ReadOut Shorts

• Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is
Alison Garner
HarperCollins Publishers

It’s here, finally, a resource book written for GLBT parents written by an adult who was actually raised by gay parents. Bravo! Mind you, if you’re looking for a sugar-coated Captain Crunch-style celebration of gay families where all the kids of GLBT parents are just so blissfully happy because they had gay parents and it made them who they are today, blah, blah, blah … keep looking.

In Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It like It Is, Alison Garner, a heterosexual daughter of a gay family, shoots straight from the hip poignantly describing the good, the bad, and even the ugly, both from her personal point of view and the personal experiences of 50 other children of GLBT families. Not to worry, she’s even-handed in her approach and, believe me, she really is a huge fan of gay families. It’s just that she’s willing to talk about the struggles and the issues as well.

In the first few pages you’re introduced to Garner with a bang—she’s at yet another Pride festival wearing a homemade T-shirt that reads, “Some of my best parents are gay,” and from that point forward, the information and personal stories just keep rolling.

She nimbly addresses such complex issues as what it’s really like to grow up in a gay family, coming out to children, breaking up families, the impact of HIV/AIDS, and, one of my personal favorites, what happens when gay families actually do raise gay kids.

Amazingly, Garner makes palatable the idea that our families are different and our kids do struggle but, perhaps, not in the ways we might think they do. For example, kids of GLBT families feel enormous pressure to prove they are normal. The pressure, believe it or not, stems from well-meaning GLBT parents who want to prove to the world that their family is just like any other. But they’re not—they’re different, and, of course, that’s the beauty and the bane of our families.

Garner provides a safe place for gay parents to understand that just because GLBT families lack the luxury to be openly complicated and dysfunctional like straight families doesn’t mean that we don’t struggle with complex and difficult issues. In that spirit, Garner invites courageous gay parents to read the book and get an insider’s look at what it’s like to grow up with GLBT parents. —Colleen R. Logan

• The Voice of the Poet: Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Random House Audio

Audio books in general have long been the butt of jokes (Saturday Night Live aficionados will recall Charlton Heston’s dramatic recording of Madonna’s Sex book), but The Voice of the Poet: Allen Ginsberg—a collection of tracks of Ginsberg reading his own poems—is not to be taken lightly. Anyone with an appreciation for contemporary American poetry will revel in the Ginsberg’s words and counterculture themes when expressed by the late Beat master himself. Those who don’t think they share such an appreciation should listen anyway. They’d be surprised at how accessible and emotional poetry can be when an artist vocally expresses himself. —Thomas Blanton

• Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley, Jai Rodriguez
Clarkson Potter Publishers

The complete title is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: The Fab 5’s Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better. Is that enough reading already? Not to worry: This beautifully designed coffee-table book is a visual treat for all eyes, with each page being an eclectic mix of flair and color.

The book, which debuted at No. 7 on the best-seller chart, is divided into five sections, one for each of the Fab 5: 10 Culinary Weapons Every Man Should Own; The Gentle Art of Manscaping; 5 Quick Cleanup Tasks; 5 Classic Shirts Every Man Should Own; and 5 Great Straight-Guy Cultural Weapons. And the glossary is a must-read: Did you know that “horrendo” is short for horrendous? “Used when something’s just too horrendo to say the whole word.” I give the Queer Eye book a “fab”: when something’s just too fab to say the whole word. —Blase DiStefano

Listen up! If the book isn’t enough for you or if you want more info on the Fab 5, there’s an audio book from Random House Audio (with the same long title), on which the five queer guys divulge their hometowns, professional backgrounds, personal celebrity-style influences, and other such titillating subjects. If you want to know who said, “I would love to make over Hugh Jackman, so that I can spend the day with him,” you’ll have to get the audio.

• Someone You Know
Gary Zebrun
Alyson Publications

If sleepless nights are your cup of tea, keep ’em coming with Someone You Know, the story of two men linked by murder.

Daniel Caruso is married, but when out of town, he spends a passionate night with Stephen Hart. Caruso receives a message that someone knows of his deception; a second message makes it clear that Hart has been murdered.

Caruso’s desperation to shield his wife and daughter from the truth is replaced by fear for their safety, as the killer drags him into a netherworld of bathhouses and S/M bars, where the killer stalks him openly.

Author Gary Zebrun: “I didn’t have to do much research about living in the closet. I wish I could say I researched abjectness and humiliation, but when you’re in the closet, they’re where you live.” —Troy Carrington

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