In this thoughtful and timely book, Bishop Alexander explores his journey through the theological, scriptural, and pastoral aspects of the questions surrounding homosexuality and the Christian faith. Writing in the weeks after the General Convention of the Episcopal Church approved the appointment of the church's first openly gay bishop, Bishop Alexander offers a personal view of his changing outlook from exclusion to acceptance on this important issue. He also offers thought-provoking perspectives on scripture and tradition. This Far by Grace will prove a vital resource for discussion and reflection by individuals, parishes, and dioceses.

Travel beyond the fear and paranoia of 9-11 to experience Muslim culture Gay Travels in the Muslim World journeys where other gay travel books fear to treadMuslim countries. This thought-provoking book tells both Muslim and non-Muslim gay men's stories of traveling in the Middle East during these difficult political times. The true, very personal tales reveal how gay men celebrate their lives and meetings with local men, including a gay soldier's story of his tour of duty in Iraq. Insightful and at times sexy, this intelligent book goes beyond 9-11 and the present political and cultural divides to illustrate the real experiences of gay men in trouble zonesin an effort to seek peace for all. After the collapse of the Twin Towers, fears about terrorism and Muslim culture went hand in hand. Gay Travels in the Muslim World enters the current war zones to bring real and very personal stories of gay men who live and travel in these dangerous areas. This book challenges readers' preconceptions and assumptions about both homosexuality and being Muslim, while showing the wide range of experiencesgood and badabout the regions as well as the differences in attitudes and beliefs. Excerpts from Gay Travels in the Muslim World: From I Want Your Eyes by David Stevens Men by themselves are rare. I pass a handsome Omani man sitting on the Corniche wall with a cigarette between his long brown fingers. He wears his colourful cuma cap at a jaunty angle and his mustard-coloured dishdasha has risen up to reveal tantalizingly hairy calves. I note the carefully made holes in his earsnot in his ear lobes but deep inside the cartilagesa pre-Islamic custom still practiced on some male babies to ward off evil spirits. I decide it suits him. From It All Began with Mamadou by Jay Davidson Drawing definitive conclusions about a society after living here for a little more than a year is not a wise, safe, or responsible action on my part. If a society's culture is a mosaic of thousands of little tiles, then I like to think that what I have been able to piece together has been a tableau in which certain aspects have become discernable, some are a little less clear, and others remain in a way that I will never see as whole and comprehensible. From A Market and a Mosque by Martin Foreman Sylhet, Bangladesh: It's eight o'clock in the evening and Tarique and Paritosh are taking me out to look at the cruising spots. Until I flew in here this afternoon, all I knew of the provincial city and the surrounding area was that it was where most of the Bangladeshis in the UK come fromand since most of the Bangladeshis in the UK live in my home borough of Tower Hamlets, I feel a kind of affinity with the place. Whether or not Sylhet feels an affinity with me is a different matter. From Work In Progress: Notes From A Continuing Journey of Manufacturing Dissent by Parvez Sharma In the construction of the image and life of the queer Muslim is also the awareness of the not so well known fact that a sexual revolution of immense proportions came to the earliest Muslims, some 1,300 years before the West had even thought about it. This promise of equal gender rights and, unlike in the Bible, the stress on sex as not just reproduction but also enjoyment within the confines of marriage has all but been lost in the rhetoric spewing from loudspeakers perched on Masjid'sor mosquesin Riyadh, Marrakech and Islamabad. The same Islam that has for centuries not only tolerated but also openly celebrated homosexuality is, today, used to justify a state-sanctioned pogrom against gay men in EgyptAmerica's enlightened friend in the Middle East. Gay Travels in the Muslim World is a refreshing, well written look a

Contents:
Section I: Finding My Way 1. Calling Names, Naming Tales 2. Queer Theory, Identity Development Section II: Patterns of Non-heterosexual Lives 3. Tea Rooms and No Sympathy: Homosexuals and the Closet 4. From the Margins to the Ivory Tower: Gay and Queer Students 5. Beyond Textbook Definitions: "Normal" and Parallel Students Section III: Making Sense of Non-heterosexual Identity 6. Collegiate Non-heterosexual Identities: 1945-1999 7. On the Fluidity of Identity

Through intensive interviews and historical research, Queer Man on Campus reveals the inadequacy of a unified 'gay' identity in the study of queer college men. Instead, as Dilley shows, seven distinct types of identities and discernible in the lives of non-heterosexual college males between World War II and the close of the millennium. Dilley traces the development of these identities through stories of current and former students, illuminating the historical and contextual factors that affect their formation. By situating these types of 'non-heterosexuality' as variable and fluid. Dilley offers a new perspective on queer collegiate life.

