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ralowe's review
5.0
i can't figure out how to rate this book. i knew i needed to give it the highest rating i could because there feels like so few books that look at this intersection. and also because of the weird distribution drama barring its accessibility. i'm not sure if it's because of peter tatchell, an islamophobic mainstream gay activist that gets called out in one essay, blocking it, or the publisher pro-actively self-censoring. for whatever reason, the book is out of print. i've been trying really hard to get the book despite its suppression and censorship. i like when hypocrisy is called out in mainstream gay politics because, hey, who else is going to do it? but despite these things, and i should know this already, the book is not anything particularly earthshattering. this lack of earthshatteringness sort of became frustrating as i read it because i think the essays get sold short and become mere ethnographies for those curious sightseers itching to see how difference looks from the other side. but i feel like i need to feel grateful and rate high and support this book. what felt frustrating is because it wasn't taking all of this somewhere new, but i don't really have an idea what that would look like. the last essay seems to reach beyond and be looking toward that place, but it's at the end of the book and of course can't at that point. the last essay suggests a kind of collectivity and sits on the verge of a strategy. what would have been more interesting is going more deeply into one aspect of dealing with ourselves within our own communities. i expected a lot more from the idea of "silence" but i'm not really sure what. "silence" is one of those things that can be used to account for what's missing in the political, but it also can signify other things. like taking a break, like a protest, like illegibility...
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