Out in the World: Gay and Lesbian Life from Buenos Aires to Bangkok

gay and lesbian life from Buenos Aires to Bangkok

Plot

A journalistic account of gay and lesbian life in the diverse gay communities of Thailand, Germany, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and other locales, sheds light on the cultural, political, and social factors influencing gay life.

"In his award-winning In Search of Gay America, Neil Miller dispelled stereotypes with his evocative portraits of gays and lesbians in small cities and rural towns across the country. Now, in Out in the World, he takes us on a fascinating and unique tour through even less-charted territory: the current state of gay and lesbian life in twelve countries around the globe." ""This is a volume of reportage," Miller writes, "an examination of lives of gays and lesbians and the societies that formed them, reflected them - and were often (but not always) at odds with them." We travel with him to Egypt, where the Western notion of gay identity is an alien concept but where strict separation of the sexes has fostered a long history of homosexuality. We visit Japan, where lesbians and gays are not so much discriminated against as politely ignored. We stop off in Denmark, where same-sex marriage is legal, and go to Czechoslovakia and the former East Germany, where gays and lesbians cope with new freedoms and economic dislocations following the collapse of communism. Whether he's talking to lesbian Maoris in New Zealand or gay South African gold miners, Miller captures the vivid, absorbing, and often inspiring stories of women and men who are simply trying to live their lives, often in a climate of repression or opposition."

Contents:
1. South Africa: Coming Out in Black and White. Johannesburg. Welkom, Orange Free State. Welkom Postscript. Cape Town
2. Egypt: In the Realm of the Polymorphous Perverse. Cairo
3. Hong Kong: The Red Army at the Disco
4. Thailand I: City of Angels. Bangkok
5. Thailand II: Mr. Minami Dances. Bangkok
6. Japan: The Emperor's New Clothes. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka
7. Argentina and Uruguay: Heartbreak Tango. Buenos Aires. Montevideo
8. Australia: Out in the Outback. Brisbane and Sydney. Melbourne. Hobart, Burnie, and Ulverstone, Tasmania
9. Australia and New Zealand: The Land They Lost. Melbourne. Wellington, New Zealand
10. Czechoslovakia: Painting the Tank Pink. Prague
11. Germany: After the Wall. East Berlin
12. Denmark: How Lovely to Be Together. Copenhagen