“I had a terrific childhood before sex came to complicate everything,” writes author J.H. Hayes in a summary of his book. Raised in a Southern Baptist household near Houston, Hayes realized that he was gay during middle and high school; struggling with religious guilt, he escaped through drugs. Hayes recounts the dizzying years of 1975–’82: an arrest, a trip to rehab, his meeting and marrying a woman he met there, his college affair with a married man, his coming out in 1980, and his subsequent divorce a year later. From there, he chronicles his work as an AIDS activist, his second marriage (to his husband), and his relationship with his mother, a devout Baptist who grew to accept her son. Hayes wrote the book in the hope that others will learn from his experiences—which, judging from his synopsis, are many and memorable. Club Lighthouse Publishing (clublighthousepublishing.com). More at jhhayes.com. —Terrance Turner
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