Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories

by Guter; Bob

• ISBN13: 9781560234562
• ISBN10: 1560234563
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Get an inside perspective on life as a disabled gay man! Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories reverberates with the sound of cripgay” voices rising to be heard above the din of indifference and bias, oppression and ignorance. This unique collection of compelling first-person narratives is at once assertive, bold, and groundbreaking, filled with characters--and character. Through the intimacy of one-on-one storytelling, gay men with mobility and neuromuscular disorders, spinal cord injury, deafness, blindness, and AIDS, fight isolation from society--and each other--to establish a public identity and a common culture. Queer Crips features more than 30 first-hand accounts from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the reality of the everyday struggle disabled gay men face in a culture obsessed with conformist good looks. Themes include rejection, love, sex, dating rituals, gaycrip married life, and the profound difference between growing up queer and disabled, and suffering a life-altering injury or illness in adulthood. Co-edited by Bob Guter, creator and editor of the webzine BENT: A Journal of Cripgay Voices, the book includes: two performance pieces from acclaimed author and actor Greg Walloch poetry from Chris Hewitt, Joel S. Riche, Raymond Luczak, Mark Moody, and co-editor John Killacky essays from BENT contributors Blaine Waterman, Raymond J. Aguilera, Danny Kodmur, Thomas Metz, Max Verga, and Eli Clare interviews with community activist Gordon Elkins and Alan Sable, one of the first self-identified gay psychotherapists in the United States and much more! Queer Crips is a forum for neglected cripgay voices speaking words that are candid, edgy, bold, dreamy, challenging, and sexy. The book is essential reading for academics and students working in lesbian and gay studies, and disability studies, and for anyone who's ever visited the place where queerness and disability meet.

Table of Contents

About the Editors	xi
Contributors	xiii
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgments	xxi
Two Performance Pieces	1	(6)
Greg Walloch
Hustlers: A Buyer's Guide	7	(6)
Blaine Waterman
Sticks and Stones	13	(4)
Chris Hewitt
Disability Made Me Do It, or Modeling for the Cause	17	(6)
Kenny Fries
Nasty Habits	23	(6)
Bob Guter Interviews Gordon Elkins
Piano Bar	29	(2)
Joel S. Riche
But I Don't Like You Like That	31	(8)
George Steven Powell
Working It Out	39	(6)
Steven Sickles
Boy Scout of America	45	(6)
Robert I. Roth
Rolling On (from Chapter 3)	51	(6)
Carmelo Gonzalez
Careening Toward Kensho: Ruminations on Disability and Community	57	(6)
John R. Killacky
Repetitions	63	(2)
Raymond Luczak
How to Find Love with a Fetishist	65	(18)
Bob Guter Interviews Alan Sable
Loving You Loving Me	83	(4)
Samuel Lune
A Meeting with George Dureau	87	(4)
Max E. Verga
Face Value: Text for a Performance Piece	91	(12)
Karl Michalak
Acting for Others, Acting for Myself	103	(4)
Michael Perreault
A Wedding Celebration	107	(4)
J. Quiiziz Brisbert
My Dictionary on Dicks	111	(6)
Ed Gallagher
Four Poems	117	(4)
Chris Hewitt
On Being (Un)Representative: In Memory of Barbara and Daniel	121	(8)
Danny Kodmur
Alone in the Crowd	129	(8)
Robert Feinstein
Love Is All Around: My Life As a Married Crip	137	(8)
Thomas Metz
The Boy I Used to Be	145	(6)
Raymond J. Aguilera
Homo on the Range	151	(4)
Walt Dudley
Dancing Toward the Light	155	(14)
Bob Guter Interviews Thomas Metz and Michael Perreault
Three Poems	169	(6)
Mark Moody
Becoming Daddy's Boy	175	(10)
J. Douglas George
The Cripple Liberation Front Marching Band Blues (Chapter 6)	185	(4)
Lorenzo W. Milan
Night Murmurs	189	(2)
John R. Killackv
Beginner's Sex	191	(8)
Alex Sendham
Queer Ducks: An Unlikely Romance	199	(6)
Donald H. Lawrence Jr.
It's All in the Eye: A Deaf Gay Man Remembers His Icons	205	(6)
Raymond Luczak
Gawking, Gaping, Staring	211	(6)
Eli Clare
Destination Bent: The Story Behind a Cyber Community for Gay Men with Disabilities	217
Bob Guter