Transgender biologist Julia Serano writes about gender expectations related to trans issues in ‘Whipping Girl.’ (Photo courtesy of Julia Serano)
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KATHERINE VOLIN
Friday, March 30, 2007
Two of the most heralded gay books of spring have already received significant media attention. Not surprisingly, both were written by authors who know a thing or two about being in the public eye.
The first, “Mississippi Sissy,” by Kevin Sessums, has already been published, but it’s still worth a mention. Sessums, a journalist with Allure who previously worked for Vanity Fair and Interview magazines, recalls his 1960s Southern childhood in this memoir. Orphaned by age 8, Sessums still managed to turn the term “sissy” upside down along his path to literary success.
PETA’s Dan Mathews’ autobiography, “Committed: A Rabble-Rouser’s Memoir,” has found quite the celebrity following, if that’s the sort of thing that dictates your reading habits. Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee and Morrissey have all given the book a thumbs-up. The book follows Mathews’ spirited take on animal activism during his 22 years with the organization.
Queer musician Morrissey’s enigmatic nature might lose some of its mystery in a new book coming out in April: “Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart.” Author Gavin Hopps takes a particularly long look at Morrissey’s outsider status and musical point of view. Hopps audaciously compares Morrissey to several other legendary gay artists, including Christina Rossetti and Oscar Wilde.
Washington-based author Thomas Mallon is set to release his new book, “Fellow Travelers,” on May 1. Set in the capital in the ’50s, “Travelers” is the story of a young, devoutly Catholic government employee who falls into an affair with a State Department official, all under the shadow of McCarthyism and official attempts to ferret out “sexual subversives.”
Also being released in May is Joe Perez’s “Soulfully Gay.” Subtitled “How Harvard, Sex, Drugs and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God,” Perez hopes to illuminate exactly what it means to be gay and Christian.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE has been legal for not quite three years in Massachusetts, which means that it’s just about time to release a book on the subject. “Courting Equality: A Documentary History of America’s First Legal Same-Sex Marriages,” comes out in May. The book, which includes 100 photographs, traces the battle to win marriage rights in the state.
Documenting an earlier past is “Art and Sex in Greenwich Village,” which examines the influence of gay literature in post-Stonewall New York, San Francisco and L.A. The nonfiction book is written by Felice Picano, considered a founder of modern gay literature. The book looks especially closely at the interaction between gay culture and the Gay Presses of New York, a publishing group that Picano co-founded with two others in 1981.
Books about family, and motherhood in particular, are flooding the market at the moment. A practical example is “Don’t Call Me Daddy: A Lesbian Mom on Sperm Donors, Not Being Pregnant and the Ups and Downs of Being the Other Mother,” due out in early June. Author Calla Devlin was the non-carrying lesbian mom of her family and decided to write about the inherent challenges facing lesbian parents.
Living the lives of two genders grants a unique point of view. Transgender woman Julia Serano seizes upon this opportunity to expound upon the status of sexism and gender in “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.” The book, which also comes out in June, utilizes Serano’s work as a professional biologist to help her examine the societal fear, suspicions and dismissive attitudes of and toward femininity.
Gay writers Edmund White, Andrew Holleran and several others have contributed to an anthology of contemporary gay male writing edited by Lambda Literary Award-winner Richard Canning. “Between Men” features previously unpublished stories by 18 leading gay male writers.
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