Books
FALL ARTS 2019: BOOKS — ‘Revisiting Gilead’
‘Handmaid’s’ sequel, Van Ness and Rippon memoirs, posthumous Windsor bio, epic Sontag study and more among fall releases


Inspirational “tell-alls” from athletes, activists and celebrities comprise many of the highly anticipated LGBT books slated for release in the coming months.
Kicking things off Sept. 3 was the release of former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan’s memoir “My Life on the Line: How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life.” O’Callaghan’s work reveals the physical and emotional pain driving his addictions and suicidal thoughts while struggling as a closeted lineman for the New England Patriots and later the Kansas City Chiefs. His journey to self-acceptance is challenging as it detours through the hyper masculine world of professional football.
“We are Lost and Found” by Helene Dunbar is a coming-of-age story of a group of gay friends struggling to find their identities against the backdrop of the early 1980’s AIDS crisis. This YA novel provides an interesting way for youth of all backgrounds to explore a dark history that is rarely discussed. It was released Sept. 3.
Finding poetry in Drunktown, N.M., where men “only touch when they fuck in a backseat” is exactly what Jake Skeets had done with “Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers.” This debut collection finds beauty in brutal sex against an unforgiving landscape, yet also reveals unexpected love. Blending Navajo history with mining culture, Skeets’ work was selected as a winner of the 2018 National Poetry series. It was released Sept. 10.
Also released earlier this week was “The Testaments: the Sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. Since the hit Hulu series captured fire, Atwood opted to finally write a follow-up to her acclaimed 1985 novel upon which the series is based. It picks up Offred’s story 15 years after the first book and weaves in strands of story from the show that weren’t in the original book.
“Sontag: Her Life and Work” by Benjamin Moser explores the writing, public radicalism and private thoughts of queer activist Susan Sontag, who wrote on feminism, homosexuality, drugs and fascism long before these issues went mainstream. She was there for the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnam War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. She covered it all while enduring intense relationships with glamorous lovers. This hefty work — it’s more than 700 pages — explores her public successes and private failures with an eye toward history that makes it a must read. Out Sept. 17.
Releasing the same day is “Space Between: Explorations of Love, Sex and Fluidity” by gender-fluid actor and model Nico Tortorella, who has had roles in “Scream 4,” “The Following” and “Younger.” It investigates love, sex, gender, addiction, family, fame and fluidity through their personal story and through the lens of their nonbinary identity. This memoir tells of their dark journey through pain and addiction toward sobriety and an unconventional marriage outside the gender binary. This title is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
“Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness’s memoir “Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love” is out Sept. 24.
Poet (and regular Blade contributor) Kathi Wolfe’s new book “Love and Kumquats: New and Selected Poems” will be published by BrickHouse Books in October. She will read selections at Busboys & Poets (14th and V) on Oct. 20.
“The Boy Who Listened to Paintings: A Memoir” by Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award winner Dean Kostos explores a point in his life when he was bullied to the brink of suicide and spent two years in the mental hospital where his mother had stayed. This work addresses mental illness in adolescents and celebrates the transformative power of art. Available Oct. 1.
Edie Windsor sued the U.S. government for the right to marry Thea Spyer, her partner of 40 years, and she won. “A Wild and Precious Life” is her posthumous memoir (she died in 2017) describing gay life in 1950s and ’60s New York and her longtime activism which opened the door to marriage equality. Available Oct. 8.
Selected by O Magazine, Marie Claire and others as one of the most anticipated books of fall 2019, “How We Fight For Our Lives” by Saeed Jones is a memoir about a young, black gay man coming of age in the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself in his family as well as his country. Fans of the film “Moonlight” will appreciate the honesty and vulnerability displayed in this work. Set for release Oct. 8.
Olympic medalist Adam Rippon’s memoir “Beautiful on the Outside” releases Oct. 15 and blends humor with history as he shares his journey through the world of competitive figure skating.
Deborah Levy’s “The Man Who Saw Everything” is novel that blurs the sexual and political binaries of masculine and feminine while telling the story of a narcissistic young historian who travels to Communist East Berlin in 1988 to publish a story favorable to the regime. It’s slated for Oct. 15.
“A Year Without A Name” by Cyrus Grace Dunham is a memoir detailing their painful evolution from lovable little girl, to gay woman to nonbinary queerness. Dunham lays bare their personal experience to help readers feel the anguish of binary limitations but also the profound freedom of acceptance without resolution. Dunham’s book also releases Oct. 15 and is available for pre-order
“Find Me,” the sequel to queer love story “Call Me By Your Name” by Andre Aciman, is slated for an Oct. 29 release and will let the world know what became of Elio, Oliver and Elio’s father, now divorced. The original novel inspired the 2017 film adaptation by Luca Guadagnino, which became a monster hit.
Trans novelist (and former D.C. resident) Alex Myers returns with his sophomore novel “Continental Divide,” about a trans protagonist heading West to Wyoming in search of a new life, in November.
Carmen Maria Machado, winner of the Lambda Lesbian Fiction Literary Award for her debut short story collection, “Her Body and Other Parties,” has a new memoir coming out Nov. 5 called “In the Dream House.” This work is an account of an abusive relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman. Throughout the memoir Machado struggles to make sense of what happened to her and how it shaped the person she would become. “Dream House” is available now on Amazon for pre-order.
“Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman” is Abby Stein’s memoir about being raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. But instead of becoming a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews, she leaves her home, her family, her way of life to become the person she was meant to be. Stein’s memoir releases Nov. 12.
The alternative historical drama “Legislating Love: the Everett Klippert Story” by Natalie Meisner blends fiction with queer history as it tells the story of Maxine, a Canadian social policy researcher, who discovers the story of Everett Klippert, the last Canadian man jailed for homosexuality. Fascinated, she interviews the people who knew him while navigating her own relationship with Tonya. Set for release Nov. 15.
Books
Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’
New book uncovers horror, unexpected humor of discredited practice