Polari is a secret form of language mainly used by homosexual men in London and other cities during the twentieth century. Derived in part from the slang lexicons of numerous stigmatised and itinerant groups, Polari was also a means of socialising, acting out camp performances and reconstructing a shared gay identity and worldview among its speakers. This book examines the ways in which Polari was used in order to construct 'gay identities', linking its evolution to the changing status of gay men and lesbians in the UK over the past fifty years.

eBook available with sample pages: 020316704X

To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Discover the deliciously succulent homosexual world of the early 1900s The Ideal Gay Man: The Story of Der Kreis gives you the history of the influential international gay journal Der Kreis, published in Switzerland from 1932--1967. You'll gain fascinating insight into the journal's origins, its development, and the reasons for its demise. Entertaining and informative, this book points out how the events of the day relating to the gay movement were reflected in and influenced by Der Kreis. Der Kreis was the world's most important journal promoting the legal and social rights of gay men. Literary historians, gay theory scholars, and general readers will be intrigued by the generous selection of articles from the English section of the journal, as well as the English translations from the French and German sections. The Ideal Gay Man is a fascinating collection of history and entertainment.Some topics you'll explore are: the beginning of the publication Der Kreis why Der Kreis stopped publication sections on the English writers, French writers, and German writers of Der Kreis articles on morality and the public's changing perceptions of homosexuality man and boy love and the differences between leading and seduction The Ideal Gay Man studies this amazingly influential gentlemen's journal and provides you with a flattering and long overdue inclusion into gay studies material. You will explore the homosexual world during a turbulent time of intolerance and discover how the events relating to the gay movement were reflected in and influenced by Der Kreis.

Longtime Companions: Autobiographies of Gay Male Fidelity provides a sophisticated alternative to "anything goes" gay literature. Challenging the stereotype that gay men are incapable of lasting and successful relationships, 15 long-term gay couples share slices of their own lives to give you insight into their present relationships, while some discuss life after their mates have passed on. You will find that their stories offer an inspirational and richly fulfilling alternative to an empty life of promiscuity that lacks true love.Through a treasury of autobiographical essays, Longtime Companions documents how committed gay male unions can be as enduring, nurturing, and diverse as heterosexual marriages and proves that loving commitments and life-sharing are not exclusive to heterosexual unions. A celebration of gay diversity, this book offers you insights from contributors of different ages, professions, geographic locations, and attitudes. You will learn the intimate details of the couples'lives, including: how they met their partners how soon they committed to each other how long the couples have been together--from 14 years to over 50 years their keys to leading successful, happy lives the ways in which their relationships fulfill their personal needs and contribute to community lifeYou will come to realize the true strength of these men's relationships as you share in their struggles within a society that offers them little recognition or support for their successful relationships. Co-editor Alfred Lees explains in the introduction to Longtime Companions, "We've all worked diligently to make our partnerships sound, nurturing, and enduring. We've done this without any social motivation, largely without role models, in the face of 'official'disapproval or contempt. We've told our stories here to refute--by the simple facts of our experience--the grotesque misrepresentation of gays as being incapable of stable, committed relationships." Will add more. . . Through a treasury of autobiographical essays, Longtime Companions documents how committed gay-male unions can be as enduring, nurturing, and diverse as heterosexual marriages and proves that loving commitment and life-sharing are not exclusive to heterosexual unions. A celebration of gay diversity, contributors vary in age, profession, geographic location, and attitudes. You will learn the intimate details of the couples'lives, including: how they met their partners how soon they committed to each other how they managed to collaborate on successful, fulfilling lives how some have maintained their commitment as part of an open relationshipYou will come to realize the true strength of these men's relationships as you share in their struggles within a society that offers them little recognition or support for their successful relationships. Co-Author Alfred Lees explains in the Introduction to Longtime Companions, "We've all worked diligently to make our partnerships sound, nurturing, and enduring. We've done this without any social innovation, largely without role models, in the face of 'official" disapproval or contempt. We've told our stories here to refute--by the simple facts of our experience--the grotesque misrepresentation of gays as being incapable of stable, committed relationships."

