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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gay Men from My Grandmother's Generation!,
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This review is from: Quiet Fire: Memoirs of Older Gay Men (Crossing Press Gay Series) (Paperback)
Gay studies scholar George Chauncey has asserted that it is untrue that life was entirely horrible for gay men before the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Even conservative Justice Antonin Scalia has written that older gays are often ignored. This book proves the first statement and tries to be an intervention on the second. I'm less shocked that people my father's age are gay, but I'm quite shocked to hear about the dynamic lives of gay men who were born at the same time as my grandparents.This book is filled with dynamic tales of gay men. It speaks of their lives outside of sex, but it also address sex a lot. It mentions bar raids and arrests, but also mentions many who would leave gay men in peace. There are some with long-term lovers and others who are single. Just like many older, straight men, these men brag about their sexual escapades, but then chastise younger men for doing some of the same. The line between pre- and post-Stonewall was blurred here. Some men were active in Mattachine and others in post-1960s activities. The introduction and summary in the book are relatively weak. However, the lively personal narratives make up for that. Unlike many autobiographical works, this book has no photographs included. The book only had one contribution by a man of color. He was African American; I'm surprised that no Latino man was interviewed as this book focuses on men living in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, cities with large populations with Mexican ancestry. Luckily, the editor admits the absence and points to racism in the gay community as one reason for it. In fairness also, many of the white men interviewed stated how they supported the Civil Rights Movement. This book has many men who married and enjoyed getting down with women, yet no one calls himself bisexual. Modern bisexual activists may find this phenomenon upsetting. This book was written more than 20 years ago. There are some universal concerns that all older men face and this book proves it. However, no man expressed concern about contracting AIDS, though the disease was known by time of publication. I imagine that many gay men of the Baby Boomer generation knew many who succumbed to the virus. Almost every contributor says he loves and visited bathhouses. Many, but not all bathhouses, have been closed or curbed due to the HIV epidemic. Some things amazed me as a reader from Generation X. Almost all of these men were veterans. Allen Berube once wrote that many gay men performed well and were accepted by military peers in World War II; this book corroborates that. However, the percentage of men my age who have served is quite small compared to this. The men here jump from city to city and job to job. Nowadays, job competition is so fierce that I think it's harder to leave a job and land on your feet so safely in another field. Relocating costs time and money. People do it now, but the ease with which these men did it really shocked me. This book is not huge, but it took quite a while to read. Page after page of, "First I did this, then I lived here, next I found a boyfriend there, and blah, blah, blah" gets a bit tired after awhile.
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