"Exquisite. Full of wry humor, tenderness, and compassion." -Jeannette Walls, New York Times bestselling author A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir about a mother and son's outlandish odyssey of self-discovery, and the rag-tag community that rallied to help them when they needed it most. Dan Mathews knew that his witty, bawdy seventy-eight year-old mother, Perry, was unable to maintain her fierce independence-so he flew her across the country to Virginia to live with him in an 1870 townhouse badly in need of repairs. But to Dan, a screwdriver is a cocktail not a tool, and he was soon overwhelmed with two fixer-uppers: the house and his mother. Unbowed, Dan and Perry built a rollicking life together fueled by costume parties, road trips, and an unshakeable sense of humor as they faced down hurricanes, blizzards, and Perry's steady decline. They got by with the help of an ever-expanding circle of sidekicks-Dan's boyfriends (past and present), ex-cons, sailors, strippers, deaf hillbillies, evangelicals, and grumpy cats-while flipping the parent-child relationship on its head. But it wasn't until a kicking-and-screaming trip to the emergency room that Dan discovered the cause of his mother's unpredictable, often caustic behavior: undiagnosed schizophrenia. Irreverent and emotionally powerful, Like Crazy is a "journey to self-acceptance and ultimately finding love" (Alan Cumming) and shows the remarkable growth that takes place when a wild child settles down to care for the wild woman who raised him.

The book offers perspectives on the rights of sexual minorities in the Global South. In several countries, consensual sexual activity in private amongst persons of the same gender is still criminalized. The argument is that same-sexual relationships are 'uncultural' or 'unnatural'. In countries where anti-gay laws persist, the rights of LGBT persons are not considered human rights. The book seeks to examine the cultural and religious issues that influence anti-gay laws in juxtaposition with the need to protect the human rights of sexual minorities in the 21st century. The book adopts the following disciplinary prisms - legal, sociological, political, religious, and anthropological. There is a growing appetite for research in this area in order to advance the need for the decriminalization of same-sex sexual activity amongst consenting adults in private. The book examines the core issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. It serves as a resource for scholars in diverse fields who research this area such as lawyers, policymakers, and academics in the fields of religion, philosophy, law, anthropology, sociology, and criminology.

Winner of the 2010 Pacific Sociological Association Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award

A lesbian couple rears a child together and, after the biological mother dies, the surviving partner loses custody to the child's estranged biological father. Four days later, in a different court, judges rule on the side of the partner, because they feel the child relied on the woman as a "psychological parent." What accounts for this inconsistency regarding gay and lesbian adoption and custody cases, and why has family law failed to address them in a comprehensive manner?

In Courting Change, Kimberly D. Richman zeros in on the nebulous realm of family law, one of the most indeterminate and discretionary areas of American law. She focuses on judicial decisions--both the outcomes and the rationales--and what they say about family, rights, sexual orientation, and who qualifies as a parent. Richman challenges prevailing notions that gay and lesbian parents and families are hurt by laws' indeterminacy, arguing that, because family law is so loosely defined, it allows for the flexibility needed to respond to--and even facilitate -- changes in how we conceive of family, parenting, and the role of sexual orientation in family law.

Drawing on every recorded judicial decision in gay and lesbian adoption and custody cases over the last fifty years, and on interviews with parents, lawyers, and judges, Richman demonstrates how parental and sexual identities are formed and interpreted in law, and how gay and lesbian parents can harness indeterminacy to transform family law.

Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Monograph from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Sexualities Section Winner of the 2010 Congress Inaugural Qualitative Inquiry Book Award Honorable Mention An unprecedented contemporary account of the online and offline lives of rural LGBT youth From Wal-Mart drag parties to renegade Homemaker's Clubs, Out in the Country offers an unprecedented contemporary account of the lives of today's rural queer youth. Mary L. Gray maps out the experiences of young people living in small towns across rural Kentucky and along its desolate Appalachian borders, providing a fascinating and often surprising look at the contours of gay life beyond the big city. Gray illustrates that, against a backdrop of an increasingly impoverished and privatized rural America, LGBT youth and their allies visibly-and often vibrantly-work the boundaries of the public spaces available to them, whether in their high schools, public libraries, town hall meetings, churches, or through websites. This important book shows that, in addition to the spaces of Main Street, rural LGBT youth explore and carve out online spaces to fashion their emerging queer identities. Their triumphs and travails defy clear distinctions often drawn between online and offline experiences of identity, fundamentally redefining our understanding of the term 'queer visibility' and its political stakes. Gray combines ethnographic insight with incisive cultural critique, engaging with some of the biggest issues facing both queer studies and media scholarship. Out in the Country is a timely and groundbreaking study of sexuality and gender, new media, youth culture, and the meaning of identity and social movements in a digital age.

