Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-318) and index.
Contents
Ch. 1. Social Theory and the Anomalous Development of Gay Resistance -- Ch. 2. The Growth and Diversification of Gay Culture -- Ch. 3. After Gay Liberation: S & M and Gender Uniformity? -- Ch. 4. The Promiscuity Paradigm, AIDS, and Gay Complicity with the Remedicalization of Homosexuality -- Ch. 5. The Initial Surrender and Eventual Tentative Reassertion of Autonomy under the Shadow of AIDS -- Ch. 6. "The Homosexual Role" and Lesbigay Roles -- Ch. 7. Couples -- Ch. 8. Gay Community -- Ch. 9. Ethnic and Temporal Differences in Coming Out and In Moving to San Francisco -- Ch. 10. Absent Laiuses: Psychiatric Fantasies in Black and Gay -- Ch. 11. Some Gay African American Self-Representations from the 1980s and 1990s -- Ch. 12. Mexican American Homosexuality -- Ch. 13. Gay Asian/Pacific Americans.
Summary
American Gay is an investigation into how people have been gay or lesbian in America. Murray examines the emergence of gay and lesbian social life, the creation of lesbigay communities, and the forces of resistance that have mobilized and fostered a group identity. Murray also considers the extent to which there is a single "modern" homosexuality and the enormous range of homosexual behaviors, typifications, self-identifications, and meanings.
Challenging prevailing assumptions about gay history and society, Murray questions conventional wisdom about the importance of World War II and the Stonewall riots for conceiving and challenging the notion of a shared oppression. He reviews gay complicity in the repathologizing of homosexuality during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Discussing recent demands for inclusion in the "straight" institutions of marriage and the U.S. military, he concludes that these are new forms of resistance, not attempts to assimilate. Finally, Murray examines racial and ethnic differences in self-representation and identification.
Drawing on two decades of studying gay life in North America, this tour de force of empirical documentation and social theory critically reviews what is known about the emergence, growth, and internal diversity of communities of openly gay men and lesbians. American Gay deepens our understanding of the ways individuals construct sexualities through working and living together.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-343) and index.
Contents
A gay voice -- Columns May 15-October 2, 1992 -- The power of one -- Columns October 9, 1992-February 12, 1993 -- Saving Deb Price -- Columns February 19-June 25, 1993 -- Why angry men can't spell -- Columns July 2, 1993-January 7, 1994 -- Walls come tumbling down.
Defining the issues : the power of language -- Who are the gays? The image and the reality -- What are gay rights? The legal implications of gay rights ordinances -- Gay rights and religion -- The myth of the victimless crime : the social side of homosexuality and laws prohibiting sodomy -- Conclusion.
