Out of the Shadows: Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv: Ots, Walt, Damron, Will: 9781684571581: Books

Contents:

• WONRG AT THE ‘SPECIAL UNIVERSE’ OF GAY LIFE ALL ITS DIVERSY
• OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN'S LIV
• OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN’S LIV
• ‘OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN’S LIV’ BY WALT OTS
• REIMAGG GAY MEN'S LIV
• OUT OF THE SHADOWS: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN'S LIV

WONRG AT THE ‘SPECIAL UNIVERSE’ OF GAY LIFE ALL ITS DIVERSY

AdvertisementSKIP Skipper/Associated PrsWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 31, 2019OUT OF THE SHADOWS Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv By Walt OtsWhen the clil psychologist Walt Ots began workg wh gay men San Francis the mid-1980s, much of the therapy foced on trma and shame.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN'S LIV

There was the realy of growg up gay Ameri bed wh the tastrophe of the AIDS epimic, which by 1989 had killed at least 90, 000 people, cludg a number of Ots’s than three s later, the gay men Ots now works wh live a markedly different world, one where they n marry and which sex don’t e booby-trapped wh the fear of ath.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN’S LIV

A gay man, Pete Buttigieg, is wily nsired a viable printial ndidate, his sexual orientatn seemgly no longer disqualifyg (and possibly even an asset). Movement sist that gay men — particularly whe gay men — have relatively ltle to worry about “Out of the Shadows, ” Ots argu that the transformatnal effects of recent polil and judicial victori on the liv of gay men have been greatly exaggerated.

“Shame still often lurks unnscly behd the most succsful of gay liv, ” he wr, a theme that he returns to over and over aga a book that is part polemic, part memoir and part road map for gay people hopg to live is clear that the shame he believ still hnts many gay men isn’t their flt. “The stigmatizatn of gay people has always been a societal problem for which gay people have been blamed, ” he wr. Ots also dissects the psychologil impact of fai and muni that too often burn young gay men wh shame.

‘OUT OF THE SHADOWS: REIMAGG GAY MEN’S LIV’ BY WALT OTS

He rejects the ia that we live a post-homophobic untry. “There is not a sgle gay man alive Ameri who has not sometim felt self-nsc or fearful about touchg a lover public, ” he wr, rrectly llg this “a human tragedy. ”The solutn to the endurg psychologil challeng facg gay men, Ots believ, likely won’t be found a sperate attempt to make a home stutns signed by heterosexual people, cludg marriage.

Ots wr that if “acceptance is predited on ‘normalizg’ gay relatnships by moldg them — at least appearance — to nventnal heterosexual forms, the change will bee a signifint addnal source of hopelsns for gay men. ” Nor will healg always be found, Ots argu, ntemporary gay muni, where he laments that younger and olr men too often view each other wh creasg spicn and hostily, and where he sists that — spe the ostensibly endls possibili for nnectn offered by gay datg and hookup apps — “isolatn is enmic.

”Ots’s solutn is for gay men to acknowledge and face the shame they’ve been burned wh, and then to beg the difficult work of buildg liv “that stand on thentic self-acceptance. Some of the se studi (and the nclns Ots draws om them) feel dated and not particularly profound, and Ots is at his bt when focg ls on his patients and more on the gay men wh whom he has shared his own life.

REIMAGG GAY MEN'S LIV

There’s sadns Ots’s life story, but there’s mostly rilience, tenrns and a willgns to fashn an unapologetic gay life, sometim agast all odds. (The exquisely told story of Ots’s longtime iend and lover, who fled a trailer he shared wh a btally homophobic fay and built a life burstg wh meang and timacy, is the most pellg story of gay self-actualizatn I’ve ever enuntered. )Ots and his close iends and lovers should serve as an spiratn to many gay men, as well as a remr of what might be the book’s most endurg msage.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GAY MEN'S LIV

“All the diverse forms that te gay life has improvised, ” Ots wr, “nstute a special universe that should not be relquished to meet the expectatns of a pathologil society. ”OUT OF THE SHADOWS Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv By Walt Ots 347 pp.

A movg exploratn of how gay men nstct their inti, fight to be themselv, and live thentillyIt go whout sayg that even today, ’s not easy to be gay Ameri.