Description

pp. 197, b/w photogrtaphs, “An appealing collection of essays and articles on issues central to the gay community. Award-winning Canadian journalist and author Rowe (Writing Below The Belt, not reviewed) provokes and enlightens with his musings on the contemporary gay experience. A major theme is the sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle prejudice gays encounter. Of particular concern is the tormenting isolation and fear of sudden, violent death, especially by gay teens. In the opening essay, “Requiem for Junior,” Rowe laments the murder of 18-year-old transvestite Sean Keagan, “a sad reminder that society will always view some people as more expendable than others, and that the streets are carnivorous.” In “Justice Deferred,” Rowe takes on his country’s legal system for allowing Dennis Hurley to be extradited to Mexico to stand trial for his lover’s death, contending that it would be impossible for Hurley to receive a fair trial in a country as homophobic as Mexico, whose legal system includes no presupposition of innocence. Particularly engaging is Rowe’s discussion of the controversy within the gay community over same-sex marriage. While Rowe, who has been monogamous for most of his adult life, contends that the prohibition against gay marriage reinforces the “false notion” of heterosexual superiority, others within the gay community fiercely oppose gay marriage as bourgeois, while still others are too enamored of their outsider status to conform to society’s institutions. “