Best of
Glbt

2003

I Say a Little Prayer


E. Lynn Harris - 2003
    Lynn Harris is back with another sexy, shocking, and immensely satisfying novel that explores some of today’s toughest and most timely issues.Chauncey Greer is the owner of Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D were more than good friends. Chauncey is a free spirit, on the brink of forty with a body admired by both men and women. Not into being categorized, Chauncey’s been known to hook up with men and women, but now in the age of the “down low,” he’s found that women ask too many questions, so he’s just focusing on the fellas.After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church, where the minister’s message inspires him to follow his dream of a singing career once again. Although he’s lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey’s powerful performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church’s homophobia by staging a “Day of Absence” when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned... until D appears on the scene and Chauncey has to confront his past and make some hard decisions about his future.I Say A Little Prayer is filled with the delicious plot twists, humor, compassion, and up-to-the-minute controversy fans expect from their beloved “E. Lynn.” Harris has returned with another gem of a novel that will rocket to the top of bestseller lists nationwide.

Leave Myself Behind


Bart Yates - 2003
    After his father dies, Noah's mother, a temperamental poet, takes a teaching job in a small New Hampshire town, far from Chicago and the only world Noah has known. While Noah gets along reasonably with his mother, the crumbling house they try to renovate quickly reveals dark secrets, via dusty Mason jars they discover interred between walls. The jars contain scraps of letters, poems, and journal entries, and eventually reconstructs a history of pain and violence that drives a sudden wedge between Noah and his mother. Fortunately, Noah finds an unexpected ally in J.D., a teenager down the street who has family troubles of his own.

The Value of X


Poppy Z. Brite - 2003
    Friends since childhood, they become lovers at age 16 and must deal with the realities of being gay in a hardscrabble neighborhood, a traditional Catholic family, and the restaurant kitchens where they've begun to work.

Homosexuality & Civilization


Louis Crompton - 2003
    By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World.Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of "sodomites" in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters--Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio--often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great.Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece.Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, "Homosexuality and Civilization" is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past.

Gulf Breeze


Gerri Hill - 2003
    Carly Cambridge, wildlife biologist, returns to the Texas Gulf Coast to manage the latest Habitats for Nature project. Having sworn off women and relationships, Carly is perfectly content to live her life alone. But then wildlife photographer Pat Ryan is duped into volunteering her talents to the cause.

Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir


Lillian Faderman - 2003
    Her mother, whose family perished in the Holocaust, was racked by guilt at having come to America and left them behind; she suffered recurrent psychotic episodes. Her only escape from the brutal labor of her sweatshop job was her fiercely loved daughter, Lilly, whose poignant dream throughout an impoverished childhood was to become a movie star and "rescue" her mother. Lilly grew up to become Lil, outwardly tough, inwardly innocent, hungry for love and success. A beautiful young woman who was learning that her deepest erotic and emotional connections were to women, she found herself in a dangerous but seductive lesbian underworld of addicts, pimps, and prostitutes. Desperately seeking to make her life meaningful and to redeem her mother's suffering, she entered the University of California at Berkeley and worked her way through college as a burlesque stripper. A brilliant student, she ultimately achieved a Ph.D. At last she became Lillian, the woman who in time became a loving partner, a devoted mother, an acclaimed writer, and a charismatic, groundbreaking scholar of gay and lesbian studies. Told with wrenching immediacy and great power, this is an extraordinary memoir: the nakedly honest -- and very American -- story of an exceptional woman and her remarkable, unorthodox life.

Graceful Waters


B.L. Miller - 2003
    He was just another disapproving voice in a long line of disapproving voices. Grace learned at an early age not to trust, not to reach out, not to believe. She'd do her time at Sapling Hill and move on with her life. She didn't need anyone.Joanna Carey, senior instructor at Sapling Hill, wasn't looking for anything more than completing one more year at the facility and getting that much closer to her private dream--a small cabin on a quiet lake. She was touch, smart, and she had a plan for her life.When tough instructor Carey meets angry and disillusioned Grace Waters, neither is prepared for what comes next. Stubborn and angry Grace meets her match in Carey, the strong and disciplined woman who is determined to help Grace help herself. What Carey is not expecting is that Grace will break through her defenses. Together, they will change each other's lives in ways that neither thought possible.

