Collection: Shop Gay

Lies with a Straight Face tells the fascinating story of the precipitous rise and fall of the "ex-gay" conversion industry in a manner that is both enlightening and entertaining. This fast-moving, fact-based book is perfect or those who enjoy the marriage of politics, history and current events.

The book features the riveting story of the 1998 Truth in Love ad campaign, where the Religious Right's most prominent organizations joined forces to prove that LGBTQ people could be converted to heterosexuality through prayer and therapy. Their provocative national ad campaign created saturation media coverage, turned "ex-gay" into a household term and sparked innumerable water cooler conversations.

In this book, you'll find out the shocking results of the Truth in Love campaign and learn about what happened to their outspoken "ex-gay" poster boys and girls. Lies with a Straight Face also discusses the contemporary con artists in the "ex-gay" industry and offers tangible ways for today's leaders to fight back.

Lies with a Straight Face is a sequel published on the twenty-year anniversary of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, Besen's original book documents the history of conversion "cure" programs from the early 20th Century to 2002. His new book discusses what happened from 2003 up to the present day.

"To prevail in our present-day battles, we must learn from our past," said Besen. "Ex-gay conversion programs are a farce that wreck families and destroy lives."

The Annotated Joseph and His Friend: The Story of America's First Gay Novel contains the original novel by Bayard Taylor, with annotations and commentary by L.A. Fields. Joseph and His Friend is the story of a young Pennsylvania farmer, Joseph Asten, and his marriage to Julia Blessing around the same time as a more powerful friendship arises in his life. Joseph's chance meeting with Philip Held casts doubts on the motivations of his bride-to-be, and as her duplicity is revealed during their marriage, Joseph's love for Philip becomes more and more vital to his survival.

The notes accompanying each chapter of this book move from the private life of the man who inspired the story (Fitz-Greene Halleck), through the secrets of its author (Bayard Taylor), noting especially his private love for and public rivalry with Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass). The notes then expand on Whitman's unique position in gay and American history: the nascent coming-out letters Whitman called "avowals" from the likes of Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde; Whitman's witnessing of the Civil War, the Lincoln presidency, and his lover's chance attendance at Ford's Theater the night of Lincoln's assassination; as well as Whitman's own understanding and defense for writing honestly about the love of men.

​The structure of the project combines Taylor's original 1870 novel with brief strings of American history, contemporary anecdote, and curiosities from a more secret history. A new topic is positioned behind every chapter, providing the background that reveals just how important this novel was at the time, how rare it is now, and how daring it's always been to tell the truth.

2022 Lambda Literary Award WINNER in LGBTQ Mystery

Two lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes--and an even greater desire to commit them--in the new mystery novel by Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver.

Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled seventeen-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She's lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves as intellectuals, drawing the notice of Christine Martins, their dazzling English teacher, who enthralls them with her passion for literature and her love of noirish detective fiction.

When Philippa returns a novel Miss Martins has lent her, she interrupts a man grappling with her in the shadows. Frightened, Philippa flees, unsure who the man is or what she's seen. Days later, her teacher returns to school altered: a dark shell of herself. On the heels of her teacher's transformation, a classmate is found dead in the Anacostia River--murdered--the body stripped and defiled with a mysterious inscription.

As the girls follow the clues and wrestle with newfound feelings toward each other, they suspect that the killer is closer to their circle than they imagined--and that the greatest threat they face may not be lurking in the halls at school, or in the city streets, but creeping out from a murderous impulse of their own.

"With honesty, self-awareness, and plenty of humor, Joshua Gonzales delivers a life-affirming memoir about seeing the beauty in painful experiences, standing strong against adversity, and staying positive no matter what life may throw our way."

- Daniel Aleman, author of INDIVISIBLE

"Keep Sweet is filled with uplifting, thoughtful, and easily digestible bits of good advice. Joshua Gonzales shares how he jump-started his own life with kindness, positivity, and a blazing streak of gay. YA readers will be eager to get their lives started after reading this enthusiastic road map."

- Richie Jackson, author of Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son

"In his memoir Keep Sweet, Joshua has created a charming booster shot to the soul for young adults everywhere. He exudes an irrepressible optimism as he recounts tales of his life transition from an awkward Texas teen in a large Latine family to an out and proud, married gay actor working in New York City. But he also delivers the important messages of diversity, love, and inclusion that the world sorely needs right now. This book is a must-read for all queerlings and those that love them!"

- Britt East, author of A Gay Man's Guide to Life

Keep Sweet: My Homemade Recipe for a Fulfilling Gay Life tells how a Mexican-American kid, raised in the small town of Huntsville, Texas, kept believing in his innate fabulousness, and how that led him to finding a secret same-sex romance while attending a private Baptist university, then to being thrust into working with his Broadway idols minutes after stepping foot into New York City. Joshua Gonzales rolls out his own inspiring life story, peppered with wit, enthusiasm, and wry, tough-love advice.

