Gay liberation

Dohball's reading guide on gay liberation.

Submitted by Joseph Kay on September 21, 2012

Intro

That's revolting!: queer strategies for resisting assimilation edited by Matt Bernstein aka sycamore
The anthology consists of personal histories, rants, interviews, conversations, activist struggles, practical advice and glamour. Contributors include early gay liberation rabble-rousers, counterculture demons, fringe artistes, renegade academics, the dispossessed, the obsessed and various other enemy combatants. In other words, That's Revolting! is a book by a bunch of freaks, fruits, perverts and whores who are dedicated to resisting homogenization, globalization and all the other evils of this ravaging world.

Politics of the heart: a lesbian parenting anthology by Sandra Pollack and Jeanne Vaughn
Compulsive reading - 60 personal reflective accounts of different relationships to motherhood and parenthood.

Revolutionary voices: a multicultural queer youth anthology, edited by Amy Sonnie
An anthology created by and for radical queer youth (aged 16-24) committed specifically to youth of colour, young women, transgender and bisexual youth, (dis)abled youth, and poor/working class youth. The anthology introduced a host of radical young writers and artists, many of whom continue to publish and create today.

Exile and pride: disability, queerness and liberation by Eli Clare
Clare’s writing, with passion, insight and a poet's sense of language, on his experiences as a genderqueer activist/writer with cerebral palsy permanently changed the landscape of disability politics and queer liberation, and yet Exile & Pride is much too great in scope to be defined by even these two issues. Instead it offers an intersectional framework for understanding how our bodies actually experience the politics of oppression, power, and resistance. At the heart of Clare’s exploration of environmental destruction, white working-class identity, queer community, disabled sexuality, childhood sexual abuse, coalition politics, and his own gender transition is a call for social justice movements that are truly accessible for everyone.

Lesbians talk safer sex edited by Sue O’Sullivan and Pratibha Parmar
Takes a discussive rather than prescriptive approach to the questions of what safer sex means when it comes to lesbian sex. An international group of HIV and Aids workers, sex educators and interested lesbians frankly discuss questions and controversies.

This is what lesbian looks like edited by Kris Kleindienst
Twenty six writers, some famous, some known only to their local communities interweave writing about everyday life and larger political questions. Shares a focus on the necessity of grassroots organizing.

Further

Zami: a new spelling of my name by Audre Lorde
Zami is a carriacou (a carribean island) name for women who work together as friends and lovers. Partly autobiographical, partly mythical this book explores the life of Audre Lorde from her childhood to her later youth.

Lesbian erotics edited by Karla Jay
A series of short essays on the variety of lesbian sexual experiences and ways in which they are portrayed in mainstream culture. A mixture of personal and more theoretical reflections and stories.

Lesbians talk violent relationships edited by Joelle Taylor and Tracey Chandler
The first book on abusive lesbian relationships to be published in the UK. Basing their research on an extensive survey of survivors own experiences, the authors draw up a picture of how abuse happens and how we might deal with it.

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