Product Description

In this collection of short articles, Dr. Robert N. Minor, author of Scared Straight: Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It’s So Hard to be Human, a 2002 finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the Independent Publisher Book Award, applies his critically acclaimed insight to the issues of life today.

Written since 1998 as monthly columns, Gay and Healthy in a Sick Society challenges gay people and their allies to see how not being or acting "straight" is actually a healthy approach to life. Gay people are just fine, Dr. Minor affirms. It’s society that’s very sick. Most societal perspectives, attitudes, and solutions prevent all people from living fully, stifle their abilities to relate to themselves and others as human beings, and keep society stuck using the same old failing political, social, and religious answers to life’s challenges.

Dr. Minor doesn’t waste energy complaining about those opposed to gay people, but speaks to how lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender people, and their allies see themselves, respond to their critics, and define their own life. Admiring the values of the sickness around them may help people fit in but not contribute to personal or societal healing. Instead, Gay and Healthy proclaims, LGBT people must not bury, but value, their own language, definitions, answers, and insights into the variety of problems around them problems which hurt everyone but which society would prefer to act out against LGBT people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1956311 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 233 pages

Review
"Book of the Week, January 5-11, 2004" -- www.Menstuff.org

"One of the "Best Gay Books of 2003" -- Jesse Monteagudo,

"kindly, clear-headed, sensible, honest, accessible, compassionate...." -- Richard Labonte,

...kindly collection of clear-headed musings...His talent for pithy analysis is one of the collection's strengths....accessible, compassionate.... -- Bookmarks (Q Syndicate), January 5, 2004

...the textbook we've been waiting for...I challenge anyone not to be inspired, challenged and reawakened.... -- Midwest Times, December 2003

2004 Finalist -- Independent Publisher Book Award

An excellent addition to any library -- Virginia Gayzette

This ground-breaking book challenges old-fashioned social concepts. A savvy scholar examines personal relationships and core issues. -- Gay Today.com, December 5, 2003

About the Author
Robert N. Minor, Ph.D. is a nationally acclaimed lecturer, writer and workshop leader on issues of gender, sexual orientation, and active change. He is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. In 1999, GLAAD awarded him its Leadership Award in education.

Customer Reviews

Easy reading but deceptively profound
A great follow-up to Dr. Minor's book: Scared Straight. Though the title talks about being gay, it soon becomes evident to the reader that the unique perspectives he has on the variety of topics applies to any human being who wants to create their own psychological health in a society that, as the author shows, is very, very ill. His insights on relationships, sex, self-esteem, and culture are surprising in the sense that they are not what I expected but are so right on. Even the sections that refer to past events contain ideas that are so relevant today. And it's easy reading with ideas that seem like common sense, but only after Dr. Minor points them out. I'd love to go to one of the workshops he does around the country if he comes to New York.