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Learn what it is like to grow up gay in the South as a group of Southern lesbians and gay men candidly share their attitudes and feelings about themselves, their families, their schooling, and their search for a sexual identity. These insightful biographies illustrate the diversity of persons who identify themselves as gay or lesbian and depict the range of prejudice and problems they have encountered as sexual rebels. Not just a simple compilation of coming out stories, this landmark new book is a human testament to the process of social questioning in the search for psychological wholeness, examining the personal and social significance of acquiring a lesbian or gay identity within the Southern culture.
Growing Up Gay in the South is an important book that focuses on the distinct features of Southern life, It will enrich your understanding of the unique pressures faced by gay men and lesbians in this regionthe pervasiveness of fundamental religious beliefs; the acceptance of racial, gender, and class community boundaries; the importance of family name and family honor; the unbending view of appropriate childhood behaviors; and the intensity of adolescent culture.
List of contents
Contents
Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Peering Through Prisms of Sexual Rebels
- Vantage Point I: Homosexuality and the Religious South
- Chapter 2: White Churches: The Southern Baptists and the Fundamentalists
- Vince and the True Tones
- Chapter 3: Black Churches and Sects: The African Methodists and the Jehovah's Witnesses
- Malcolm and the Young Pioneers
- Vantage Point II: Homosexuality and Southern Communities
- Chapter 4: "White Trash" and Female in a Southern Community
- Norma Jean, ROTC, and the Live Oak Tree
- Chapter 5: A Gentle-man in a Southern Community
- Royce and the Rockview Country Club
- Chapter 6: Black or Gay in a Southern Community
- Jacob and the Bus Boycott
- Vantage Point III: Homosexuality and Southern Families
- Chapter 7: Questioning Authority in a Southern Black Family
- Obie and the Breaking of Ties
- Chapter 8: Honoring and Carrying on the Family Name
- Terry and the Two Tux Prom
- Vantage Point IV: Gender and Sexuality: Being and Behaving Queer in the South
- Chapter 9: The Kids
- Cory and the Little Redneck Hell-Raisers
- Chapter 10: The Outcasts
- Alston and the Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Chapter 11: The Tomboys
- Everetta and the Cinderella Complex
- Vantage Point V: Sexuality and Adolescence: Peers, Queers, and Fears
- Chapter 12: Relationships
- Olivia and the Silenced Relationships
- Chapter 13: Peers
- Phillip, Edith, and the Three Musketeers
- Chapter 14: Educators
- Brett and the Baseball Bat
- Chapter 15: On Homosexual Communities, Identities, and Culture: Journeys of the Spirit
- Appendix: Research Methods, Methodological Issues, and Participant Data
About the author
James Sears
