Saving Gay books. Gay artists from the past. Books of the Gay revolution. A Gay Agenda. Crushing homophobia.
The book publishing format has big open spaces, so I thought I would put short items in the book to fill up the blank space. It doesn't cost anymore to print the book.
Subscriptions are free.
It has been published. There is a free pdf also for download. Kindle version also. You might not agree with everything, but the purpose is to start the conversation.
Blank spaces in the Amazon book format filler items.
I thought I would put short items to fill in the blank spaces in the book. It costs the same and I might as well pack information and ideas to use up all the space. These are the fillers I added.
Finding Gay books and the used book market.
Finding Gay books with Gay material for a Gay person isn’t as straight forward as it might be expected to be.
A lot of books are “Queer” this or LGBTQ that, and much of it will be people who are queer or pansexual or some identity which perhaps you will need a Venn diagram to comprehend. If there is a Gay item in the book, it might well be a transman who identifies as Gay. Of course if you want to read queer materials it certainly is your right. However, if you actually want a Gay book, this section is to tell you how to find them.
When searching for book use the term “homosexual” or “homosexuality” specifically. The results are mostly books related to homosexuality. “Gay” often isn’t about Gay stuff. For example, “This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson is about seven identities besides Gay. In the 1970s and 80s, Gay actually means Gay.
Another thing is to use the used book sources that are online. I find Ebay and Amazon largely sufficient, but when it is really difficult, I use www.Bookfinder.com to basically search the used book universe.
In older books Gay actually means Gay.
You want the Ebay seller or used book dealer on Amazon to have 95% or better rating. For selling used book, a high rating isn’t that hard and less than 95% has in my experience has been associated with regret.
Some Gay publishers in the past have been Gay Sunshine in its early years and Gay Men’s Press (GMP).
Gay books from the 1979s and 1980s in no particular order.
1. “Homosexual Verse,” Ed. Stephen Coote, Penguin Books, 1983.
2. “The Male Muse: A Gay Anthology,” Ed. Ian Young, Crossing Press, 1973.
3. “The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935), John Lauritsen & David Thorstad, Times Change Press, 1974.
4. “On Being Different: What It Means To Be A Homosexual,” Merle Miller, Random House, 1971.
5. “Poems of a Penisist,” Mutsuo Takahashi, Tran. Hiroaki Sato, Univ. of Minnesota Press, modern edition, orig. 1975.
6. “Now the Volcano: An Anthology of Latin American Literature,” Ed. Winston Leyland, Gay Sunshine Press, 1979.
7. “Tearoom Trade: impersonal sex in public places,” Laud Humphreys, Aldine Publishing Co. 1970.
8. “Theories of Homosexuality,” Martin Dannecker, Gay Men’s Press, 1981.
9. “A Gay Diary, 1936-1946,” Donald Vining, Pepys Press, 1979.
10. “Army of Lovers,” Rosa Von Praunheim, Gay Men’s Press, 1980.
11. “Chapters From An Autobiography,” Samuel M. Steward, Grey Fox, 1981.
12. “The Complete Poems of Cavafy,” Expanded Edition, Trans. Rae Dalven, Harvest/HBJ, 1976.
13. “Gayslayer!: The Story of How Dan White Killed Harvey Milk and George Moscone & Got Away With Murder,” Warren Hinkle, Silver Dollar Book Publishing, 1985.
14. “The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies,” Vito Russo, Harper Colophon Books, 1981.
15. “Angels of the Lyre: A Gay Poetry Anthology,” Ed. Winston Leyland, Gay Sunshine Press, 1975.
16. “The Christopher Street Reader,” Ed. Michael Denneny, Charles Ortleb, Thomas Steele, Coward-McCann, 1983.
17. “Flaunting It!: A decade of gay journalism from The Body Politic,” Ed. Ed Jackson, Stan Persky, Pink Triangle Press, 1982.
18. “Cavafy’s Alexandria: Study of a Myth in Progress,” Edmund Keeley, Harvard Univ., 1976.
19. “Carnivorous Saint,” Harold Norse, Gay Sunshine Press, 1976.
20. “Greek Homosexuality,” K.J. Dover, Harvard Univ., 1978.
21. “Orgasms of Light,” Ed. Winston Leyland, Gay Sunshine Press, 1977. Poetry. Lit.
22. “Gay Sunshine Interviews,” Vol. 1, Ed. Winston Leyland, Gay Sunshine Press.
23. “Gays Under the Cuban Revolution,” Allen Young, Grey Fox Press, 1981.
