"Although acceptance of difference is on the rise in America, it's the rare gay or lesbian person who has not been demeaned because of his or her sexual orientation, and this experience usually starts at home, among family members." "Whether they are excluded from family love and approval, expected to accept second-class status for life, ignored by mainstream arts and entertainment, or abandoned when intervention would make all the difference, gay people are routinely subjected to forms of psychological and physical abuse unknown to many straight Americans." "Familial homophobia," as prizewinning writer and professor Sarah Schulman calls it, is a phenomenon that until now has not had a name but that is very much a part of life for the LGBT community. In the same way that Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will transformed our understanding of rape by moving the stigma from the victim to the perpetrator, Schulman's Ties That Bind calls on us to recognize familial homophobia. She invites us to understand it not as a personal problem but a widespread cultural crisis. She challenges us to take up our responsibilities to intervene without violating families, community, and the state. With devastating examples, Schulman clarifies how abusive treatment of homosexuals at home enables abusive treatment of homosexuals in other relationships as well as in society at large." Ambitious, original, and deeply important, Schulman's book draws on her own experiences, her research, and her activism to probe this complex issue - still very much with us at the start of the twenty-first century - and to articulate a vision for a more accepting world.
Sarah Schulman's work draws a bit too heavily on her personal experiences and could have done with some interviews from others. While she does conclude that the source of much of the homophobia present stems from familial acceptence, her willingness to discount issues of her family of orgin and personal struggles with finding a therapist constitue approximately a 50 page rant woven through the text of the book.
Schulman's work will be looked back at as opening the door for researchers in psychology, anthropology and sociology in discussing this key issue but this work alone needs emperical data and additional works to support her hypothesis which is compelling: that the foundation of the life is family and how families of orgin react reflects how lesbians specifically accept their gay identity. Right now, it stands alone and thus, a bit too much of an angry tirade at times. But still, a worthy read for anybody working in the mental health professions or anybody in the LGBT community (individuals, or friends and family).
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Overview
"Although acceptance of difference is on the rise in America, it's the rare gay or lesbian person who has not been demeaned because of his or her sexual orientation, and this experience usually starts at home, among family members." "Whether they are excluded from family love and approval, expected to accept second-class status for life, ignored by mainstream arts and entertainment, or abandoned when intervention would make all the difference, gay people are routinely subjected to forms of psychological and physical abuse unknown to many straight ...