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Eyes Of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader
In a collection of essays, deaf lesbians and gay men discuss their lives, describing how they discovered their sexual identity, overcame barriers to communication in a hearing world, and created a deaf gay and lesbian culture. Original.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 20, 2016
I found this book in my work's library which is open to the public so if anyone would like to borrow it let me know :)
This book was a brilliant introduction into the amazing history of deaf gay and lesbian culture in the US! It's published by the same company that published A Persistent Desire and includes poetry, prose and interviews from lesbian, bisexual and gay people who are deaf. Written in 1993, I'm sure it's very dated now but I enjoyed reading about this quite specific moment in time. Writers discussed a really wide range of topics - how they discovered their sexual identities, overcoming barriers to communication in a sound-based world, what it means to be black, gay and deaf, dating and cruising when deaf, navigating relationships with deaf people, navigating relationships with hearing people, interpreting and the motives of hearing people who get involved with the deaf community, the diversity of identities that fall under the label 'deaf', how the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980's affected the deaf community in the US, dealing with abuse and sexual assault, navigating consent and sex and so much more.
This book was a brilliant introduction into the amazing history of deaf gay and lesbian culture in the US! It's published by the same company that published A Persistent Desire and includes poetry, prose and interviews from lesbian, bisexual and gay people who are deaf. Written in 1993, I'm sure it's very dated now but I enjoyed reading about this quite specific moment in time. Writers discussed a really wide range of topics - how they discovered their sexual identities, overcoming barriers to communication in a sound-based world, what it means to be black, gay and deaf, dating and cruising when deaf, navigating relationships with deaf people, navigating relationships with hearing people, interpreting and the motives of hearing people who get involved with the deaf community, the diversity of identities that fall under the label 'deaf', how the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980's affected the deaf community in the US, dealing with abuse and sexual assault, navigating consent and sex and so much more.
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January 18, 2024BOOK, EYES OF DESIRE: A DEAF GAY & LESBIAN READER (First edition published by Alyson Publications in 1993 and edited by Raymond Luczak)
Jeff Keith’s comments, looking again at my copy in 2020:
This book and edition 2 were excellent for me to read as the hearing partner of a Deaf man. The first edition was a ground-breaking book, and is kind of old now. I looked up more data on some of the most interesting authors. Luczak published a second volume along the same lines, with 85 contributors.
NOTES ON AUTHORS IN THIS ANTHOLOGY WHO WROTE UNDER THEIR REAL NAMES (trying to find out what they have been doing in the years since then)
There is a list of contributors in the back; unfortunately, quite a few people were not willing to write under their real names, and others didn’t say much about their lives or get hits on the Internet when I tried to look them up. I have added numbers to these, to see where their writings appear in the book.
Mary Abernathy (#4): psychologist, graduate from Gallaudet U., living in Washington.
Jaye Austin-Williams (#38, long bio. here): author, playwright, screen writer, and author of essays and short stories, including about life as an African American. She apparently lives in New York.
Amy Bernstein (#30): lives in Boston and works at Harvard U. Hearing lover of a Deaf woman, Hannah Gershon, who also has an article in this book.
Karen Bosley (#32, long bio. here): community activist from Seattle.
Gregg Brooks (#24, long bio. here): lives in L.A. and is involved in movies and television.
John Dibelka (#32, long bio. here): contributing editor to Bear magazine; wrote a book called Shooters under pseudonym Jay Shaffer.
Hannah Gershon (#31, long bio. here): late-deafened lesbian living in Boston, activist on disability issues et al. Lover of Amy Bernstein, who also has an article in this book.
Tom Kane (#5, long bio. here): AIDS and gay-Deaf activist, lives in DC area.
Raymond Luczak (#37, long bio. here): editor of this book; he later wrote other books, novels about being Deaf or gay or both, and some about other things.
Dorothy Marder (#22, long bio. here): late-deafened lesbian, activist for many years for peace, civil rights, and women’s rights; photographer (living where??).
Keith R. Mitchell (#41): photographer from the DC area.
Dragonsani “Drago” Renteria (#6, long bio. here): Chicano-Italian American activist raised in El Paso Texas and now in San Francisco Bay Area. Identified as a lesbian in this anthology but later transitioned to be an openly trans man with a beard. Well-known activist in San Francisco; he doesn’t seem to write down much about his own activism, but leaves it to other people to do that. NOTE that there is a fascinating article by his lover in Eyes of Desire edition 2.
Robert I. Roth (#36, long bio. here): grew up in Chicago, now in Seattle. Painter and writer.
Edward M. Schwartz (#42, long bio. here): Deaf taxi driver and actor from New York; died of AIDS in 1991.
Ann Silver (#2, long bio. here): long-time activist for women’s and lesbian rights as well as Deaf rights; member of The Furies; living in Seattle when this book was written.
W. Jamey Winkler (#33): dramatist from New Jersey; had just graduated from college when he contributed to this volume.
Jeff Keith’s comments, looking again at my copy in 2020:
This book and edition 2 were excellent for me to read as the hearing partner of a Deaf man. The first edition was a ground-breaking book, and is kind of old now. I looked up more data on some of the most interesting authors. Luczak published a second volume along the same lines, with 85 contributors.