This is no Misery Memoir. Through tough lessons learned, Joshua shows that, with your own foresight and self-determination, you can skirt the path of potential misery, while keeping your humor and optimism intact. And may we all help the next generation of queer youth grow into the out, proud, empathetic, kind, and powerful adults they were born to be.

Based in New York City, Joshua Gonzales is a Mexican-American performer and content creator best known for Guest Star and Co-Star roles on ABC, Lifetime, CNN, and theatre credits Off-Broadway, on National Tours, and on regional stages across America. For six years, Joshua served as a company member and communications associate for Third Rail Projects, the premier immersive theatre company based in New York City. Joshua holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre performance.

When not working, Joshua loves spending time with his husband making espresso martinis or hunting down the latest new pastry treat in the city. You can often find Joshua in the gym, blasting Mariah Carey through his earbuds.

This captivating sequel to The Buried and the Bound draws readers into the twisted and irresistible world of the Fair Folk--perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and The Hazel Wood.

As a new coven, Aziza, Leo, and Tristan faced evil and triumphed. All that's left is to put their lives back together, a process complicated by the fallout from painful secrets, the emotional and physical scars they now carry, and the mysteries that still haunt them.

But with the approach of the solstice comes the arrival of strange new visitors to Blackthorn: the Summer Court, a nomadic community of Fair Folk from deep in Elphame. They've journeyed to the border between the human world and fairyland, far from their usual caravan route, to take back something that belongs to them--something Leo's not willing to lose.

Refusing to give up without a fight, he makes a risky deal with the Summer Court's princess and regent. The challenge she proposes sends Coven Blackthorn into the farthest, wildest reaches of Elphame.

But when you play games with the Fair Folk, even winning has a cost.

Winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize

The story of a small town's fight over LGBTQ+ rights that reveals how the far right weaponizes social issues to declare whose lives are valuable--and whose are expendable

A new preface bridges the past and the present in Arlene Stein's award-winning work of narrative sociology, The Stranger Next Door, contextualizing the so-called "culture wars" as they have evolved since the post-Reagan years. With deep on-the-ground research and vivid storytelling, Stein explores how the right mobilizes fear and uncertainty to shift blame onto "strangers" and how these symbolic struggles undermine democracy.

Faced with globalization and automation, the working-class citizens of the Pacific Northwest's "Timbertown" felt left behind, fearing job loss and the hollowing out of their small town. Religious conservatives convinced many local citizens that queer people were to blame. A bitter battle to deny the civil liberties of sexual minorities ensued.

Though set in the 1990s, The Stranger Next Door is a story that echoes loudly today. Stein looks at how local conflicts over LGTBQ+ rights and other social issues paved the way for the contemporary right-wing populist resurgence. The Stranger Next Door positions today's battles over transgender rights and critical race theory in a long-running struggle to define America, offering a razor-sharp examination of how the right manufactures local culture wars to divide and conquer.

In The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips, Raymond Luczak recounts his unrequited love for a gardener while examining how Walt Whitman (1819-1892) lived as a gay man 150 years before. Inspired by the earthy passions abundant in Whitman's work and the vast social changes between his era and ours, the story becomes an urgent love letter in more ways than one. "The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips is an unabashed celebration of one man's relationship to Walt Whitman: poet, publisher, lover, impromptu nurse, artistic creation, organism, man in full. Like Whitman himself, Raymond Luczak arrives at an unified vision of love in all of its poetic manifestations: sensual, sexual, and textual, a source of electric vistas and voluptuous possibilities of spiritual renewal. He provides precisely the kind of tender reassurance we cannot find words for some nights, but which we so desperately need." -Eric Thomas Norris, co-author of Nocturnal Omissions "In The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips, Raymond Luczak has awoken entwined in the arms of the American bard. And here is the bed chat and letters from one poet to another, a communion of fleshly living. Luczak has created a work in the tradition of Ginsberg's Odyssean dreaming of the lost America of love-a vibrant examination of what Whitman called a 'richest fluency' of historical gaiety and modern loving, and a clear transmission of honest affection across the ages." -Dan Vera, author of Speaking Wiri Wiri

On June 24, 1973, a fire in a New Orleans gay bar killed 32 people. This still stands as the deadliest fire in the city's history. Though arson was suspected, and though the police identified a likely culprit, no arrest was ever made. Additionally, government and religious leaders who normally would have provided moral leadership at a time of crisis were either silent or were openly disdainful of the dead, most of whom were gay men. Based upon review of hundreds of primary and secondary sources, including contemporary news accounts, interviews with former patrons of the lounge, and the extensive documentary trail left behind by the criminal investigations, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson tells the story of who used to go to this bar, what happened on the day of the fire, what course the investigations took, why an arrest was never made, and what the lasting effects of the fire have been.