A straight white girl can kiss a girl, like it, and still call herself straight-her boyfriend may even encourage her. But can straight white guys experience the same easy sexual fluidity, or would kissing a guy just mean that they are really gay? Not Gay thrusts deep into a world where straight guy-on-guy action is not a myth but a reality: there's fraternity and military hazing rituals, where new recruits are made to grab each other's penises and stick fingers up their fellow members' anuses; online personal ads, where straight men seek other straight men to masturbate with; and, last but not least, the long and clandestine history of straight men frequenting public restrooms for sexual encounters with other men. For Jane Ward, these sexual practices reveal a unique social space where straight white men can-and do-have sex with other straight white men; in fact, she argues, to do so reaffirms rather than challenges their gender and racial identity. Ward illustrates that sex between straight white men allows them to leverage whiteness and masculinity to authenticate their heterosexuality in the context of sex with men. By understanding their same-sex sexual practice as meaningless, accidental, or even necessary, straight white men can perform homosexual contact in heterosexual ways. These sex acts are not slippages into a queer way of being or expressions of a desired but unarticulated gay identity. Instead, Ward argues, they reveal the fluidity and complexity that characterizes all human sexual desire. In the end, Ward's analysis offers a new way to think about heterosexuality-not as the opposite or absence of homosexuality, but as its own unique mode of engaging in homosexual sex, a mode characterized by pretense, dis-identification and racial and heterosexual privilege. Daring, insightful, and brimming with wit, Not Gay is a fascinating new take on the complexities of heterosexuality in the modern era.

Based on long-term field research carried out over more than 15 years, Beneath the Equator examines the changing shape of male homosexuality and the emergence of diverse and vibrant gay communities in urban Brazil. Drawing on detailed ethnographic description of multiple sexual worlds organized around street cruising and impersonal sex, male prostitution, transgender performances, gay commercial markets and establishments, gay rights activism and AIDS service provision, Richard Parker examines the changing sexual identities, cultures and communities that have taken shape in Brazil in recent years.

This is the first comprehensive book in English on the fate of the homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The author, a German refugee, examines the climate and conditions that gave rise to a vicious campaign against Germany's gays, as directed by Himmler and his SS--persecution that resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and thousands of deaths.
In this Nazi crusade, homosexual prisoners were confined to death camps where, forced to wear pink triangles, they constituted the lowest rung in the camp hierarchy. The horror of camp life is described through diaries, previously untranslated documents, and interviews with and letters from survivors, revealing how the anti-homosexual campaign was conducted, the crackpot homophobic fantasies that fueled it, the men who made it possible, and those who were its victims, this chilling book sheds light on a corner of twentieth-century history that has been hidden in the shadows much too long.

This book explores how the social and technical integration of mainstream social media into gay men's digital cultures since the mid 2000s has played out in the lives of young gay men, looking at how these convergences have influenced more recent iterations of gay men's digital culture. Focusing on platforms such as Gaydar, Facebook, Grindr and Instagram, Cassidy highlights the ways that identity and privacy management issues experienced in this context have helped to generate a culture of participatory reluctance within gay men's digital environments.

With research based on focus groups and individual interviews in the United States, as well as a thorough and integrative review of the current literature, Latino Gay 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 behaviour can possess its own sociocultural logic and meaning.

A recent gay widower may find that once the shock and initial confusion of losing his partner is overcome, there are still many hard, lonely, and overwhelming stages of grief to be worked through. Often, the bereaved feels isolated, and looking around for comfort, realizes that he doesn?t have many resources to turn to, but Gay Widowers: Life After the Death of a Partner is a start. By offering first-person accounts of becoming a widower, this book, the first of its kind, allows others who are about to lose or already have lost a partner to find support, validation, recognition, and fellowship. Its editor and contributors hope that by sharing their stories of loss, pain, and bewilderment, they will help others in mourning as well as make one more step forward in their own healing.Men of different ages and ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds join together in Gay Widowers to remind other gay widowers that they are not alone and that their feelings of pain, anger, and emptiness are normal and legitimate. Not solely a book about life after the loss of a partner to AIDS, this book is about rebuilding life as a bereaved gay man, regardless of the cause of your partner's death. You will find encouragement for moving your life forward, without shutting your memories away, as you read about: how homophobia can complicate a gay widower's grieving and mourning handling financial and legal matters before and after death specific mental health issues of gay widowers dating again similarities among gay widowers'responses to their partners'deaths making time for your feelings rather than avoiding them finding love after or during bereavement trauma theory's applications to gay widowersBy bringing forth these stories, Gay Widowers offers bereaved gay men, psychologists, counselors, and social workers--in a society where the mourning process is generally a heterosexual, social construct--a clinical overview of the psychodynamic issues relevant, and perhaps unique, to the mourning process of gay men.

