From large cities to rural communities, gay men have long been impassioned pioneers as keepers of culture: rescuing and restoring decrepit buildings, revitalizing blighted neighborhoods. Will Fellows explores this authentic and complex dimension of gay men's lives by profiling early and contemporary preservationists from throughout the United States, highlighting contributions to the larger culture.

Get Over the Rainbow: why everyone should fight for gay rights is a controversial book that will further ignite the debate over gay rights and gay marriage. Written from the perspective of a straight male, Scott Redmond makes it difficult for anyone to conclude that homosexuals do not deserve total equality. Some parts of Get Over the Rainbow were being written just as the gay marriage issue was exploding, demonstrating that Redmond's journeys through the legal, religious and social arguments against opposition to gay marriage are right on target. Redmond uses the issue of gay rights to explain the nature of news and the impact of entertainment and right-wing talk radio on America. Get Over the Rainbow challenges those opposing gay marriage and reinforces those in support.

Walking Higher: Gay Men Write About the Deaths of Their Mothers is a collection of 30 voices dedicated to exploring their relationships with the women who gave them life, and managing the aftermath of their mothers

Stronger is a feeling of ones self, a pictorial captivation of your soul, your spirit forever entwined in the fibers of this book. The printed image presents a sense of beauty for some a reality for others and for most a fantasy captured in still life.

After author Harlyn Aizley gave birth to her daughter, she watched in unanticipated horror as her partner scooped up the baby and said, "I'm your new mommy!" While they both had worked to find the perfect sperm donor, Aizley had spent nine months carrying the baby and hours in labor, so how could her partner claim to be their child's mommy?
Many diapers later, Aizley began to appreciate the complexity of her partner's new role as the other mother. Together, they searched for stories about families like their own, in which a woman has chosen to forgo her own birth experience so that she might support her partner in hers. They found very few. Now, in Confessions of the Other Mother, Aizley has put together an exciting collection of personal stories by women like her partner who are creating new parenting roles, redefining motherhood, and reshaping our view of two-parent families. Contributors include Hillary Goodridge, who was one of the lead plaintiffs in the case for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, stand-up comedian Judy Gold, and psychologist and author Suzanne M. Johnson
This candid peek into a previously unexamined side of lesbian parenting is full of stories that are sometimes humorous, sometimes moving, but at all times celebratory. Each parenting tale sheds light on the many facets of motherhood, offering gay and straight readers alike a deeper understanding of what it means to love and parent in the twenty-first century.
Harlyn Aizley is the author of Buying Dad: One Woman's Search for the Perfect Sperm Donor. Her work has appeared in national journals, magazines, and anthologies and has aired on public radio stations nationwide. Aizley resides in the Boston area with her family, where she works as a writer and teacher.

The Pro-Debate Stand for the allowance of same-sex marriage, gay rights and a Constitutional amendment for non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Is there a "standard" discount rate? If so, please advise. Thanks.

News reports of anti-gay/lesbian/bisexual, transgendered violence, especially the media coverage of the brutal murders of Teena Brandon and Mathew Shepard, leave us feeling hopeless. "We're Here We're Here Get Used to Us Survival Strategies for a Hostile World" book provides an antidote this sense of hopelessness by showing how LGBT people have successfully defended themselves against homophobic comments, threatening situations, and violence. "We're Here Get Used to Us Survival Strategies for a Hostile World" also includes a chapter describing same-sex intimate abuse and violence and includes examples of how GLBT people got out of damaging relationships. "We're Here Get Used to Us Survival Strategies for a Hostile World" reads like a warm supportive coach that cheers readers on for their past efforts to defend themselves, and offers techniques and strategies that readers can practice and use. In the process, it helps readers come to terms with the sexual harassment and violence that they have experienced in the past and puts the blame where it should go - on the perpetrators. This is a great book for any lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered person who is tired of feeling afraid, is sick of circumscribing his/her life in order to feel safe, wants to know how to defend themselves, or needs to get out of an abusive relationship.

