been infatuated with my looks or physique. I hadn’t been selected out of a crowd just because someone thought I would be a good lay. Wouldn’t it be nice, I kept hoping, if for once I would fulfill somebody’s sexual fantasies, and be picked for just this reason? Well, at the age of fifty-five, my daydreams started to become a reality. Finally, I became a sex object, a ’man toy,’ to cute guys much younger than myself."

Dirty Young Men and Other Gay Stories is packed full of erotic truestories from the author’s real life experience. Here is a sample ofwhat you’ll find:

"Master of the Dildo"—the fulfillment of a young man’s desire for penetration by a man old enough to be his father, notwithstanding his young (female) sweetheart
"Bligh’s Bounty"—the adventures of an older man in San Francisco’s first gay go-go bar
"The Hypnotic Suggestion"—an older "straight" man seeks to discover his true identity by exploring, through hypnosis, a fleeting gay moment in his past
"An Affair in the Galilee Mountains"—a bittersweet love affair between a "professor" and a younger, uneducated local man
"The Dominatrix"—the author befriends (and beds) a much younger man who, it turns out, makes his living as a cross-dressing dominatrix, administering beatings to "straight" men for money
"Teaching a Man to Fish"—the author teaches two attractive young men the art of escorting

From Galilee to Lisbon to San Francisco, Joseph Itiel’s Dirty Young Men and Other Gay Stories will take you on an erotic journey that you won’t soon forget! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (30)

G is L
Could not put it down, would often read well into 3-4 in the morning haphazardly. Phenomenal book, Rechy writes similar to Kerouac & Palahniuk but surpasses both, this book is riviting regardless if you are gay, straight or bisexual. Rechy exposes what the meaning is behind words such as abandon, love, light and yes sex as well.Changed my life, this book is unexplainably beautiful. Read it with a open mind and leave your biases, theories and opinions about everything you've been taught to believe is good or bad before you even flip open the cover, if you let it this book will speak to you about a piece however big or small inside of you as well.G is L Rechy said.. God is love... excellent, now read!

Great roadtrip in a gone era.
I've read this book every other summer for many years. Too bad it probably won't, or can't, become a film.

What's With Rechy?
This is the third of Rechy's books I've read in the past month or so and I'm finished with him.I just don't care for his style of writing I guess.Now I'm the first to enjoy a book with gay content, including spicy sex scenes and so forth, but his writing and characters bring me down, leave me feeling dirty and almost depressed about the gay world and activity and how they behave.Is he a friend or foe of gays? It's hard to tell as he is so condescending and derogatory of them.No romance, no love, no tenderness---only people with warped minds, into kinky and multiple, multiple partners, unhappy, unfulfilled and ashamed.I don't want to read about people like this or be reminded of all the unhappiness and misery in the world.He has such a negative take on everything. I don't think anybody in his books laughs or smiles, feels good about themselves or isn't without some kink in them.True life? Maybe, but I don't need to read about it. He makes it all so dirty and filthy.

Overblown and Vacuous
I can understand the literary frenzy when CITY OF NIGHT made its debut... Courageous author breaks cultural barrier with unflinching look at gay subculture.Rechy's prose sure fits that era's highfaluting lit style -- overwritten, stream of consciousness, uncompromising, "deep", etc.Highly esteemed by cultural sophisticates, chichi media, and undergraduate college professors as a "classic" -- in the same mold as ON THE ROAD and FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.I remember having to suffer through this type of pretentious drivel during English 101 classes, butwith CITY OF NIGHT, I had a choice -- and couldn't finish 100 pages.

Self-indulgent prose, unlikeable characters, empty plot lines, overwrought/meaningless monologues, metaphorical nonsense -- I gave it two-stars only because it took a lot of balls to come out with such a depressing slice of your life.

on the road with john rechy
i have never read or, for that matter, heard of john rechy prior to reading a review of his latest book. after doing a bit of research, i found that this is his most well known book. i must admit, it was well worth the time and research. i love this book! it's very sad, often funnyand always insightful. the author has a nice way of observing situations and moving through their center to gain some understanding of the characters motivations, his own reactions and motives and, thereby, ours. this isn't always evident at first and often will take time to reveal. he has a great way of relating events in his early life to later events and discerning the pattern there. something we all should have done, should be doing, hopefully, in our own lives. get this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Homophobia hurts kids. Explore ways to minimize that trauma!