And Then I Became Gay traces the histories of a group of young gay and bisexual North American men. The book consists of a series of narratives which chronicle the growing awareness of a sexual identity amongst young gay men from the 1980s on.

The Bear Book brings together an impressive range of bear--usually big, hairy men who favor full-face beards and prefer to wear jeans and flannel shirts--viewpoints to explore this unique social and cultural phenomenon that stretches from America to western Europe to Australia On the personal level, you learn what beardom means to different people in their daily lives, and on a broader level, its cultural implications for not only the gay community, but also society as a whole. As this book moves across the wide spectrum of bear identities, you learn about the defining forces of identity, the significance of differences among masculinities, and the shapings of the bear movement from different viewpoints.The Bear Book is the first compilation of sociological and cultural analytical investigations of the contemporary gay bear phenomenon. To this end, Editor Les Wright brings together both objective and subjective viewpoints to create a forum where bears can speak for themselves. Through their voices, you ll learn about: bears and sexual identity gay male iconography socializing on the Internet sexual politics (gender, class, "looks-ism," and body image) gay mass media, the single most powerful force in the current construction of "bears" bears, power, and glamor bear-as-image vs. bear-as-attitudeGays, lesbians, lesbigay scholars, bears, and social scientists are sure to find The Bear Book thought-provoking and insightful as it broaches questions such as: Are bears caught up in a utopian-romantic impulse to reinvent themselves? What was radical lesbianism's impact on the bear movement? To what extent are bears only another group of exploited consumers in a fragmented market system? And, is it possible to establish social liberation through enslavement to your sexual passions? For both your pleasure and your education, The Bear Book examines nearly every corner of beardom, including bear history, identity, social spaces, iconography, and its constituency abroad."

Two Spirit People is the first-ever look at social science research exploration into the lives of American Indian lesbian women and gay men. Editor Lester B. Brown posits six gender styles in traditional American Indian culture: men and women, not-men and not-women (persons of one biological sex assuming the identity of the opposite sex in some form), and gays and lesbians. He brings together chapters that emphasize American Indian spirituality, present new perspectives, and provide readers with a beginning understanding of the place of lesbian, gay, and bisexual Indians within American Indian culture and within American society. This beginning will help you understand these unique people and the special challenges and multiple prejudices they face.Traditionally, American Indian cultures showed great respect and honor for alternative gender styles, since these were believed to be part of the sacred web of life. If the Great Spirit chose to create alternative sexualities or gender roles, who was bold enough to oppose such power? If one's spiritual quest revealed one's identity to be that of not-woman, not-man, gay, or lesbian, who should defy their calling? The interpretation of contemporary American Indian religions that gay American Indians retain sacred rights within Indian cultures, and that they can share this gift with others, have implications for therapy, identity formation, social movements, and general human relations. Social workers and other human service professionals, American Indian studies students, sociologists, anthropologists, and lesbian and gay scholars will find Two Spirit People enlightening and a significant contribution to the development of professional interventions for oppressed groups that is ethnically and culturally sensitive. Only by understanding the belief systems from which these oppressed groups come will you begin to really help them achieve positive change. You will become better equipped to specifically help gay and lesbian American Indians as you gain insight into: American Indian alternative gender styles social service issues for American Indian lesbians and gay men American Indian not-men and not-women and their choosing ceremonies American Indian lesbian and gay identity development American Indian lesbian and gay literature AIDS and American IndiansTwo Spirit People helps you see that family and community acceptance of lesbians and gays is possible. The families of American Indian lesbians and gays do not usually abandon them, thus helping them face a generally unaccepting American milieu. Looking to this book and the American Indian perspective of alternative sexuality/gender styles, American society as a whole can begin to take a new approach to the treatment and understanding of other groups traditionally held to the "outside" of American mainstream society.

Creating a Place For Ourselves is a groundbreaking collection of essays which takes an historical look at gay life in the United States before Stonewall and the gay liberation movement. Along with examining areas with large gay communities such as New York, San Francisco and Fire Island, the contributors also consider the thriving gay populations in cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Washington D.C., Birmingham and Flint, demonstrating that gay communities are truly everywhere.

