Out Our Way: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Country

by Michael Riordon, Michael Riordan

Michael Riordan celebrates the survival of ordinary, extraordinary people whose experiences are rarely reflected in the media. These stories of courage and humour were gathered in the course of two years and 27,000 kilometres of travel, and some three hundred in-person conversations.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1996

Reviews

[cait · Rating 5 out of 5]

in the most depressing way possible this book has made me want to abandon my current urban lifestyle and retreat to vancouver island with my gf to live among nothing but the trees

[Vasha7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something particularly compelling about the stories of real people, and this book provides a feast of them. Riordon has a gift for distilling a mini-biography down to a few vivid pages, quoting from his interviews. There are both serene and bitter stories here, people who are happily in love and also those who are lonely, and many tales of suffering and great courage. Just as fascinating as the experience of finding a place among mostly straight society, are the many and creative ways that the people profiled make their living in rural areas, sometimes in small towns, sometimes far away from other humans. This was written in 1996, before Canada legalized same-sex marriage, and not long after its courts struck down discriminatory laws. I'm dying to know how these amazing people fared in the 15 years since.