This book illustrates the ways that children growing up to be gay are harmed by homophobia before anyone, including themselves, even knows they are gay. This compelling and sympathetic volume describes many simple ways that these children can be helped to understand that they can grow up to lead normal lives, with hopes and dreams for their futures. How Homophobia Hurts Children: Nurturing Diversity at Home, at School, and in the Community brings home the voices of these children. They describe their experiences to show how they came to the frightening recognition that they are part of a group held in disregard by the rest of society, even sometimes by their own families.

Dr. Jean M. Baker, the author of How Homophobia Hurts Children: Nurturing Diversity at Home, at School, and in the Community is a clinical psychologist and the mother of two gay sons. In this book she shares her experience as both psychologist and mother to show how the myths and fallacies about homosexuality have influenced parents, schools, churches, and lawmakers to send children the cruel message that if they are gay, they are not normal and will not be able to lead normal lives.

In this unique volume you'll find:

• a chapter on identity development, following the Eriksonian model
• interviews with high school students who are self-identified as gay
• firsthand descriptions of the harassment and victimization of those perceived as gay in schools
• research on how victimization at school affects gay youths
• a discussion of the relatively new phenomenon of gay/straight alliances (gay support groups or clubs)
• a chapter on transgender identity with interviews with four transsexual persons who describe their personal childhood experiences and their transition process

Customer Reviews (1)

For Those Who Wonder
I read this book and I saw myself in so much of it. It helped me to understand my childhood better, my relationship with my father in particular. I recommend this for straight and gay alike. ... Read more

Product Description
Edited by C. F. Burgess, this edition of The Beggar's Opera for performance and study is well annotated and includes excerpts from Trivia: "Newgate's Garland", "An Epistle to a Lady," "The Hare and Many Friends"; the ballads "Twas When the Seas Were Roaring," "Sweet William's Farewell to the Black-ey'd Susan," "Molly Mog"; and letters to Jonathan Swift and others. Also included are an introduction, a list of the principal dates in the life of John Gay, as well as a selected bibliography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Beggar's Opera plus John Gay's Poetry and Letters - Includes selections from The Art of Walking the Streets of London
The Beggar's Opera has weathered nearly three hundred years of change, and yet its humorous satire remains vibrant today. Its first performance January 29, 1728 was an immediate success and its popularity quickly spread to Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany, and even to the New England colonies (and became a favorite of George Washington).

A London revival in 1920 ran 1,463 performances. A Beggar's Opera Club had membership limited to those that had seen at least forty performances. Later, Duke Ellington wrote the music for a Broadway musical called The Beggar's Holiday. Bertholt Brecht's version, Three Penny Opera, has been immensely successful too, with the rendition of one of the play's songs, Mack the Knife, becoming Number One on the Hit Parade in the early 1960s.

John Gay's innovative musical overwhelmed the formal, highly structured, Italian opera - in Italian - that dominated the London stage at that time. Gay's new, rollicking, rowdy lyrics overlain on traditional English ballads and sentimental melodies had extraordinary appeal.Although having only three acts, The Beggar's Opera has some forty-five scenes, almost all with musical interludes. Gay holds his myriad of short scenes together with nearly continuous action, more akin to a motion picture than to the conventional eighteenth century play.

The cast was equally original with cutthroats, pickpockets, thieves, streetwalkers, and highwaymen. The only honest character was the simple, sweet, trusting Polly Peachum. Miss Lavina Fenton, the best theatrical singer of her day, became immensely popular for her role as Polly; at the end of the run, a record setting sixty-two performances, she married the Duke of Bolton and retired from acting.

The audience was quick to associate Newgate Prison with Whitehall; the deceitful, avaricious Peachum (Polly's father) with Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Macheath's band of rogues (like Jemmy Twitcher, Crook-Fingered Jack, and Nimming Ned) with aristocratic courtiers, and Macheath's women of the streets (Mrs. Coaxer, Dolly Trull, Mrs. Vixen, Molly Brazen, etc.) with ladies of high society.

The Beggar's Opera and Companion Pieces, Crofts Classics, 1966, edited by C. F. Burgess, has a moderately short introduction. Unlike some editions, the lyrics embedded within the play are not accompanied by musical scores. This edition is particularly valuable for including other works by John Gay:a selection from Trivia (subtitled The Art of Walking the Streets of London), other poems (Newgate's Garland, 'Twas When the Seas Were Roaring, Sweet William's Farewell, Molly Mog, An Epistle to a Lady, and The Hare and Many Friends), and extracts from various letters. Trivia is perhaps the finest poem of any period on London life.