The subject of true hermaphroditism or bisexuality is one that for ages has absorbed the master minds of science and philosophy; and the true cause of the phenomena of hermaphroditism is one of the greatest of mysteries known to past generations. In this work on bisexual man, the authors set forth a hypothesis as to the descent of the present human race from ancient bisexual ancestors, contending that there has been an evolution of separate sexes from bisexual man, and that the present males and females are but the deteriorated representatives of once superior human creatures; also that we have so long assumed to be a rare freak of nature is really but a partial return to the original type of perfect bisexual man.

Among the most acclaimed books on the gay male experience, The Soul Beneath the Skin explores the wide variety of social and ethical experiments in gay men's lives, and their implications both for gay men and society at large. David Nimmons radically reinterprets gay men's sexuality, intimate relationships and ethics by looking at seven patterns of behavior widely practiced by gay men but rarely acknowledged: non-violent public culture; high rates of altruism, service, and volunteerism; robust sexual caretaking; friendship patterns of diffuse intimacies; friendship with women; diverse forms of sexual union; and unique forms of bliss and pleasure seeking.

These social innovations, striking similar to the teachings of the great spiritual traditions, suggest a new and profound public ethics, a stirringly optimistic vision of a social revolution as radical as it is unnoticed.

Amy Bloom has won a devoted readership and wide critical acclaim for fiction of rare humor, insight, grace, and eloquence, and the same qualities distinguish Normal, a provocative, intimate journey into the lives of “people who reveal, or announce, that their gender is variegated rather than monochromatic”—female-to-male transsexuals, heterosexual crossdressers, and the intersexed.

We meet Lyle Monelle and his mother, Jessie, who recognized early on that her little girl was in fact a boy and used her life savings to help Lyle make the transition. On a Carnival cruise with a group of crossdressers and their spouses, we meet Peggy Rudd and her husband, “Melanie,” who devote themselves to the cause of “ordinary heterosexual men with an additional feminine dimension.” And we meet Hale Hawbecker, “a regular, middle-of-the-road, white-bread guy” with a wife, kids, and a medical condition, the standard treatment for which would have changed his life and his gender.

Casting light into the dusty corners of our assumptions about sex, gender and identity, Bloom reveals new facets to the ideas of happiness, personality and character, even as she brilliantly illuminates the very concept of "normal.”

This book exemplifies the high quality of thoughtful discussion and debate that is possible on the issue of same-sex marriage. Authors are paired to address and respond to a particular topic, one in favor of state recognition of same-sex relationships, and one in favor of limiting state recognition to those relationships that have been traditionally recognized as marriages.

Proposals to legalize same-sex marriage evoke strong response from those on both sides of the debate. Much has been written about the legal policy issues over the legal recognition of same-sex unions in the United States, yet there has been little dialogue and exchange between participants in the debate. This book attempts to open that dialogue, and to exemplify the high quality of thoughtful discussion and debate that is possible. Authors are paired to address and respond to a particular topic, one in favor of state recognition of same-sex relationships and one in favor of limiting state recognition to those relationships that have been traditionally recognized as marriages.

This ideal introduction is designed to lead the reader through the relevant issues, progressing from the general to the particular. Debates are contextualized, offering comparative, historical, and family-policy perspectives, asking fundamental questions such as what is the purpose of a family, and what interests, if any, that state has in promoting a particular type of family over others. Issues of jurisprudence and political philosophy are examined, addressing the public benefits of marriage and equal treatment before the law, among other items. The constitutionality of same-sex marriage or domestic partnership policies is explored. Finally, this book covers the broad implications when states--such as Vermont--legally recognize same-sex unions, and the impact of international recognition of same-sex marriage rights.

Drawing on recent developments in gay studies and queer theory, Pink Snow: Homotextual Possibilities in Canadian Fiction offers new interpretations that focus on homoerotic resonances in literature. Goldie brings an original, engaging, and sometimes provocative critical perspective to bear on both Canadian classics and less mainstream works.