Wandering Son, Vol. 1


Takako Shimura - 2003
    The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today's most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura portrays Shuishi and Yoshino's very private journey with affection, sensitivity, gentle humor, and unmistakable flair and grace. Book One introduces our two protagonists and the friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Yoshino is rudely reminded of her sex by immature boys whose budding interest in girls takes clumsily cruel forms. Shuichi's secret is discovered by Saori, a perceptive and eccentric classmate. And it is Saori who suggests that the fifth graders put on a production of The Rose of Versailles for the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders, with boys playing the roles of women, and girls playing the roles of men. Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn.

The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde


Merlin Holland - 2003
    In 1895, Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to "Oscar Wilde posing as sodomite." With Bosie's encouragement, Wilde sued the Marquess for libel. He not only lost but he was tried twice for "gross indecency" and sent to prison with two years' hard labor.With this publication of the uncensored trial transcripts,readers can for the first time in more than a century hear Wilde at his most articulate and brilliant. The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde documents an alarmingly swift fall from grace; it is also a supremely moving testament to the right to live, work, and love as one's heart dictates.

Adam


Anthony McDonald - 2003
    But there is another side to him, which comes to the fore when he falls for laborer Sylvain and gets sexually involved with two friends. The results are explosive in this passionate story of illicit romance and teenage angst-a combination that is eternally popular with gay readers.

Collected Stories


David Leavitt - 2003
    Critics have hailed these stories as "witty and elegant," "luminous, touching, and splendid."The publication of this collection affirms David Leavitt's mastery of the form, and reminds us why The New York Times has called him "one of his generation's most gifted writers."

Last Summer


Michael Thomas Ford - 2003
     Josh Felling has always been a romantic--up until the moment his lover Doug announced that he'd had an affair with a guy from their gym. Now, with his life playing out like a very bad movie of the week, Josh impulsively heads to the Cape for a few days--long enough to figure out where his relationship--what's left of it--might be going. But the summer has other plans for Josh, and his trip to P-town will bring bigger changes than he ever imagined. With its windswept dunes, lazy summer days, and starry nights filled with possibilities, Provincetown holds special appeal for those who call it home. . .and for those who come seeking its open welcome. People like Reilly Brennan, son of an old P-town family, whose days are caught up in wedding plans, even as his nights are increasingly taken over by heated fantasies about other men. . .Wide-eyed, blond-haired, All-American Toby Evans, an escapee from the Midwest ready to spend the summer in the equivalent of gay boot camp for anyone who will tutor him. . .Elegant Emmeline, age unknown, a southern belle straight out of Faulkner, with a mean drag act and almost enough money for her permanent gender transformation. . .Ty Rusk, one of Hollywood's hottest new stars hiding an ages-old secrets about to explode. Weaving in and out of these and other lives like the concierge of a Grand Hotel, Josh is in for the summer of his life, a time of turning points and bridges burned, of second chances and new beginnings, of renewal and hope that will bring him closer to becoming the man he needs to be. "This is a cut above more mainstream gay fiction offerings, thanks to Ford's crisp prose and snappy, contemporary dialogue. . ..the sandy, barefoot-friendly setting morphs all the melodrama into a satisfying beach book--and a pleasant fiction debut for Ford."--Publishers Weekly

The Fifth Stage


Margaret A. Helms - 2003
    She muddles through daily routines, her only respite coming in the form of a harmless crush on Rebecca Greenway. Claire believes that the sexy restaurant manager is safely unavailable. But when Rebecca shows signs of interest, Claire's past unravels, revealing an immeasurable love and a dark secret. .an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. Author Margaret A. Helms deftly alternates past and present events in the life of Claire Blevins to build an enthralling and intriguing story. Her rich prose, compelling plot, lively pace, and strongly-drawn characters make The Fifth Stage an outstanding contribution to lesbian fiction. -- Nann Dunne, editor and publisher of Just About Write (www.justaboutwrite.com), author of The War Between the Hearts, and other stories.

Rebecca's Cove


L.J. Maas - 2003
    Nothing and no one on the island is anywhere near what BJ would call normal. The island inhabitants exist in a world that cares little for what folks do on the mainland. The center of activity for their society revolves around a diner called Rebecca's Cove where the self-centered BJ alienates just about every member of the small community. She meets her match, however, in a local woman, Hobie Lynn Allen. This is not a love at first sight story as the two women find one another completely annoying and self-righteous. However, the island-and Rebecca's Cove-have an odd way of changing the way folks view their world and the people around them. Sometimes, it's not a matter of what you're seeing, but rather, the position from which you see it.

The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament


Theodore W. Jennings Jr. - 2003
    In The Man Jesus Loved, Jennings proposes a gay affirmative reading of the Bible in the hope of respecting the integrity of these texts and making them more clear as well as more persuasive. This reading suggests that the exclusion of persons on the basis of their sexual orientation or same-sex practices fundamentally distorts the Bible generally and the traditions concerning Jesus in particular.

Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism


Lisa M. Heldke - 2003
    Resting upon this oppression model are two sets of theories, one concerned with the phenomenon of privilege--the companion of oppression--and the other with resistance--the response to oppression. The significant number of readings addressing the different forms that resistance takes are perhaps the most important part of the book for students struggling with the questions "What is being done?" and "What can I do?"

Undercover


Laurinda D. Brown - 2003
    Brown began the turbulent love story of two women struggling with finding comfort in each other and in themselves while teetering on the verge of self-destruction. Chris Desmereaux and Gayle Evans: Two women, two mothers, two lovers testing the boundaries of 21st century morality, torn between different ideas of right and wrong. Now in Undercover, the author expands the story, introducing Nathaniel, the monogamous lover of Patrick, a high roller at the Memphis nightclub where Nathaniel transforms himself into a female diva before a standing-room-only crowd until Patrick breaks his heart. Devastated by his lover's rejection, Nathaniel leaves his flamboyant former life behind and reinvents himself yet again. This time it's Nathaniel, the committed family man—a loving husband to his wife, devoted father to his three children, and brother-in-law to Chris. Patrick is a distant, still-seductive memory, until financial woes force Nathaniel to return to his old fast-money way of life. This fateful decision culminates in exposure—and Nathaniel's subsequent downward spiral. Domestic crises abound as Nathaniel struggles with painful issues surrounding his sexual identity, and he must face the ultimate truth about himself in a harrowing climax. Undercover is a powerhouse novel by a gifted storyteller.

Adam & Andy


James Asal - 2003
    Read their amazing adventures and lose yourself in the minutiae of their daily lives! Marvel at their strength and resolve as they wage war on careless ineptitude and bad coffee! Blast off into incredible fits of jealousy over their impossibly broad shoulders and comprehensive wardrobes!

Trans-Gendered: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith


Justin Sabia-Tanis - 2003
    A transgendered clergyperson seeks to explore the spiritual nature of transgendered persons, to listen to the stories of others like himself, and to give a positive voice to the community.

Forbidden Acts: Pioneering Gay & Lesbian Plays of the 20th Century


Ben HodgesRuth Goetz - 2003
    Among the ten plays, three are completely out of print. Included are The God of Venegeance (1918) by Sholom Asch, the first play to introduce lesbian characters to an English-language audience; Lillian Hellman's classic The Children's Hour (1933), initially banned in London and passed over for the Pulitzer Prize because of its subject matter; and Oscar Wilde (1938) by Leslie and Sewell Stokes, a major award-winning success that starred Robert Morley. More recent plays include Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band (1968), the first hit "out" gay play that was the most realistic and groundbreaking portrayal of gays on stage up to that time; Martin Sherman's Bent (1978), which daringly focused on the love between two Nazi concentration camp inmates and starred Richard Gere; William Hoffman's As Is (1985), which was one of the first plays to deal with the AIDS crisis and earned three Tony Award nominations; and Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994), which starred Nathan Lane and won the Tony Award for Best Play. The other plays are Edouard Bourdet's The Captive (1926), Ruth and Augustus Goetz's The Immoralist (1954) and Frank Marcus's The Killing of Sister George (1967). Forbidden Acts includes a broad range of theatrical genres: drama, tragedy, romance, comedy and farce. They remain vibrant and relevant today as a testament of art's ability to persevere in the face of oppression.

My Big Fat Queer Life: The Best of Michael Thomas Ford


Michael Thomas Ford - 2003
    Publishers Weekly has called Michael Thomas Ford a "cranky, bemused, and extremely funny." Lambda Book Report has described Ford as "genially misanthropic," and Southern Voice has named him "our freshest, most fearless satirist." Ford’s series of My Queer Life books (Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me, That’s Mister Faggot to You, It’s Not Mean If It’s True, and The Little Book of Neuroses) have racked up four Lambda Literary Award nominations, with two back-to-back wins, and appeared on bestseller lists from New York to Dallas to Sacramento. Now the best of his writing has been collected along with five new, brilliantly funny essays to create the essential My Queer Life -compendium.Raves for Michael Thomas Ford’s My Queer Life:"Ford is a delightfully inventive wit."—Publishers Weekly"He truly entertains by being meaningfully hilarious."—Booklist"One of the funniest books I’ve read this year."—Kelly Justice, Carrytown Books—Richmond, VA; Book Sense 76 Pick"A fresh voice, unafraid to tackle any subject and tickle, if not outright hit, below the belt."—Rain TaxiMichael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books in a variety of genres, including biographies and young-adult fiction. His books in the My Queer Life series have been national bestsellers and earned him two Lambda Literary Awards. He lives in San Francisco.

Alf


Bruno Vogel - 2003
    Banned and burned by Hitler,this openly [gay] and [pacisfist] novel studies the path of two young students from age fifteen through to death in the trenches of WW1.

Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging


Gary Atkins - 2003
    A century later Mike Lowry became the first governor of the state to address the annual lesbian and gay pride rally in Seattle. Gay Seattle traces the evolution of Seattle's gay community in those 100 turbulent years, telling through a century of stories how gays and lesbians have sought to achieve a sense of belonging in Seattle.Gary Atkins recounts the demonization of gays by social crusaders around the turn of the century, the earliest prosecutions for sodomy, the official harassment and discrimination through most of the twentieth century, and the medical discrimination and commitment to mental hospitals that continued into the 1970s as homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease that could be "cured."Places of refuge from this imposed social exile were created in underground theater and dance clubs: the Gold Rush-era burlesque shows, modern drag theater, and in mid-century the emergence of openly gay bars, from the Casino to Shelley's Leg. Many of these were subjected to steady exploitation by corrupt police - until bar owner MacIver Wells and two Seattle Times reporters exposed the racket.The increasingly public presence of gays in Seattle was accompanied by the gradual coalescence of social services and self-help organizations such as the Dorian Society, gay businesses and advocacy groups including the Greater Seattle Business Association, and the stormy relationship between the Vatican, Seattle's Catholic hierarchy, and gay worshippers.Atkins' narrative reveals the complex and often frustrating process of claiming a civic life, showing how gays and lesbians have engaged in a multilayered struggle for social acceptance against the forces of state and city politics, the police, the media, and public opinion. The emergence of mainstream political activism in the 1970s, and ultimately the election of Cal Anderson and other openly gay officials to the state legislature and city council, were momentous events, yet shadowed by the devastating rise of AIDS and its effect on the homosexual community as a whole.These stories of exile and belonging draw on numerous original interviews as well as case studies of individuals and organizations that played important roles in the history of Seattle's gay and lesbian community. Collectively, they are a powerful testament to the endurance and fortitude of this minority community, revealing the ways a previously hidden sexual minority "comes out" as a people and establishes a public presence in the face of challenges from within and without.

Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara: A Memoir


Joe LeSueur - 2003
    (The artists he championed include Jackson Pollock, Joseph Cornell, Grace Hartigan, Jane Freilicher, Joan Mitchell, and Robert Rauschenberg.) The flowering of O'Hara's talent, cut short by a fatal car accident in 1966, produced some of the most exuberant, truly celebratory lyrics of the twentieth century. And it produced America's greatest poet of city life since Whitman.Alternating between O'Hara's poems and LeSueur's memory of the circumstances that inspired them, Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara is a literary commentary like no other--an affectionate, no-holds-barred memoir of O'Hara and the New York that animated his work: friends, lovers, movies, paintings, streets, apartments, music, parties, and pickups. This volume, which includes many of O'Hara's best-loved poems, is the most intimate, true-to-life portrait we will ever have of this quintessential American figure and his now legendary times.

Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost


Ali Vali - 2003
    Add to that the most unusual brother anyone could hope and you start to understand why Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost are some of the things Kendal fears the most.

Tyler's Cape


Darren Greer - 2003
    There, as he starts to remember the childhood he has worked so hard to forget, Luke unearths a secret from his mother's past -- a secret that could be the key to understanding all that has happened to his family.Taking the reader on a journey through childhood and memory, Tyler's Cape is a story about the relationship between brothers, the difficult yet enduring nature of family, and the rediscovery of a child's lost world of grace and glory.

Deep Gossip


Henry Abelove - 2003
    Deep Gossip addresses the willful misreading of Freud's views on homosexuality among American psychoanalysts; reconsiders sexual practice during England's eighteenth century; assesses the contemporary relevance of Thoreau's Walden, particularly to queer politics; and traces the emergence of a queer critique of previous approaches to lesbian and gay history. Abelove uncovers the origins of American studies as a scholarly discipline and evaluates the impact of literature - specifically the same-sex eroticism found in works by such writers as James Baldwin, Elizabeth Bishop, Paul Bowles, and Ned Rorem - on the gay liberation movement of the 1970s. The essays gathered in Deep Gossip confirm Henry Abelove's reputation as one of America's leading thinkers on the cultural politics of sexuality.

Speaking in Queer Tongues: GLOBALIZATION AND GAY LANGUAGE


William L. Leap - 2003
    Speaking in Queer Tongues investigates the tensions and adaptations that occur when processes of globalization bring one system of gay or lesbian language into contact with another.   Western constructions of gay culture are now circulating widely beyond the boundaries of Western nations due to influences as diverse as Internet communication, global dissemination of entertainment and other media, increased travel and tourism, migration, displacement, and transnational citizenship. The authority claimed by these constructions, and by the linguistic codes embedded in them, is causing them to have a profound impact on public and private expressions of homosexuality in locations as diverse as sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, Indonesia and Israel.   Examining a wide range of global cultures, Speaking in Queer Tongues presents essays on topics that include old versus new sexual vocabularies, the rhetoric of gay-oriented magazines and news media, verbal and nonverbalized sexual imagery in poetry and popular culture, and the linguistic consequences of the globalized gay rights movement.

Definition


Ariel Schrag - 2003
    Definition is the tale of one girl's plow through this tumultuous year. Ariel Schrag has been critically acclaimed for her work in Definition. Jennifer Joseph of The Bay Guardian said, Schrag's perceptiveness and incredible eye for detail make Definition brilliant. Rarely have I seen such substantial work come from a person of her age. Maggie Overfelt from The Minnesota Daily said, it's impossible to put down.

The Dirt She Ate: Selected And New Poems


Minnie Bruce Pratt - 2003
    Vivid, lush, and intensely honest, these poems capture the rough edges of the world and force us to pay attention.

Question of Truth: Christianity and Homosexuality


Gareth Moore* - 2003
    For many others such teaching contradicts what they know to be the obvious truth. In this book Gareth Moore closely and dispassionately examines the bases of Christian 'anti-gay' arguments. Moore critically explores the language that we use to describe and define human sexuality and what this means for what we think we know about sex, identity and morality.At the centre of this work is a thorough and revolutionary analysis of the Bible on homosexuality posing such questions as: Is there a unified biblical teaching on sex or homosexuality? Are we misreading the Bible by applying modern thinking and terms? Must Christians accept Paul's supposed rejection of homosexuality when they do not follow all of his teaching (for example his low estimation of marriage - 1, Cor, 7)?For Moore the criticism that gay practice is remote from Christian values is just as true of straight life. Gay Christians are often responsible and thoughtful moral agents and to propose otherwise is both unreasonable and deeply disrespectful. It is a precondition of being heard that we listen and in the end the gospel can only be preached effectively by those who listen.

Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies) (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies)


John R. Killacky - 2003
    This unique collection of compelling first-person narratives is at once assertive, bold, and groundbreaking, filled with characters--and character. Through the intimacy of one-on-one storytelling, gay men with mobility and neuromuscular disorders, spinal cord injury, deafness, blindness, and AIDS, fight isolation from society--and each other--to establish a public identity and a common culture. Queer Crips features more than 30 first-hand accounts from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the reality of the everyday struggle disabled gay men face in a culture obsessed with conformist good looks. Themes include rejection, love, sex, dating rituals, gaycrip married life, and the profound difference between growing up queer and disabled, and suffering a life-altering injury or illness in adulthood. Co-edited by Bob Guter, creator and editor of the webzine BENT: A Journal of Cripgay Voices, the book includes: two performance pieces from acclaimed author and actor Greg Walloch poetry from Chris Hewitt, Joel S. Riche, Raymond Luczak, Mark Moody, and co-editor John Killacky essays from BENT contributors Blaine Waterman, Raymond J. Aguilera, Danny Kodmur, Thomas Metz, Max Verga, and Eli Clare interviews with community activist Gordon Elkins and Alan Sable, one of the first self-identified gay psychotherapists in the United States and much more Queer Crips is a forum for neglected cripgay voices speaking words that are candid, edgy, bold, dreamy, challenging, and sexy. The book is essential reading for academics and students working in lesbian and gay studies, and disability studies, and for anyone who's ever visited the place where queerness and disability meet.

One Belief Away


C.N. Winters - 2003
    Both women are forced to make life-altering choices to find true happiness and themselves. One Belief Away is about two women, who come together to find common ground and deep love.

Promises Unbroken


Robin4 - 2003
    Ten years later, James and Lily live, Harry attends Hogwarts, and Voldemort remains…yet the world is different and nothing is as it seems. A fanfiction.

It Takes Two


Elliott Mackle - 2003
    Fort Myers Florida. It started out to be such a nice day. But early morning gunfire at the Royal Plaza Motor Hotel changed all that. One white man is dead. One black man is dead. The widow of the white man has just crashed the investigation, and is waving a gun around. Barely escaping the shot that blows the window out of the car in which he is sitting is Dan Ewing, who isn't even supposed to be there. Saving his bacon is police detective Bud Wright. Bud and Dan are more than fishing buddies, but no one can know that. But their secret is just one of many in this small town. To start, Dan is the manager of the Caloosa Hotel, a class act if you're just passing through, but if you are a member of the less known Caloosa Club, Dan provides a variety of "services" club members may discreetly enjoy. This doesn't sit well with everyone in town, including the sheriff, a wealthy car dealer, the KKK, and Bud Wright, despite the fact that he's sleeping with Dan. But the car dealer is the dead white man, the black man is the husband of his wife's former maid, and the sheriff, Bud's boss seems determined to keep the investigation off track. So what does this apparent murder suicide have to do with the Caloosa? Journalist Elliott Mackle takes his wonderfully realized "why-done-it?' mystery to fascinating levels as he explores the various factions of a small southern town facing the giant implications of a rapidly changing society. Elliott Mackle served for ten years as the Atlanta Journal Constitution's restaurant critic. As a Journal-Constitution staffer he also covered the Olympic Games, political conventions and wrote a weekly travel feature. Hecurrently lives with his partner of many years in Atlanta. This is his first novel.

The End of Youth


Rebecca Brown - 2003
    In "Afraid of the Dark," a child learns that there is good reason to be afraid. The adolescent narrator of "Description of a Struggle" finds that love can be brutal. "The Smokers" -examines an adult’s realization that longevity means seeing loved ones die. Written with the same spare and vivid beauty as her earlier award-winning works, The End of Youth is certain to win even wider acclaim. Rebecca Brown is the author of The Terrible Girls, Annie Oakley’s Girl, The Gifts of the Body and The Dogs. She lives in Seattle.

Chelsea Boys


Allan Neuwirth - 2003
    The strip follows the often outrageous antics, wild sexcapades, and everyday heartbreaks of three gay roommates, as different as can be from one another, living together in a three bedroom apartment in the heart of New York’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood: cuddly Nathan, a short, neurotic forty-something native New Yorker; gorgeous, buff Sky, a naive yet deeply spiritual art student raised on a farming commune in Canada; and the fabulous black club diva Soirée, who masks his inner pain with a rapier wit and outrageous style. Filled with humor, humanity, and wry observations on life in a modern setting, Chelsea Boys presents a family you’ve never seen before, and storytelling that speaks the truth rather than playing to stereotypes.Glen Hanson, a native of Toronto, is an internationally acclaimed designer, illustrator, writer, and art director. His award-winning work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, MTV, Comedy Central, VH-1, Vogue, The New York Times, and Maxim. His character designs have been seen on animated shows such as Beetlejuice and Daria, and he designed the album cover for Blink 182’s The Enema Strikes Back.Allan Neuwirth, a native New Yorker, writes, produces, directs, and designs for a wide variety of media, with a strong emphasis on comedy and animation. His host of writing credits includes Courage, the Cowardly Dog, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, Toonsylvania, and Dragon Tales. Together, the men have written stories for DC Comic’s Cartoon Network comic books, designed characters for Hoppin’ Jon, an independent animated short, and collaborated on Wonder Woman vs. The Red Menace for DC Comics.

Black Male / White Male


Rotimi Fani-Kayode - 2003
    The late gay Nigerian photographer's piercing exploration of the location of desire and forbidden dreams within the context of different needs.

Champagne


Debbie McGowan - 2003
    Cold, desperate and exhausted, he takes shelter in a trash-filled alley behind a strip club, unaware that what is about to unfold will change the course of his life.Set during a period of significant social and cultural change in the early 1980s, Champagne opens up a world of seedy revue bars, prostitution, abuse, drug addiction and the devastating effect of AIDS. Centred around the events of a declining revue bar and its regeneration, a young man comes of age and finds his first love whilst looking for his estranged, abusive father. Through dark humour and strong characterisation the book is not only eye opening but also manages to capture a truly unique time in popular culture.PLEASE NOTE: this is gay fiction, with elements of MM romance. As such, it does not have a HEA or even a HFN, but there is a sequel planned for 2015.

My Lover, My Friend: True-Life Stories of Lesbian Romance Between Friends


Lindsey Elder - 2003
    What happens when a woman's best friend becomes something more? In these fiery true stories, women describe the explosive moment when their friend came into their arms as their lover, even for just one night.Lindsey Elder's series of true-life erotic stories includes the anthologies "Early Embraces, Early Embraces II, Early Embraces III "and "Beginnings." She lives in Los Angeles and is on the lookout for "your "story.

Love in Good Time: A Memoir


Claire Robson - 2003
    A mother who wants her daughter to fulfill her own dreams and a daughter who wants to be everything her mother is not—both may love each other, but neither understands the other.      Claire Robson escapes her village and her family through a scholarship to university, where she easily becomes a hippie, marries the son of a family far wealthier than her own, and plunges headlong into domesticity. But before long she leaves her husband and rides her motorcycle straight into the lesbian community to become first a squatter, then a school principal.      This memoir reads like a novel, and is by turns laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreakingly poignant. It is a coming out story that tackles the trade-offs some gay people make after they leave the closet and choose acceptance instead of activism, work instead of sex, success instead of happiness, and silence instead of truth.      While this may not seem to be everyone’s story, the author’s courage, honesty, warmth, and humor make it an unquestionably universal one.

Through It Came Bright Colors


Trebor Healey - 2003
    At home, he's the dutiful son of Frank and Grace, and devoted brother to Peter who is battling cancer. But in the shadows of San Francisco underworld, Neil finds release with secret lover Vince, a beautiful junkie, philospher and thief.

Toe Tag: A Mini Macabre


Paul G. Bens Jr. - 2003
    He demands the best and usually gets it. This time he thinks he's found the perfect pair of feet...but will the man who owns them measure up to Cyrus' exacting standards? Black Quill Award-winner Paul G. Bens offers up an erotic story of a man on a mission.

San Francisco's Castro


Strange de Jim - 2003
    This new collection of photographs shows the area's growth from a smattering of Victorian houses built for working-class families in the 1870s to the flood of young gay men who settled in the neighborhood during the 1970s. This influx transformed the area and led to the rise of Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to a major public office. This book also chronicles the 1978 assassination of Milk and Mayor George Moscone, the subsequent riots, and the effects of AIDS on the community in the 1980s and 1990s. Ultimately, these stirring images bear witness to the resilience of the Castro today.

Stealing Some Time: Volume 1


Mark Kendrick - 2003
    "It is 2479 AD. Technical Sergeant Kallen Deshara and his team have traveled from the 25th century to the 19th. Their mission: to eliminate powerful ion storms caused by the very device that opened the portal to the past. If they don't succeed, their present may cease to exist! Once done, they'll return home and the future will be as it should be. But Kallen didn't plan on meeting Aaric Utzman, a young cartographer from post-colonial America. Nor did he plan to fall in love with him. He must find a way for them to stay together or Aaric will have been dead for over six hundred years after Kallen's return. No matter what he decides, the past, the present, and the future will be irrevocably altered."

Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community


Melissa M. Wilcox - 2003
    It is often considered a matter of "us" versus "them," or worse, for gay men and women, a question of their behavior, not something intrinsic to their identity. Coming Out in Christianity examines this conflict from the point of view of a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians. It focuses on current and former members of two Metropolitan Community Churches in California that serve predominantly LGBT Christians. Based on original research, including more than 70 in-depth interviews, the book explores life histories, current beliefs, cultural settings, and community influences to learn what helped each forge an identity as both gay and Christian. These powerful case studies will help to deepen our understanding of both religion and personal identity.

A Conspiracy of Ravens: A One-Hand Read


William Maltese - 2003
    Inside the grounds of the infamous Tower of London. Patrick whose Irish lover, Ian, was killed by an English homicidal butcher behind the wheel of a speeding car. Tad whose American parents have sent their erring son to live with Brit relatives, one of whom is a Tower yeoman. Six Tower Ravens, the subjects of legend that predicts they gone, the British Empire soon to follow. A man and five Tower Ravens murdered. One man determined to see the sixth bird dead, no matter the consequences.

Hear Us Out: Conversations with Gay Novelists


Richard Canning - 2003
    Hear Us Out demonstrates how in recent decades the canon of gay fiction has developed, diversified, and expanded its audience into the mainstream. Readers will recognize names like Michael Cunningham, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours inspired the hit movie; and others like Christopher Bram, Bernard Cooper, Stephen McCauley, and Matthew Stadler. These accounts explore the vicissitudes of writing on gay male themes in fiction over the last thirty years--prejudices of the literary marketplace; social and political questions; the impact of AIDS; commonalities between gay male and lesbian fiction... and even some delectable bits of gossip.

Pebble in a Pool


William Taylor - 2003
    A drunk driving accident paralyzes Adrian Vanderlaar and kills his girlfriend. The outpouring of grief is starkly contrasted with the muted response to a gay-bashing murder, causing Paul Carter to speak out. Paul's growing awareness of his sexuality and Adrian's return to school play out artfully in a book brimming with emotion, humor, and humanity, and bravely unsentimental unsentimental in its treatment of both young men, "Pebble in a Pool" is a complex yet sparely written account of actions, reactions, and consequences.William Taylor is the author of "Jerome" and "The Blue Lawn" which was selected for the prestigious New York Public Library's Books for the Teenage List and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. He lives and writes in New Zealand.

That Man from C.A.M.P.: Rebel Without a Pause


Victor J. Banis - 2003
    Banis played a primary role in creating a new genre: gay pulp fiction. These three tongue-in-cheek novellas, as well as a revealing interview with the author, are packaged together in one volume.