J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, and Roy Cohn were titanic figures in midcentury America, wielding national power in government and the legal system through intimidation and insinuation. Hoover's FBI thrived on secrecy, threats, and illegal surveillance, while McCarthy and Cohn will forever be associated with the infamous anticommunist smear campaign of the early 1950s, which culminated in McCarthy's public disgrace during televised Senate hearings. In Gossip Men, Christopher M. Elias takes a probing look at these tarnished figures to reveal a host of startling new connections among gender, sexuality, and national security in twentieth-century American politics. Elias illustrates how these three men solidified their power through the skillful use of deliberately misleading techniques like implication, hyperbole, and photographic manipulation. Just as provocatively, he shows that the American people of the 1950s were particularly primed to accept these coded threats because they were already familiar with such tactics from widely popular gossip magazines. By using gossip as a lens to examine profound issues of state security and institutional power, Elias thoroughly transforms our understanding of the development of modern American political culture.

"Homo Economics" is the first honest account of the tense relationship between gay people and the economy. This groundbreaking collection brings together a variety of voices from the worlds of journalism, activism, academia, the arts, and public policy to address issues including the recent economic history of the gay community, the community's response to its changing economic circumstances, and the risks inherent in a narrow definition of liberation.
For the first time in U.S. history, gay men and lesbians live open lives. From nightclubs in gay city districts to political rallies and Caribbean cruises, this new community continues to reveal itself throughout the nation. However, with this growth, there are also signs of fracturing as economic forces key to its development are now threatening its future.
"Homo Economics" illustrates the ways in which modern capitalism has eroded the rigid sexual division of labor that deterred gay couples from setting up households in the past. But the book also shows how this economic system has created divisions within the gay community, channelled lesbians and gay men into particular professions, and discriminated against them in the workplace.
After a century of neglect, we have now reached the point where suddenly gay consumers are being courted by corporations, gay money is fueling political campaigns, and gay and lesbian neighborhoods are expanding. The essays in "Homo Economics" warn us however, that contrary to popular stereotypes, only a narrow segment of the gay community is enjoying economic success and the majority of gay men and lesbians actually earn less than straight men and women.
"Homo Economics" bringstogether contributors including Jeffrey Escoffier, Donna Minkowitz, Tony Kushner, Julie Matthaei, Dorothy Allison, Sean Strub, Dan Baker and Lee Badgett among others, to address the views of the gay community towards capitalism. As such, Amy Gluckman and Betsy Reed have given us the most comprehensive overview to date of this urgent and highly controversial subject.

"Homo Economics" is the first honest account of the tense relationship between gay people and the economy. This groundbreaking collection brings together a variety of voices from the worlds of journalism, activism, academia, the arts, and public policy to address issues including the recent economic history of the gay community, the community's response to its changing economic circumstances, and the risks inherent in a narrow definition of liberation.
For the first time in U.S. history, gay men and lesbians live open lives. From nightclubs in gay city districts to political rallies and Caribbean cruises, this new community continues to reveal itself throughout the nation. However, with this growth, there are also signs of fracturing as economic forces key to its development are now threatening its future.
"Homo Economics" illustrates the ways in which modern capitalism has eroded the rigid sexual division of labor that deterred gay couples from setting up households in the past. But the book also shows how this economic system has created divisions within the gay community, channelled lesbians and gay men into particular professions, and discriminated against them in the workplace.
After a century of neglect, we have now reached the point where suddenly gay consumers are being courted by corporations, gay money is fueling political campaigns, and gay and lesbian neighborhoods are expanding. The essays in "Homo Economics" warn us however, that contrary to popular stereotypes, only a narrow segment of the gay community is enjoying economic success and the majority of gay men and lesbians actually earn less than straight men and women.
"Homo Economics" bringstogether contributors including Jeffrey Escoffier, Donna Minkowitz, Tony Kushner, Julie Matthaei, Dorothy Allison, Sean Strub, Dan Baker and Lee Badgett among others, to address the views of the gay community towards capitalism. As such, Amy Gluckman and Betsy Reed have given us the most comprehensive overview to date of this urgent and highly controversial subject.

It offers an understanding of the histories of the contemporary legal tradition and their current operation using specific examples, such as the impact of a court case over an alleged breach of the peace when two men kissed in public.
The Homosexual(ity) of Law looks at how legal discourse is constructed to place homosexuality in a very specific band of regulation and focuses on gay and civil rights, equality under the law and social attitudes towards homosexuals.

eBook available with sample pages: 020341019X