24. “My Deep Dark Pain is Love: A Collection of Latin American Gay Fiction,” Ed. Winston Weyland, Trans. E.A. Lacey, Gay Sunshine Press, 1983.
25. “Aphrodisiac: Fiction from Christopher Street,” Perigee, 1980.
26. “Joy of Gay Sex,” Charles Silverstein & Edmund White, Crown Books, 1977.
27. “Calamus: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Literature: An International Anthology,” Ed. David Galloway & Christian Sabisch, Quill, 1982.
28. “The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life & Times of Harvey Milk,” Randy Shilts, St. Martin’s Press, 1982.
29. “Crystal Boys” A novel by Hsien-yung, Gay Sunshine Books, Trans. Howard Goldblatt. English Ed. 1990.
30. “Confessions of a Mask,” Yukio Mishima, New Directions, Trans. Meredith Weatherby, 1958.
31. “In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology,” Ed. Joseph Beam, Alyson Publications, 1986.
32. “Comrade Loves of the Samurai,” Saikaku Ihara, Trans. E. Powys Mathers, Tuttle, 1972.
33. “Byron and Greek Love,” Louis Crompton, Univ. of California, 1985.
34. “Homosexuality in Greek Myth,” Bernard Sergent, Trans. Arthur Goldhammer, Beacon Press, 1984.
Books of the Gay Revolution.
These are the books at the beginning with the revolutionary spirit of Gay revolution.
“The Gay Militants,” by Donn Teal, Stein & Day, 1971. This book details the events of the beginning of the modern Gay movement from the time of the Stonewall Riots to the organizing and actions of the new movement. The book takes you to the time of the Gay revolution. It is unfortunately not in print, but used copies are available. Also, you can download it from the Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/gaymilitants00tealrich/mode/2up
Karla Jay and Allen Young did two Gay liberation books which capture the spirit of the times.
“Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation,” Douglass Books, 1972. The 1992 reprint has a dull design. Used copies are available on Ebay.
“After You’re Out: Personal Experiences of Gay Men and Lesbian Women,” Links, 1975.
The video, “Kiss of the Rabbit God,” produced by Andrew Huang is about an 18th century Qing dynasty God that visits a Chinese Restaurant worker at night and helps the worker accept his homosexuality. It is on YouTube. In 5 years it has had 5.8 million views. In New Taipei City, Taiwan there is a temple to the Rabbit God run by LGBT called Weimingtang.
Gay art builds Gay identity.
A list of art books of artists you might not be aware of. I exclude the very well know Gary artists and focus on the ones you might not have heard of but are worth known.
1. Sadao Hasegawa. Gay Men’s Press published a large format book. There is also “Paradise Visions,” which is a very lavishly published edition. His art is extraordinary.
2. F. Holland Day, “Slave to Beauty,” Godine Publishers.
3. Jean Cocteau, “Drawings,” Dover Paperback.
4. Steven Arnold, “Epiphanies,” Twelvetrees Press.
5. Mario Dubsky, Gay Men’s Press.
6. Charles Demuth, Abrams, Whitney Museum.
7. David Hutter, “Nudes and Flowers,” Gay Men’s Press.
8. George Dureau, “New Orleans,” Gay Men’s Press.
9. Douglas Simonson, “Hawaii,” Gay Men’s Press.
10. Philip Core, “Philip Core,” Gay Men’s Press.
11. Cornelius McCarthy, “Interiors,” Gay Men’s Press.
Survey books published by Gay Men’s Press, are “Men in Erotic Art,” and “Out in Art.”
A good book to see a variety of photographers of the male form, would be, “The Hidden Image: Photographs of the Male Nude in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” Peter Weiermair, The MIT Press, 1988.
“The Male Nude: a modern view,” Ed. Francois de Louville and Edward Lucie-Smith, Rizzoli Pub., has over two dozen artists who depict the male nude.
Robert Mapplethorpe, George Platt Lynes, and David Hockney are available in numerous editions.
Saving the existing body of Gay books.
Since the publication of new Gay books has largely ceased, it is important to preserve the existing stock of Gay books.
1. If you do purchase a new Gay book, get hardcover. They physically last longer. Also, later when deaccessioning, archives and institutes often won’t accept softcover.
2. Start work on deaccessioning books when you reach 60. It takes time to decide which books can go and where and when they can go. It takes time to find which archive or institution wants your materials and of the materials you have, which ones fit their collection. It takes time to pack and mail materials and sign donation paperwork. Do you have someone you trust who won’t dump the books into the trash?
