This book really challenged my views on sexuality, sex, and radical feminist and queer thought. Theory, story, interview and case study blended together to create a coherent radical queer agenda against assimilation into the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. The hot topics of the "gay rights" white gay male "movement" are Gay Marriage, Adoption, and the Right to Military Service. These all benefit the system more than they benefit queer liberation, so that even if you win, you lose.

One of the highlights of the book for me was the story of PISS, the campus movement to create gender-neutral and handicap accessable bathrooms. To have things as simple as being able to go to the bathroom be a serious complication with your body and identity is heartbreaking. It was inspiring to read about what I had previously thought of as disparate movements working together for a common goal and supporting one another.

Another highlight was the article stating that Gay Marriage is racist. Marriage is seen as the route to assimilation and acceptance from the hetero world. The interviewee made the case, however, that black families and mixed-race families often have the "foundation" of marriage. Black people have done the experiment of marrying for acceptance within the larger society, but the state sees them as "queer" (as in, part of the "other" that isn't white and wealthy). The state destroys their families by jailing the father, refusing welfare to the mother, and putting up children for adoption or foster care. Therefore, marriage is an ineffective route to acceptance, and even if it were effective, it would be selective acceptance based on race, as black people are systematically denied family and marriage.

After reading this book, I was embarassed that I put HRC stickers on my class binders in university to show that I was a queer ally. ( )

An absolutely fantastic set of essays with a little bit of everything. Other reviewers have said what I would say better, so I'll leave it at that. ( )

And this was how I discovered there were queers even farther to the left than I am. (I didn't realize that was possible.) A collection of essays by radical queers, some talking about their personal experiences living far outside of the mainstream, others talking about activism. (My favorite essay was the one detailing attempts to make bathrooms more disabled- and trans-friendly.) Aimed towards an activist (current or potential) rather than an academic audience, the essays are readable, sassy and generally fun, though at times the constantly brassy, "hell yeah!" tone wore thin for me and I hungered for a little ambivalence and introspection. If you're not on the same page, politically, as the contributors, you might find some of these essays challenging and even obnoxious -- I personally have a love/hate with the whole Gay Shame ethos (google it) -- but you definitely won't be bored. ( )

I skimmed a couple of essays and what I found was anti-assimilation manifestos. I think I was looking for a more cohesive view of what a queer society would look like. Maybe it's further on in the book. Maybe it's an amalgamation of all the essays. I'm kind of tired of being the opposition party. I think I'm looking for a vision that arrives somewhere and isn't just continual revolution. ( )