Stark Truths

Book excerpt: "These linked pieces of profound truth-telling span the pre-Stonewall days through the hippie era in England and the United States. Although they explore historic elements in lesbian culture, when butch and femme roles were a norm, for ex., they are also sadly current. We may have made gay marriage the law of the land, but our president just tweeted that transgendered individuals are no longer welcome in the military. Gillian Herbert's words compel us to never forget that acts of violence and rape spring from homophobia, and that many gay people are still living closeted and traumatized as a result of these abominations. In 2016, at Pulse, the gay club in Orlando, forty-nine men, mostly Latino, were killed. Gillian is a survivor, who has given us who have experienced, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, racism, and discrimination because we are of size, a road map to self-love and liberation." -Willa Schneberg, winner of the Oregon Book Award in Poetry, author of Rending the Garment; psychotherapist in private practice.