You Can't Read That! Banned Book Review: This Book Is Gay

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS SOCIAL STUDI TEXTBOOKS THAT CLU GAY RIGHTS AFTER WARNGS OM ERNOR

* how to be gay book *

Dpe agreeg to adopt the curriculum, the board says will pull any material referencg gay rights activist Harvey Milk, which was one of the ma pots of ntentn.

” and pli wh 2011 state laws requirg that stunts get stctn about “the role and ntributns of people wh disabili; lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr Amerins; and other ethnic and cultural groups. Conservative members of the school board have plaed that supplemental material for the curriculum ntas a three-paragraph mentn of gay rights lear Harvey Milk. A Southern California school board on Friday adopted a social studi curriculum that clus gay rights that was approved by parents and teachers after ially rejectg .

“Unr the headg ‘Protts, ’ one paragraph discs gay rights California and unr the headg ‘Court Cas, ’ there are two paragraphs that discs the urt s that allowed gay marriage California. She said a supplemental rource lists Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and polician who was assassated 1978, along wh San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne. No one rais an eyebrow if you suggt that a guy who arrang his furnure jt so, rolls his ey exaggerated disbelief, lik techno mic or show tun, and knows all of Bette Davis’s bt l by heart might, jt possibly, be gay.

HOW TO BE GAY

A Southern California school board on Friday adopted a social studi curriculum that clus gay rights that was approved by parents and teachers after ially rejectg . * how to be gay book *

But if you assert that male homosexualy is a cultural practice, exprsive of a unique subjectivy and a distctive relatn to mastream society, people will immediately prott.

David Halper, a pneer of LGBTQ studi, dar to suggt that gayns is a specific way of beg that gay men mt learn om one another orr to bee who they are. Inspired by the notor unrgraduate urse of the same tle that Halper tght at the Universy of Michigan, provokg cri of outrage om both the right-wg media and the gay prs, How To Be Gay trac gay men’s cultural difference to the social meang of style. Far om beg terred by stereotyp, Halper nclus that the geni of gay culture ris some of s most spised featur: s atheticism, snobbery, melodrama, adoratn of glamour, ritur of women, and obssn wh mothers.

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A pneer of LGBTQ studi dar to suggt that gayns is a way of beg that gay men mt learn om one another to bee who they are. The geni of gay culture ris some of s most spised stereotyp -- atheticism, snobbery, melodrama, glamour, ritur of women, and obssn wh mothers -- and the social meang of style. * how to be gay book *

By g a few well-chosen cultural artifacts as exampl (Joan Crawford, "Mildred Pierce, " and "Mommy Deart"), he builds a rhetoril stcture that is flexible enough to acmodate the many other maniftatns of gay sensibily-- other divas and mp classics, as well as entirely different bs of heterosexual culture that gay men appropriate and re wh a queer meang. Especially strong are his pots about the nstant generatnal stggl over "gay culture" (ak to those of femism), the simultaneoly aristocratic and mocratizg sensibili mp athetics, and the persistg relevance of mp for gay men the post-Stonewall age, where explic, und imag of gays are supposed to have supplanted the shameful intifitn wh melodrama and ritur of female power (ha! And I would've so loved to see Halper unleash his tellect on how race plays to this-- for both black and whe gay men, the addnal power stctur and appropriatns that exist.

31 reviews5 followersReadJuly 6, 2014Let me start by sayg that as far as I n see, the statement above, that ”gay men mt learn om one another orr to bee who they are” has nothg to do wh the book that I jt fished readg. He spends many pag explag exactly how pre-pubcent boys sted to bee gay men me to our love of var gay stereotypil activi and obssns, whether be Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, grand opera, historic buildgs, arrangg furnure or flower arrangg, and clearly we did not learn the thgs om one another at such a tenr age.

I should be out shoppg preparatn for this afternoon’s opera performance and tonight’s party at my lol gay B&B, but stead I am wrg a book review, and how gay is that?

HOW TO BE GAY

The crease the number of visible gay and trans people is sometim treated as a cursy or a e for ncern by crics, but ’s not a surprise. It’s normal. * how to be gay book *

I thk that the heart of book is ntaed one any se, if is an ironic posn that gay men share wh women, and if is our ironic intifitn wh women that enabl to extract lsons polil fiance om Joan Crawford’s glamoro performance of maternal martyrdom and abjectn, then perhaps those feme intifitns of ours are intifitns that, far om attemptg to closet, we should be eager to claim for our own—to unrstand, to appreciate, and to cherish.

In dog so, Halper is wise to distguish between gay men and gay male culture--such that, for stance, while not all gay men like Broadway, 's probably te that most gay men know that likg Broadway is "gay. I found myself wonrg why so many pag were voted to refully weavg a jtifitn for the topic (apparently based on heated feedback om both the 'fay right' and gays who don't like beg tegorized) when the tle was so basic and to the pot. It mostly avoids the amic language trap, which mak more accsible than most lerary reviews6 followersMarch 19, 2022An important book for anyone who thks that sex is all there is to beg gay.

A fantastic read for anyone who wants to speak telligibly about sourc, disurs, inti, intifitns, cultural impacts, and overall relatnships of gay men om their long important history.