3. Be careful dealing with universities when they say they want your books. Ask where are the books going to go? Are they going into a special collection, or are they just going to look at which of the books you mailed them that fill their gaps in their general holdings and then the rest go to branch universities libraries and then are sold to the public. Will they be part of a historical collection, or sold off as old books when they get new books?
4. If some of your books are damaged find a book repair person in your city. There will be one or two of them. It is expensive, so don’t let damaged books accumulate, and schedule one or two a year for repair. Damaged unrepaired books are hard to place. Don’t try to repair them yourself unless you are an expert.
5. Assess your collection regularly for books you no longer need to possess and act to deaccession them instead of them accumulating and becoming a large task later.
6. If it comes down to a choice of selling a book or giving it away, selling it is better. Someone has paid money for it and will value it. If you give it away, they got it for free. They might have accepted it as a favor to you, and maybe even think they will read it at some point, but it just sites. Also, if you give it to someone, it is better perhaps if it is someone much younger. After all, if the person you gave the book to is going to be working on the problem of deaccessioning in a few years, the problem of books surviving into the future isn’t helped.
7. Facebook groups for academics in a particular field can be good to deaccession books. I gave three 1st editions to three Taiwanese universities that way. Make sure you mention you will cover mailing costs.
8. Make sure you have arrangements to dispose of your books when you die if there is some place they are intended to go.
The conservation of the written Gay past needs to be an objective of a group of individuals to facilitate the preservation of the physical past of the Gay community in the form of their books.
Purchasing the copyright for some of these books and releasing them into the public domain as ebooks might be possible. Given the increasing popularity in reading ebooks as opposed to physical books, in the future there is a risk that Gay writing is trapped in an obsolete form.
Collector guides mentioning a book would help the used book to be known and purchased, but also give the book more perceived value by used book dealers.
A discussion needs to occur as to what might be done in regards to Gay books that are published in the future to support their preservation. Acid free paper would be one item to urge upon publishers. Having an electronic copy in an open format to be released in the future at some time would be good.
Books in Kindle and other proprietary products can’t be transferred to anyone while the person is alive or dead. Gay writing could face oblivion trapped in closed systems.
Preservation of Gay periodicals. Results not guaranteed.
They were often printed without thought to preservation and on paper with high acid content. Preserving them is challenging. Acid which yellows paper can come without the object and more commonly in the paper itself. Store out of light, dry place, and away from heat.
One thing is that you can put them in specially made acid free boxes made to store such items. Amazon has them.
There is bookkeeper spray, which is nanoparticles of MgO in an anhydrous solvent. The nanoparticles of MgO neutralize acid. The archival boxes can be sprayed with it to make them also acid neutralizing. When applied to the periodicals, always do a test spray on a small spot. When you spray the object, the blacks will be slightly lightened. For text this probably isn’t an issue, but for illustrations it might be. You might consider spraying the backside.
Microchamber paper has small particles of zeolite to absorb acids. Putting sheet of this paper on top and below the item provides an additional location for acid to be absorbed and protects them from external sources of acid.
Once yellowing occurs, it isn’t reversible by any known method, so act proactively.
Dealing with family members.
Often Gays have parents and other family members who are problems in one way or another. You need to have a zero tolerance for their little games. If you take a hardline regarding their games, it is surprising how soon the games stop.
First don’t make excuses for them. It doesn’t matter what background they have, or what experiences they have had as justifications for their homophobia. You are not responsible for their stupidity. In particular don’t make the excuse for them that, “it takes time.” The year is 2025 and they should already be informed. Of course it might be they were all right with someone else’s child being Gay, but their real attitudes surface with you being Gay. They get 90 days, which is a generous amount of time, to cut the stuff and nonsense.
These tug of wars over your humanity and their little aggressions are erosive of your sense of self-worth and if you have a sense of self-worth, they are intolerable. You are also wasting a lot of mental activity which could be applied to other things. At some point you are better without them, which should be an early decision on your part.
You don’t want to have your boyfriend subjected to these slights. It is one thing for you to sacrifice your own self-worth, it is another thing to sacrifice the self-worth of someone you love. Plus it shows your boyfriend how much self-worth you have as a Gay person and whether you can get a grip on a situation and deal with it or whether you tend to wiffle-waffle.
So get a grip and deal with them decisively. That includes getting in the car and leaving. It includes telling a family member to shut up.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive, www.archive.org, has a library of books, movies, audio, recordings, and also hundreds of billions of webpages archived.