I also like the Barron's Educational Series edition: The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, edited by Benjamin Griffith, with full page, delightful ink-line drawings of the key characters by Keogh. The lengthy, three-part introduction (the playwright, the play, and the staging) is quite good. Initial musical notes are presented along with the lyrics.

An English major might prefer The Beggar's Opera by Regents Restoration Drama Series, Nebraska University Press, 1969. Edgar V. Roberts authored the scholarly introduction. An extensive appendix, some 140 pages, is a compilation of the music of The Beggar's Opera with keyboard accompaniments, edited by Edward Smith. ... Read more

Product Description
Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today. Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them breaks the silence surrounding gay male domestic violence and exposes this hidden yet prevalent and destructive problem. The authors paint a vivid picture of gay men’s domestic violence, bringing its brutality to life by including personal narratives, written by one of the authors, by clearly defining what it is and what it is not through lists of violent acts and criminal code categories, and by thoroughly examining and analyzing the criminal, mental health, medical, political, and interpersonal issues involved. The authors boldly depart from the battered women’s literature by asserting that batterers have a diagnosable mental disorder, that battering is not gender based, and that much further criminalization of domestic violence is necessary.

Striving for victim advocacy, the book underscores the idea that gay men’s domestic violence is totally unacceptable and is caused solely by individual abusive gay men who choose to batter. The book builds on and departs from what is known about domestic violence, with the authors challenging several fundamental premises in the literature, unabashedly identifying battering as a mental disorder. The authors explain that victims cannot stop their battering partners from battering and virtually all batterers choose to harm their partners in a premeditated fashion.

The authors provide practical steps and suggestions for victims who want to leave and stay away from their violent partners and for friends who want to help battered gay men. Chapters describe the scope of the problem and refute myths and misconceptions. There are several detailed theory chapters in which the authors explain why gay men’s domestic violence occurs, who the batterers are, who the victims are at different stages of victimization, and how domestic violence can be stopped. A visionary, wide-ranging governmental and private plan of action is introduced, including lists of necessary laws and policies, as well as outlines of strong education, training, and advertising problems needed in various sectors of society. As a self-help book, Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them provides practical information on a never-before discussed topic. As a trainer’s manual or teaching guide, it includes specific criteria for understanding the problem and for providing treatment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

an excellent resource
this book, although dated, is an excellent resource that discusses an issue in the gay community that is just short of being ignored.while domestic violence in lesbian relationships and heterosexual relationships are discussed, researched, and written about to great lengths, violence in gay men's relationships is still a taboo subject.

this book was vital in my own personal healing after leaving an abusive relationship and is a cornerstone for my current research for my master's thesis on transformative learning theory and glbt victims of domestic violence.i would highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious on the subject and would recommend it as a MUST READ for any victim who is either in the middle of their violent relationship, fighting against it, healing from it, or healed.

i look forward to the day i can add to the small (but growing) number of books and research on this vitally important topic to the gay community.

Great Book - Very insightful
The reviewer from Western Australia has either not read the book or has just scanned it.The authors do not link domestic violence with mental illness on the perpetrators side, encouraging the perpetrator not to accept responsibility. In fact, they state exactly the opposite, that assault and battering is a choice batterers make, and the authors repeat this over and over, almost in every page. In addition, the authors do concentrate on the power and control issues, as main motivators for the violence. You have to admit, however, that there is nothing 'sane' about someone hitting their spouses. In fact, this is criminal behavior.
The reviewer from Western Australia makes a statement that this book reminds you issues from the '60's. This is innacurate.In the '60's there was very little, if any, mention of domestic violence both in the psychological community/trade papers and in the penal code. This book was written in the early '90's, and most research quoted is from a few years before that. In addition, the issues of social/financial control and sexual agression are reviewed and properly addressed in the appropriate context of one opressor and one victim.
The book descriptions of the whole dynamics and overall process are very accurate, and, as an ex-battered domestic violence survivor I wish I had the chance to read this book when it was hapening to me, and not after.This book gives specific actions a victim should take in order to get away from a perpetrator and very insightfully explains why some people stay in unhealthy relationships and decide that they can best cope with an agressor more by staying in the relationship than by leaving, as many of us do.
Lastly, this book helps you in identifying prospective batterers in new people you may be dating, with specific red flags to look for.
If you are reading this, you are probably a victim, batterers do not seek help unless the courts orders it, and they are not interested in reading about this because they think they are right in hurting you (and that it is their right to do so). You have to take action now, dont wait until you are hit again because, as the authors rightfully say, it will happen again, regardless of you making up or your wishful thinking or the amount of time that passed since you were last battered. This book will tell you how to get out and stay out.

Disappointing book
When I first found out about this book, I wanted to read it - but found myself very disappointed.It does seems to have been written in isolation and does not reflect much of the current literature and ideas around domestic violence.

The author seems to want to link the presence of domestic violence, with mental illness or other type of 'sickness' within the perpetrator.I find this model unhelpful, as it tends to encourage the perpetrator not to accept that he is responsible for his actions, and therefore discourages his need to take responsibility and change.I believe that this philosophy is `old fashioned' and the debates around domestic violence have become much more sophisticated and complex since the 1960's.

It also concentrates more on physical assault and ignores the wider aspects of power and control - ie social, financial control, sexual assault etc.I found that his understanding of domestic violence was limited and naive.

It's one positive aspect is the fact that it `names' domestic violence in gay male relationships.Many authors are writing about violence in straight relationships, and there are a few who write about violence in lesbian relationships, however the existence of DV in gay male relationships is still in the closet.The presence of this book helps to change that.

Overall, I do not find this book to be very helpful for gay men in relationships where domestic violence is a feature. ... Read more

Product Description
Navigating Differences: Friendships Between Gay and Straight Men is a one-of-a-kind cross-sexual study that shows you how today’s gay and straight men build, maintain, and foster true friendships. In this activist, participatory study, you’ll get a day-in-the-life look at 44 pairs of cross-sexual men’s friendships and see what helps them negotiate the terrain of their emotional, sexual, psychological, and social differences in today’s climate of often publicly defended homophobia and heterosexism.

Navigating Differences succeeds in bringing the true picture of cross-sexual men’s relationships to you, regardless of your personal orientation or political affiliation. You’ll find information--straight from the lives of the study’s participants--that shows you how different sexual orientations impact the way men spend time together, maintain friendships, cope with sexual struggles, and open good communication channels. Most importantly, you’ll get detailed facts and feedback concerning:

• hegemonic masculinity
• embracing, struggling with, and ignoring differences
• group demographic characteristics
• embeddedness and emotional communication
• outness
• in-groups, out-groups, and reference groups
  
  Hearsay and prejudice might claim to know what gay and straight men think of each other, but Navigating Differences replaces rumors with research and shows you what really keeps gay and straight men in lasting friendships in all arenas of life. You’ll learn firsthand what it takes to overcome differences and what it means to turn difference into meaningful relationships.

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent and unique resource
This is an excellent and unique resource. It's written in a kind of silted, academic style--but that's no matter. Understanding how gay and straight male friends relate to each other, both in good and bad ways, is atopic you won't find treated much anywhere else. If you have a good friendwho's gay, or a good friend who's straight, you'll come to appreciate him*much* *much* more from reading this. I think it makes a great gift, too,after you come out to someone. ... Read more

Product Description

" The Beggar's Opera, often referred to today as the first musical comedy, was the most popular dramatic piece of the eighteenth century -- and is the work that John Gay (1685-1732) is best remembered for having written. That association of popular music and satiric lyrics has proved to be continuingly attractive, and variations on the Opera have flourished in this century: by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, by Duke Ellington, and most recently by Vaclav Havel. The original opera itself is played all over the world in amateur and professional productions. But John Gay's place in all this has not been well defined. His Opera is often regarded as some sort of chance event. In John Gay and the London Theatre, the first book-length study of John Gay as dramatic author, Calhoun Winton recognized the Opera as part of an entirely self-conscious career in the theatre, a career that Gay pursued from his earliest days as a writer in London and continued to follow to his death. Winton emphasizes Gay's knowledge of and affection for music, acquired, he argues, by way of his association with Handel. Although concentrating on Gay and his theatrical career, Winton also limns a vivid portrait of London itself and of the London stage of Gay's time, a period of considerable turbulence both within and outside the theatre. Gay's plays reflect in varying ways and degrees that social, political, and cultural turmoil. Winton's study sheds new light not only on Gay and the theatre, but also on the politics and culture of his era.