Despite an abysmal "success rate," practitioners still use reparative therapy in an attempt to turn gays and lesbians straight. This text exposes the pitfalls that should be considered before gays embark on this journey that typically leads nowhere. Although homosexuality is becoming less stigmatized in American culture, gays and lesbians still face strong social, familial, financial, or career pressures to "convert" to being heterosexuals. In this groundbreaking book, longtime psychiatrist Martin Kantor, MD-himself homosexual and once immersed in therapy to become "straight"-explains why so-called "reparative therapy" is not only ineffective, but should not be practiced due its faulty theoretical bases and the deeper, lasting damage it can cause. This standout work delves into the history of reparative therapy, describes the findings of major research studies, and discusses outcome studies and ethical and moral considerations. Author Kantor identifies the serious harm that can result from reparative therapy, exposes the religious underpinnings of the process, and addresses the cognitive errors reparative therapy practitioners make while also recognizing some positive features of this mode of treatment. One section of the book is dedicated to discussing the therapeutic process itself, with a focus on therapeutic errors that are part of its fabric. Finally, the author identifies affirmative eclectic therapy-not reparative therapy-as an appropriate avenue for gays who feel they need help, with goals of resolving troubling aspects of their lives that may or may not be related to being homosexual, and of self-acceptance rather than self-mutation. Presents thorough descriptions of the various reparative therapies, contrasts these techniques with traditional therapy, and exposes the faulty theoretical bases of this form of treatment Details the author psychiatrist's unsuccessful 5-year-long therapeutic attempt to change his own homosexuality Provides essential information that gays and their parents need to know before embarking on what the author feels is a futile course of changing sexual orientation. The content will enlighten politicians and reparative therapists themselves as well Supplies an essential, informed counterpoint to the existing literature on reparative therapy

This unique book presents lessons a straight principal-turned-professor has learned through personal experience and research with gay and lesbian high school students. It begins with a young principal acknowledging that he, nor his administrative education program, had given any thought to issues surrounding students' sexual orientation. However, when a senior in his tiny rural high school came out, the principal started down an unexpected path that would change his outlook on school leadership - and transform his practice. Presented in eight unique stories in students' own words, we experience their challenges, fears, and triumphs - and see how their schools and the people in them both helped and hurt. Through their poignant, honest, familiar, and often surprising stories, we see how these eight students navigate what Unks (2003, p. 323) calls 'the most homophobic institutions in American society'. Their stories also reveal an unexpected, yet vital lesson for educators, policy makers, and all those concerned with meeting students' needs - that being gay or lesbian in high school does not automatically lead to bad outcomes. The students' firsthand accounts, along with lessons learned by the once apprehensive principal, show that there is a much more positive, optimistic, and seldom-told story. The book challenges practicing and aspiring school leaders to: move beyond what we think we know about gay and lesbian students and see them as unique people with strengths and struggles, gifts and challenges; examine the unique context of their schools and see how one size solution doesn't fit all; understand agency, agendas, and how gay-straight alliances can benefit all students; and, summon the courage to transform our mission statements from slogans and live them everyday.

This short collection of essays engages with queer lives and activism in 1970s Poland, illustrating discourses about queerness and a trajectory of the struggle for rights which clearly sets itself apart, and differs from a Western-based narrative of liberation. Contributors to this volume paint an uneven landscape of queer life in state-socialist Poland in the 1970s and early 1980s. They turn to oral history interviews and archival sources which include police files, personal letters, literature and criticism, writings by sexuality experts, and documentation of artistic practice. Unlike most of Europe, Poland did not penalize same-sex acts, although queer people were commonly treated with suspicion and vilified. But while many homosexual men and most lesbian women felt invisible and alone, some had the sense of belonging to a fledgling community. As they looked to the West, hoping for a sexual revolution that never quite arrived, they also preserved informal queer institutions dating back to the prewar years and used them to their advantage. Medical experts conversed with peers across the Iron Curtain but developed their own "socialist" methods and successfully prompted the state to recognize transgender rights, even as that state remained determined to watch and intimidate homosexual men. Literary critics, translators, and art historians began debating-and they debate still-how to read gestures defying gender and sexual norms: as an aspect of some global "gay" formation or as stemming from locally grounded queer traditions. Emphasizing the differences of Poland's LGBT history from that of the "global" West while underscoring the existing lines of communication between queer subjects on either side of the Iron Curtain, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students in gender and sexuality studies, social history, and politics.

Brent is a tarot reader, a young man whose adopted family doesn't like tarot readers or gays or Swedes or anything else that Brent can bring to the discussion. One of his tarot readings is for a young Sioux man, and that's where Brent's old life stops. Brent's finds a whole new life that is full of wonder and adventure, as he learns to read his own heart first. Viking meets Sioux - fireworks. BRENT: THE HEART READER is the tender and sexy story of self-awareness and acceptance as this wounded healer lets himself fall in love with a wonderful man. "Retired archbishop: I get that. I even can see how you might write gay fiction. It's a niche, but I can see it. Bestseller on top of everything else: mazel tov. Explicit, which is cool. Now you know tarot? The hell? Dude, pick a lane." Parker B. Olsson

In this narrative overview, Embser-Herbert explores the history of the policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," (DADT) the federal law restricting the military service of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. She traces the policy from its origins in the early 1990s through its evolution and implementation into law in the United States military and evaluates the impact of post-9/11 events on the military, the policy, and the ongoing debate surrounding the existence of the policy itself as lawmakers consider its repeal. Her three-part history of DADT begins with a brief look at earlier policies that preceded it, a discussion of events in 1992-1993 that resulted in the passage and implementation of the new law, and an examination of the law's impact on the military. She also compares the policy to that of other nations, such as Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, that eliminated similar restrictions as they sought ways to avoid a potential manpower shortage in their armed forces. The War on Terror has returned DADT to the public spotlight. Embser-Herbert examines U.S. experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and what they can teach about gays and lesbians in the military. She concludes Part I with an analysis of whether the law might be repealed or overturned. Part II of the handbook provides summaries of key legal decisions, and Part III contains key documents, such as the language of the law itself and excerpts from current military regulations and training manuals. The book also includes a chronology of events, glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography.