christian Gay Books for GLBT Christians

Farm Boys Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest by Will Fellows "Farm Boys" is a superb work of American oral history and sociology. Author Will Fellows spoke to rural gay Midwestern men of all ages, to draw out, record and give shape to their life stories. The result is a poignant and revealing mosaic-portrait that shows the rich intersections of farm life, gay culture and the American twentieth century.	Major Conflict : One Gay Man's Life in the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Military by JEFFREY MAJ USA (RET) MCGOWAN A Desert Storm veteran looks back on the years he sacrificed his identity to his career. Growing up in Queens, McGowan always wanted to be a soldier, but he "couldn't be gay because soldiers aren't gay." That rationale tortured him as he enrolled in Fordham University's ROTC program and felt agonizing longing for Greg, a co-worker at a bookstore. When McGowan joined the army in the late 1980s, "the military was like a college football player, pumped up and ripped on steroids, " and he had "somehow managed to stuff the genie that Greg had nearly succeeded in freeing forcefully back into the proverbial bottle of my own denial." (This genie should get overtime for all its play in this memoir.) McGowan served first in Germany; during Desert Storm, he tried to sublimate his crush on a gorgeous fellow officer. But the "don't ask don't tell" policy created an inadvertent pogrom, he says, as sexual conservatives in the service played dirty to smoke out the hidden "perverts." Though McGowan was not implicated, the double-dealing and cowardice of others sickened him, and he retired in 1998. McGowan is not always a graceful writer ("the only anecdote [sic]," he tells us, "for this strain of senseless tragedy that so often infects the world, is love, family"), but his style is familiar and easy, as if he's confiding his experiences to a trusted friend
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted by E. Lynn Harris This memoir invites us into the intimate world of bestselling author E. Lynn Harris. Taking us from attempted suicide to recovery from clinical depression, Harris's own warm, halting voice engagingly guides us along the path of his extraordinary life. Harris's objective tone prevents his story from becoming maudlin or trite. This gay black man's story is a triumph for any American, but it is especially so for those whose lives have been made difficult by others due to their race, sexual preference, or disability.	Saint Morrissey by Mark Simpson There is no other contemporary artist who is so famously difficult, so apparently enigmatic, and so passionately, religiously loved by his fans as Morrissey. However, as Mark Simpson argues in his wickedly funny and deeply sacrilegious portrait, Morrissey isn't quite so enigmatic as he might at first appear. To understand this most private and sexually ambivalent of stars and his seemingly erratic behavior, one needs only to do one thing: Listen to him. At once devil's advocate and -counsel for canonization, Mark Simpson offers the finest psychological profile to date of England's most intelligent, most misunderstood, most charming and most alarming pop star.
Freddy Mercury by Peter Freestone The paperback edition of the biography of the flamboyant frontman of the group Queen. An intimate account of Freddie Mercury’s life by the man who was his personal assistant for the last 12 years of his life. A widely-acclaimed, celebrity -studded account of the tragicomedy that was Freddie Mercury’s outrageous life. Contains intimate photographs taken from the author’s personal collection.	The Best Little Boy in the World by John Reid The quality of this book is fantastic because it comes of equal parts honesty and logic and humor. It is far from being the story of a Gay crusader, nor is it the story of a closet queen. It is the story of a normal boy growing into maturity without managing to get raped into, or taunted because of, his homosexuality. . . . He is bright enough to be aware of his hangups and the reasons for them. And he writes well enough that he doesn't resort to sensationalism . . . .
How I Learned To Snap by Kirk Read With bold Southern humor, journalist and performer Kirk Read takes readers on a guided tour of his precocious and courageous adolescence. Recalling his years as an openly gay high school student, Read describes how he navigated the hallways with his sense of humor and dignity intact. He fondly recalls his initiations into sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, as well as his "shy as neon" acts of rabble rousing during high school. How I Learned to Snap is a refreshingly victim-free story in which queer teenagers are creative, resilient, and ultimately heroic.	Blue Days, Black Nights by Ron Nyswaner Having lived with psychological scars since childhood, screenwriter Nyswaner (Philadelphia; Soldier's Girl) recounts his struggles in this searing memoir. After writing the Oscar-nominated Philadelphia, he was still tortured by emotional problems and turned to alcohol and drugs. As Nyswaner shuttles between Hollywood script meetings and caring for his ailing parents, his only source of pleasure is Johann, a cold-hearted male hustler who dominates him sexually and emotionally. Eventually, Nyswaner's obsession with Johann merges with his insatiable desire for drugged oblivion, leading him into a dangerous addiction. With unsparing honesty, Nyswaner conjures the sensation of a crystal meth high and the ensuing paranoia. His explicit accounts of sex with Johann aren't titillating, but rather tinged with the yearning for submission that Nyswaner so desperately craves. Finally hitting rock bottom after the death of a loved one and contemplating suicide, Nyswaner ends his drug dependency, although he doesn't tell readers how he did it.
Capote by Gerald Clarke Clarke breaks Capote's life into four sections: a childhood spent mostly with relatives while his self-absorbed parents staggered through their disorderly lives; his years of discovery, when he had the two great romances of his life, traveled the world, and found his voice as a writer; the writing of In Cold Blood ; and the destructive obsessions with drugs, alcohol, and lovers that followed. Clarke's analysis tends to be superficial and his research, though impressive, has gaping holes. He is strongest in his portraits of Capote's first lover, the literary scholar Newton Arvin; the parade of men who disrupted the last 15 years of his life; and Capote's "swans," the very wealthy women who became addicted to his seemingly magic touch. Paradoxically, Clarke fails to produce a full portrait of Capote himself.	Let's Shut Out The World by Kevin Bentley Whether describing having his hair styled by a gang of eighth-grade bullies; staging a Satan festival in the main hall of Greenvale High; or indulging in inappropriate sex with a caregiver, Kevin Bentley writes with a pen dipped in blood, indignation, and grim whimsy. The autobiographical stories and personal essays in Let's Shut Out the World focus on different pivotal periods and characters in the author's life, from a twisted youth in Texas, to the glittering excesses and sober spirals of life and love in San Francisco in the 1970s, to the monogamous contentment of an unexpected middle age. The narrator of these stories has man trouble aplenty, butting heads and other body parts with everyone from fundamentalist Christians to a slew of "fauxmosexuals" and elusive boyfriends.
Becoming A Man by Paul Monette Monette responds to readers of his first memoir, Borrowed Time, by providing the flip-side expository of his life in the closet until he met his soul mate--the laughing man, Roger Horwitz. This memoir (which might more aptly have been titled Wasted Time ) is a bitter reproach of the 27 years Monette spent searching for himself. He explains that it took him years to realize that the homophobe is the deviant. Reading this beautifully written book, one feels as trapped by its dark mood as the author was by the closet. The writing is occasionally marred, however, by repetitive phrases, such as "playing courtier," "the closet" and the endless search for "the laughing man." The story also unfolds choppily due to frequent references to the future. Nevertheless, the book is a heartfelt illumination of how a gay person overcame the self-reproach that societal condemnation enacts.

GLBT Biographies & Memoirs