You can also have a webpage saved into the archive to make sure it doesn’t disappear at
This is the webpage to search the library.
https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php
At this time most of the Gay books of interest are restricted so you can’t do more than view their covers and the first few pages due to an ongoing court case others you can view with online borrowing. However, if you are trying to discover Gay books in the past to purchase, it can be a valuable resource.
The Internet Archive has an immense amount of material so sometimes you have to give it a minute to download.
Organizing a Gay centric movement.
Have a Gay centered, hence Gay centric movement. That is organize around the specific interests, and only the specific interest of the Gay community. Organize around the real needs and aspirations of the Gay community. Do not subordinate the Gay interests to a political party or social movement. See the rights of Gays and respect for them as being absolute.
1. Physical Security: This would be self-defense training, patrols, promotion of the use of whistles and tear gas canisters, tough prosecution of Gay bashers and a police contingent in Gay pride events.
2. Self-definition: Gays define who Gays are, not ideologues.
3. Legal protection: Abolition of anti-Gay laws, and adoption of laws against discrimination and conversion “therapy.” Legal recognition of relationships, not limited to Gay marriage.
4. Medical needs: Being a generally more sexually active community the Gay community has a need to be protected against STDs. Protection and cures for STDs should be a priority.
5. Housing and Gayborhoods: Housing for Gays and creation of Gayborhoods.
6. Cultural programs: Movies, art, literature, theater, music specifically for the cultural needs of the Gay community.
7. Social support: Active support for Gay community needs.
8. Defense: Active programs to disable anti-Gay organizations ability to harm the Gay community and deter others from attempting to do so. Public denunciation of anti-Gay acts and statements. Also, defense against slanders including those in the LGBTQ+.
9. Coming Out: Gays being out have been the greatest power against homophobia. It is to be strongly encouraged.
Alliances with other groups, including sexual minorities, will be contingent on specific shared interests and never in opposition to Gay interests.
Time to defeat and crush homophobia.
This is the last essay to be added. I haven’t edited it yet.
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I was watching a show in 2021 and there was Gay bashing in it and I thought, “This is intolerable and it needs to stop now.” The Stonewall Riot was in 1969 and 52 years later we haven’t crushed homophobia and the Gay community’s situation has improved, but we are still subject to abuse. There are still powerful anti-Gay forces out there and they don’t fear what might be the consequences of their anti-Gay campaigns.
I thought that likely that the reason homophobia isn’t crushed or on the way to being crushed is because the current LGBTQXYZ or whatever is full of stuff and nonsense and sentimentality. Upon examining the situation I found that to be true. There isn’t a well-defined ongoing plan to crush homophobia besides what is basically persuading or begging.
We are not supposed to even get angry or think of retribution in response to homophobia with people telling Gays, “Don’t fight hate with hate.” If we are abused, we have a right to be angry. Effective self-defense isn’t hate.
Behind this moral posturing is the belief that tolerating Gays is some pinnacle plus ultra of advanced morality, instead of being a basic fundamental. Too many Gays have no further expectation than toleration since they have just acquiesced to being Gay themselves.
The relative position of Gays versus our enemies has dramatically. Gays have parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, colleagues, friends and others. They may have some problematic issues with homosexuality, but they don’t want anything bad to happen to the Gay person they know. Though Gays are 3% of the population, the percentage of all the people concerned about Gays is a majority, if not a great majority of the general population.
Non-religious homophobia is not organized and much less significant than religious homophobia which is organized.
We are more popular than the homophobes who have likely already annoyed the public for other reasons.
Anti-Gay religions have realized this and have come up with the New Homophobia. They admonish members to not be hostile and to embed their homophobia in the language of love. They are on the defensive.
Christianity, and in particular, anti-Gay Christianity, is in rapid decline.
The homophobic Christian is vulnerable, but there is no serious program targeting them, but instead Gays are restricted to sentimental persuading.
One obstacle in fighting anti-Gay elements are Gays who oppose criticism of anti-Gay elements in what movements, political parties, organizations, religious groups of which they are a member. These Gays may point out anti-Gay elements in group they are opposed to, but attack Gays who point out anti-Gay elements in their own groups.
Efforts against anti-Gay elements are also constrained by the agendas of movements which might find a possible effective campaign against homophobia contrary to their interests. Gays in those movements avoid supporting these possible efforts if not discouraging them.
These things mentioned are important to understand as obstacles, but they aren’t the most important reasons why anti-Gay forces aren’t being crushed.
The Gay community has come to accept homophobia as a part of life and hasn’t decided that it is intolerable and aren’t looking and wanting to destroy the opposition unrestrained by sentimental ideologies.