In this astonishing new history of wartime Britain, historian Stephen Bourne unearths the fascinating stories of the gay men who served in the armed forces and at home, and brings to light the great unheralded contribution they made to the war effort. Fighting Proud weaves together the remarkable lives of these men, from RAF hero Ian Gleed - a Flying Ace twice honoured for bravery by King George VI - to the infantry officers serving in the trenches on the Western Front in WWI - many of whom led the charges into machine-gun fire only to find themselves court-martialled after the war for indecent behaviour. Behind the lines, Alan Turing's work on breaking the `enigma machine' and subsequent persecution contrasts with the many stories of love and courage in Blitzed-out London, with new wartime diaries and letters unearthed for the first time. Bourne tells the bitterly sad story of Ivor Novello, who wrote the WWI anthem `Keep the Home Fires Burning', and the crucial work of Noel Coward - who was hated by Hitler for his work entertaining the troops. Fighting Proud also includes a wealth of long-suppressed wartime photography subsequently ignored by mainstream historians. This book is a monument to the bravery, sacrifice and honour shown by a persecuted minority, who contributed during Britain's hour of need.

In his memoir All-American Boy, Scott Peck poignantly relives the pain and isolation of growing up gay in a Christian Southern community. In this touching memoir, Peck finds a way through the pain from his childhood, growing up gay without acceptance in the Christian South, and through this emotional journey he learns to heal from those wounds. He doesn't hold back while reliving the time when his father, Marine Col. Fred Peck, testified before Congress that there was no place for his gay son in the military. This is merely one of the many big moments shaping the book and the author's life, on top of the religious influences that surrounded him since he was born. This is a "survivor's tale that in its universal appeal brings to mind the most compelling aspects of Gal and Shot in the Heart. Through the course of these scathing, inspiring, instructive pages, Scott Peck, writer and human being, grows into one hell of a terrific man" (Michael Dorris).

"Startling and provocative. . . . Reid-Pharr presents a cogent analysis that combines the personal with the political, the intellectual with the emotional and the erotic. . . . Reid-Pharr's ability to move these works-and their themes-from the limited analysis of the academy into a broader realm of lived experience and social context that makes them, as well as Reid-Pharr's own thoughts, vital and genuinely consequential."
"Publisher's Weekly"

"Repeated readings are richly rewarded."
--"CHOICE"

"Reid-Pharr brilliantly puts the ambivalences of bodily pleasure back into the serious business of identity politics."
--"Project Muse Book Review"

At turns autobiographical, political, literary, erotic, and humorous, Black Gay Man will spoil our preconceived notions of not only what it means to be black, gay and male but also what it means to be a contemporary intellectual. Both a celebration of black gay male identity as well as a powerful critique of the structures that allow for the production of that identity, Black Gay Man introduces the eloquent new voice of Robert Reid-Pharr in cultural criticism.

At once erudite and readable, the range of topics and positions taken up in Black Gay Man reflect the complexity of American life itself. Treating subjects as diverse as the Million Man March, interracial sex, anti-Semitism, turn of the century American intellectualism as well as literary and cultural figures ranging from Essex Hemphill and Audre Lorde to W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin, Black Gay Man is a bold and nuanced attempt to question prevailing ideas about community, desire, politics and culture. Moving beyond critique, Reid-Pharr also pronouncesupon the promises of a new America. With the publication of Black Gay Man, Robert Reid-Pharr is sure to take his place as one of this country's most exciting and challenging left intellectuals.

The image of the movie-obsessed gay man is a widely circulating and readily recognizable element of the contemporary cultural landscape. Using psychoanalytic theory as his guide while inflecting it with insights from both film theory and queer theory, Brett Farmer moves beyond this cliche to develop an innovative exploration of gay spectatorship. The result, "Spectacular Passions, " reveals how cinema has been engaged by gay men as a vital forum for "fantasmatic performance"--in this case, the production of specifically queer identities, practices, and pleasures.
Building on the psychoanalytic concept of the fantasmatic, Farmer works to depathologize gay male subjectivity. While discussing such films as "Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Pirate, Suddenly Last Summer, "and "Sunset Boulevard, "and stars ranging from Mae West to Montgomery Clift, Farmer argues that the particularities of gay men's social and psychic positionings motivate unique receptions of and investments in film. The Hollywood musical, gay camp readings of the extravagant female star, and the explicit homoeroticism of the cinematic male body in gay fanzines are further proof, says Farmer, of how the shifting libidinal profiles of homosexual desire interact with the fantasy scenarios of Hollywood film to produce a range of variable queer meanings.
This fascinating and provocative study makes a significant new contribution to discussions of cinema, spectatorship, and sexuality. As such, it will be welcomed by those in the fields of film theory, queer theory, and cultural studies.