Faggots in the library?

Well, of course. We’ve always been here, flipping through dusty page after page, trying to find representations of ourselves that were honest and unafraid. Before we went to the bars or took a peak in the bushes, we turned to books for inspiration and stimulation. The books we found were often filled with stereotypes or, even worse, bad writing. But we’ve kept coming back, and even today, when the Internet is supposed to make connecting so easy and online cruising has become so respectable (and horrible), we’re still searching the library for those revolutionary texts that are going to let us know that we are not alone, and give us the tools to challenge the status quo. And now, finally, a book that is not afraid to flaunt its faggotry in all its flaming glory, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s newest anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, is coming out on Valentine’s Day, 2012! In celebration of this exciting moment in queer book history, the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the San Francisco Public Library would like to invite you to the official book launch event, including a lively and stimulating discussion with contributors Jaime Cortez, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Debanuj DasGupta, Booh Edouardo, Eric Stanley, Harris Kornstein, Gina de Vries, Horehound Stillpoint, Matthew D. Blanchard, and your host and editor Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. This Valentine’s Day treat starts at 6pm in the, Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room in the lower level of the Main Library.

Through thirty different essays from a wide range of authors, several of them from the Bay Area, this anthology challenges the current dismal state of mainstream gay culture, asking questions and offering possibilities that go beyond consumerism and cocktails. The essays knock gaping holes into the vapidity that has come to translate as the de rigueur markings of gay culture. And in a time when assimilation through marriage, the military, and, oh yes, money, has become unquestioning and unquestionable, this anthology dares to provoke from inside the annals of gay culture. Here are links to a couple of glowing reviews: Publisher's Weekly and New York Journal of Books.

See you there!