NOTES ON AUTHORS IN THIS ANTHOLOGY WHO WROTE UNDER THEIR REAL NAMES (trying to find out what they have been doing in the years since then)
There is a list of contributors in the back; unfortunately, quite a few people were not willing to write under their real names, and others didn’t say much about their lives or get hits on the Internet when I tried to look them up. I have added numbers to these, to see where their writings appear in the book.
Mary Abernathy (#4): psychologist, graduate from Gallaudet U., living in Washington.
Jaye Austin-Williams (#38, long bio. here): author, playwright, screen writer, and author of essays and short stories, including about life as an African American. She apparently lives in New York.
Amy Bernstein (#30): lives in Boston and works at Harvard U. Hearing lover of a Deaf woman, Hannah Gershon, who also has an article in this book.
Karen Bosley (#32, long bio. here): community activist from Seattle.
Gregg Brooks (#24, long bio. here): lives in L.A. and is involved in movies and television.
John Dibelka (#32, long bio. here): contributing editor to Bear magazine; wrote a book called Shooters under pseudonym Jay Shaffer.
Hannah Gershon (#31, long bio. here): late-deafened lesbian living in Boston, activist on disability issues et al. Lover of Amy Bernstein, who also has an article in this book.
Tom Kane (#5, long bio. here): AIDS and gay-Deaf activist, lives in DC area.
Raymond Luczak (#37, long bio. here): editor of this book; he later wrote other books, novels about being Deaf or gay or both, and some about other things.
Dorothy Marder (#22, long bio. here): late-deafened lesbian, activist for many years for peace, civil rights, and women’s rights; photographer (living where??).
Keith R. Mitchell (#41): photographer from the DC area.
Dragonsani “Drago” Renteria (#6, long bio. here): Chicano-Italian American activist raised in El Paso Texas and now in San Francisco Bay Area. Identified as a lesbian in this anthology but later transitioned to be an openly trans man with a beard. Well-known activist in San Francisco; he doesn’t seem to write down much about his own activism, but leaves it to other people to do that. NOTE that there is a fascinating article by his lover in Eyes of Desire edition 2.
Robert I. Roth (#36, long bio. here): grew up in Chicago, now in Seattle. Painter and writer.
Edward M. Schwartz (#42, long bio. here): Deaf taxi driver and actor from New York; died of AIDS in 1991.
Ann Silver (#2, long bio. here): long-time activist for women’s and lesbian rights as well as Deaf rights; member of The Furies; living in Seattle when this book was written.
W. Jamey Winkler (#33): dramatist from New Jersey; had just graduated from college when he contributed to this volume.
January 26, 2025
This book was the first of its kind in the United States that provided the full insight of Deaf people who are members of Queer Community back in 1993. There are very few books out there like this. Excellent resource for the Queer community.
November 13, 2016
This was really interesting! It's a combination of non-fiction (essays, interviews in various formats) and fiction (prose, poetry) by and about deaf and gay people, largely in America during the 60s, 70s and 80s. There was also a section of interviews with Hearing people who currently or have in the past dated someone deaf or Hard of Hearing. Overall, I greatly prefered the non-fiction to the fiction, which tended to be kind of peculiar or just not to my taste; the notable exception being Raymond Luczak's poetry, with 'How to love a deaf man' being my favourite poem of the book.
It taught me a lot about attitudes among the deaf gay, deaf straight, and hearing gay community towards queer deaf people in the 1960s-1980s. And just about the gay community in general because... wow.. there was a LOT of having sex in bathrooms/trains, damn. There was also an interesting chapter about this deaf gay American (I assume) guy travelling all over Europe and.. talking about the different attitudes to gay people and gay sex.
It was surprising and kind of sad, some of the time. Like this one deaf guy being taken advantage of by these teenagers when he was only a kid, and how some Hearing guys only want to learn some signs from ASL to get deaf guys into bed. Apparently there was also the positive discrimination that deaf guys are terrific in bed, which is kind of sad when it's at some point linked to the idea that some Hearing guys are attracted to deaf people because they're often non-verbal.
I thought it'd be quite dry, but it was actually really absorbing. The fiction wasn't good enough for me to give it five stars, and I'd also really like something more current. Looking forward to reading the sequel.
It taught me a lot about attitudes among the deaf gay, deaf straight, and hearing gay community towards queer deaf people in the 1960s-1980s. And just about the gay community in general because... wow.. there was a LOT of having sex in bathrooms/trains, damn. There was also an interesting chapter about this deaf gay American (I assume) guy travelling all over Europe and.. talking about the different attitudes to gay people and gay sex.
It was surprising and kind of sad, some of the time. Like this one deaf guy being taken advantage of by these teenagers when he was only a kid, and how some Hearing guys only want to learn some signs from ASL to get deaf guys into bed. Apparently there was also the positive discrimination that deaf guys are terrific in bed, which is kind of sad when it's at some point linked to the idea that some Hearing guys are attracted to deaf people because they're often non-verbal.
I thought it'd be quite dry, but it was actually really absorbing. The fiction wasn't good enough for me to give it five stars, and I'd also really like something more current. Looking forward to reading the sequel.
August 16, 2012
A little bit dated but pretty much amazing/affirming anyways.
April 27, 2009
As far as I can tell, this book is the only one of its kind.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews