Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality

by Eric Brandt (Editor)

A groundbreaking study of the intersections of race and sexuality, by an all-star group of writers. From Selma and Stonewall to California’s Proposition 209 and the Defense of Marriage Act, blacks and gays continue to face resistance. Conservatives often lump these two groups together by arguing that both are demanding not equal rights, but “special” rights. In fact, gay rights activists have drawn parallels between their own struggles and the civil rights movement. Yet others have balked at any comparison, and conflict between the minorities has recently arisen. In an unprecedented undertaking, Dangerous Liaisons provides a platform for the leading minds of both communities, including those who straddle both worlds, to debate the volatile subject of the relationship between African Americans and homosexuals. In eleven newly commissioned pieces together with five classic essays, Dangerous Liaisons addresses such timely issues as attitudes toward gay marriage versus attitudes toward interracial marriage; the growth of gay and lesbian rights organizations and homophobia in the black church; and conflict among minorities in the arts. Dangerous Liaisons presents well-known historians, political analysts, activists, artists, writers, and philosophers on minority relations in the struggle for legal, social, and cultural equality.

Contributors: Michael Bronski, George Chauncey, Cheryl Clark, Cathy Cohen, Gary Comstock, Samuel Delany, Martin Duberman, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jewelle Gomez, Pillip Brian Harper, Audre Lorde, Robert Reid-Pharr, Darieck Scott, Barbara Smith, Alisa Solomon, Cornel West

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book would be super out of date having been published in 1999, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the same ideas I've heard talked about now were also being talked about then. Some of the essays are a little bizarre and feel barely on-topic, but there are many outstanding ones as well. Particularly good are the essays written by black lesbians.