‘Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy’
By Lucas F. W. Wilson
c.2025, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
$21.95/190 pages
You’re a few months in, and it hasn’t gotten any easier.
You made your New Year’s resolutions with forethought, purpose, and determination but after all this time, you still struggle, ugh. You’ve backslid. You’ve cheated because change is hard. It’s sometimes impossible. And in the new book, “Shame-Sex Attraction” by Lucas F. W. Wilson, it can be exceptionally traumatic.

Progress does not come without problems.
While it’s true that the LGBTQ community has been adversely affected by the current administration, there are still things to be happy about when it comes to civil rights and acceptance. Still, says Wilson, one “particularly slow-moving aspect… has been the fight against what is widely known as conversion therapy.”
Such practices, he says, “have numerous damaging, death-dealing, and no doubt disastrous consequences.” The stories he’s collected in this volume reflect that, but they also mirror confidence and strength in the face of detrimental treatment.
Writer Gregory Elsasser-Chavez was told to breathe in something repellent every time he thought about other men. He says, in the end, he decided not to “pray away the gay.” Instead, he quips, he’d “sniff it away.”
D. Apple became her “own conversation therapist” by exhausting herself with service to others as therapy. Peter Nunn’s father took him on a surprise trip, but the surprise was a conversion facility; Nunn’s father said if it didn’t work, he’d “get rid of” his 15-year-old son. Chaim Levin was forced to humiliate himself as part of his therapy.
Lexie Bean struggled to make a therapist understand that they didn’t want to be a man because they were “both.” Jordan Sullivan writes of the years it takes “to re-integrate and become whole” after conversion therapy. Chris Csabs writes that he “tried everything to find the root of my problem” but “nothing so far had worked.”
Says Syre Klenke of a group conversion session, “My heart shattered over and over as people tried to console and encourage each other…. I wonder if each of them is okay and still with us today.”
Here’s a bit of advice for reading “Shame-Sex Attraction”: dip into the first chapter, maybe the second, then go back and read the foreword and introduction, and resume.
The reason: author Lucas F. W. Wilson’s intro is deep and steep, full of footnotes and statistics, and if you’re not prepared or you didn’t come for the education, it might scare you away. No, the subtitle of this book is likely why you’d pick the book up so because that’s what you really wanted, indulge before backtracking.
You won’t be sorry; the first stories are bracing and they’ll steel you for the rest, for the emotion and the tears, the horror and the unexpected humor.
Be aware that there are triggers all over this book, especially if you’ve been subjected to anything like conversion therapy yourself. Remember, though, that the survivors are just that: survivors, and their strength is what makes this book worthwhile. Even so, though “Shame-Sex Attraction” is an essential read, that doesn’t make it any easier.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Books
How one gay Catholic helped change the world
‘A Prince of a Boy,’ falls short of author’s previous work

Brian McNaught, the pioneering gay activist and author of 1986’s “On Being Gay” and 1993’s “Gay Issues in the Workplace,” has written a personal account about his Catholic faith and homosexuality. It is a memoir without much substance.
“A Prince of a Boy: How One Gay Catholic Helped Change the World” (Cascade Books) is a strong personal statement by McNaught. He helped change family relationships. He helped change attitudes about homosexuality. He helped change workplaces, but the world?

In January 2023, the Catholic News Service reported that Pope Francis announced that, “being homosexual is not a crime.” In December 2023, NPR reported that Pope Francis approved “Catholic blessings for same-sex couples, but not for marriage.” Francis died Monday at age 88. Although Catholics may not see homosexuality as a crime, they see sex outside of marriage as a sin. They see same-sex marriage as a sin.
In 2021, Gallup reported that membership in the Catholic Church had declined 20 percent since 2000. In 2025, the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study found that nearly 40 percent of Americans identified as Protestant, while the same study found that only 19 percent identified as Catholic.
McNaught devotes much of his book to his life as a gay Catholic. It is challenging to read about his personal struggle. Some readers may find it interesting. Others might find it boring. Catholic readers may find it more compelling than Protestant readers.
As the above statistics prove, McNaught has much more work to do to change the Catholic Church’s views about homosexuality. We should be glad for his contribution to the debate within the Catholic Church. We should pray for full acceptance of gays in the Catholic Church.
“A Prince of a Boy” becomes more interesting when McNaught describes his work as an educator on LGBTQ issues. He has had an impact on workplace policies, academic programs, and public education, and his lectures, books, and other materials are widely used.
Based on my experience in the federal government and volunteering with LGBTQ organizations from the Bay Area to Washington, D.C., I believe McNaught’s work as an educator has improved LGBTQ lives, careers, and families. During the Clinton administration, I gave many copies of “Gay Issues in the Workplace” to personnel directors. I felt their staff could benefit from reading it. I thought it would help the lives and careers of my federal LGBTQ colleagues.
McNaught’s “A Prince of a Boy” was released in December 2024. Anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant died the same month. Bryant campaigned against a gay rights law in Florida. She began a national campaign against gays.
When Bryant successfully reversed a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida, McNaught wrote the important essay “Dear Anita, Late Night Thoughts of an Irish Catholic Homosexual.” The essay is not in “A Prince of a Boy”; however, McNaught mentions Bryant.
In his training programs, McNaught describes homosexuals as journeying from confusion to denial to acceptance to pride. “Anita Bryant and AIDS brought Gay people to identity pride very quickly,” McNaught writes. San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (1930-1978) and other activists reached similar conclusions about Bryant’s vicious anti-gay campaign.
McNaught helped change the LGBTQ world and brought pride to many people’s lives. McNaught walks in pride, works in pride, and educates others in pride.
“A Prince of a Boy” is a disappointing book. It provides small details about Brian McNaught’s large, proud life. A meaningful biography about this great gay leader is long overdue.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Books
‘Pronoun Trouble’ reminds us that punctuation matters
‘They’ has been a shape-shifter for more than 700 years

‘Pronoun Trouble’
By John McWhorter
c.2025, Avery
$28/240 pages
Punctuation matters.
It’s tempting to skip a period at the end of a sentence Tempting to overuse exclamation points!!! very tempting to MeSs with capital letters. Dont use apostrophes. Ask a question and ignore the proper punctuation commas or question marks because seriously who cares. So guess what? Someone does, punctuation really matters, and as you’ll see in “Pronoun Trouble” by John McWhorter, so do other parts of our language.

Conversation is an odd thing. It’s spontaneous, it ebbs and flows, and it’s often inferred. Take, for instance, if you talk about him. Chances are, everyone in the conversation knows who him is. Or he. That guy there.
That’s the handy part about pronouns. Says McWhorter, pronouns “function as shorthand” for whomever we’re discussing or referring to. They’re “part of our hardwiring,” they’re found in all languages, and they’ve been around for centuries.
And, yes, pronouns are fluid.
For example, there’s the first-person pronoun, I as in me and there we go again. The singular I solely affects what comes afterward. You say “he-she IS,” and “they-you ARE” but I am. From “Black English,” I has also morphed into the perfectly acceptable Ima, shorthand for “I am going to.” Mind blown.
If you love Shakespeare, you may’ve noticed that he uses both thou and you in his plays. The former was once left to commoners and lower classes, while the latter was for people of high status or less formal situations. From you, we get y’all, yeet, ya, you-uns, and yinz. We also get “you guys,” which may have nothing to do with guys.
We and us are warmer in tone because of the inclusion implied. She is often casually used to imply cars, boats, and – warmly or not – gay men, in certain settings. It “lacks personhood,” and to use it in reference to a human is “barbarity.”
And yes, though it can sometimes be confusing to modern speakers, the singular word “they” has been a “shape-shifter” for more than 700 years.
Your high school English teacher would be proud of you, if you pick up “Pronoun Trouble.” Sadly, though, you might need her again to make sense of big parts of this book: What you’ll find here is a delightful romp through language, but it’s also very erudite.
Author John McWhorter invites readers along to conjugate verbs, and doing so will take you back to ancient literature, on a fascinating journey that’s perfect for word nerds and anyone who loves language. You’ll likely find a bit of controversy here or there on various entries, but you’ll also find humor and pop culture, an explanation for why zie never took off, and assurance that the whole flap over strictly-gendered pronouns is nothing but overblown protestation. Readers who have opinions will like that.
Still, if you just want the pronoun you want, a little between-the-lines looking is necessary here, so beware. “Pronoun Trouble” is perfect for linguists, writers, and those who love to play with words but for most readers, it’s a different kind of book, period.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
-
Books4 days ago
Chronicling disastrous effects of ‘conversion therapy’
-
U.S. Federal Courts3 days ago
Second federal lawsuit filed against White House passport policy
-
Opinions4 days ago
We must show up to WorldPride 2025 in D.C.
-
District of Columbia3 days ago
Ruby Corado sentencing postponed for third time