Two-time Lambda Literary and four-time National Leather Association award-winning author Jeff Mann's newest collection of personal essays speaks out against homophobia and the outdated ideas of masculinity demanded by life in Appalachia and the American South. Mann's writings will arouse, amuse, and provoke. Whether remarking on treating a Narcissus to dinner in New Orleans, mulling over the decision to purchase a hand gun because of the current political clime, or fantasizing with his husband over a pair of burly house painters lingering over stiff brushes, Mann's bold statements are gruff insights about what gay life is--and should be--below the Mason-Dixon Line.

A much lauded essayist and poet, Jeff Mann writes of the passion and pain of being a Southern gentleman who happens to be invested in many worlds: the hungers of gay Bear culture; the propensities of leather and bondage; the frustrations of academia; and the perspectives of an Appalachian who has traveled the world. In Binding the God, his second collection of essays, Mann offers readers another tour of his consciousness and experiences. This volume includes essays previously published in Arts and Letters, Second Person Queer, Callaloo, Now and Then, White Crane, Queer and Catholic, and other journals and anthologies.

Michael Monroe is about to turn thirty and is going nowhere-literally. His car just broke down, he's lost his job, his boyfriend dumped him, and he has $442.62 left to his name. Not a good look for the only son of Olivia Monroe, the ultrarich owner of the Daisy Diamond empire. Olivia left Michael to financially fend for himself after an arrest during his college years embarrassed the family, and he's failing miserably. Rejected, frustrated, and lost, Michael screams, "What am I doing wrong? Just give me a sign!" to the universe, never dreaming he'll get an answer. Even more shocking is who delivers it: his very own guardian angel, the iconic and forever-feisty Whitney Houston.

Chaos ensues when a psychic picks up on Whitney's presence at Michael's new job and a film crew captures the interaction. Thus begins a magical, spiritual journey that takes Michael, his best friend Lucy, and even his mother on a whirlwind adventure with Whitney from their everyday life in Manhattan through the Florida Keys, complete with stalking news reporters, inquisitive FBI agents, and swirling social media fans. With her own brand of charm, mischief, and mayhem, Whitney helps Michael discover his path and teaches him that anything is possible-if you just believe.

Limited Edition (one printing only!) of the NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER! The blockbuster danmei/Boys' Love novels from China that inspired the animated series!

In this final book (Volume 8), read the conclusion to this epic historical fantasy about a prince and the mysterious man by his side, in English for the very first time. Also includes bonus stories!

White No-Face's mask is off, and the final conflict has begun. Deep in the ancient caverns and lava flows of Mount Tonglu, Xie Lian must face the one whose hatred has plagued him for centuries--but this time, he won't have to do it alone. His beloved, Hua Cheng, has spent his long existence amassing the power to protect him, and now with their feelings for each other out in the open, they have all the more reason to fight for survival.

In this thrilling conclusion to Heaven Official's Blessing, can Xie Lian and Hua Cheng triumph against an all-powerful foe?

Also included in this final volume are five bonus tales of romance, celebration, and adventure.

This limited Special Edition contains the Standard Edition, but with bonus merchandise shrinkwrapped to the book: a set of eight postcards, a double-sided bookmark, two folded mini posters, a sticker sheet, a lined notebook, and a papercraft standee. Don't miss the new art from guest artists included in this special merch!

In 1940's Chicago, when insurance salesman Elliot Blake calls at the home of fight promoter Walt Winkler to sell him a new insurance policy, it's handsome boxer Vito who comes to the door. Vito wants something from Elliot, but it's not car insurance.

In this gay re-imagining of the classic noir novel Double Indemnity, obsessive desire unfolds in an unexpected direction.

Get it today. You'll never see what's coming.

Ripped from the pages of the New York Times bestselling series The Family Business, Carl Weber and Eric Pete bring you To Paris with Love, a solo story about their two most popular characters to date--the bright, sexy, and deadly Paris Duncan and her flamboyant and cunning twin brother, Rio.

It's Spring Break and Paris Duncan is on the verge of graduating at the top of her class from Chi's Finishing School, one of Europe's most exclusive private academies. At Chi's students not only learn the three Rs, but they also learn the deadly art of assassination.

Like most of her classmates, Paris is looking forward to going back home. She can't wait to get back to the bright lights of New York City, where she plans on clubbing with her twin brother, Rio, scarfing down her mom's cooking, and wearing out her father's credit cards. A family crisis puts an end to her trip home in favor of a solo trip to the French Riviera.

Rio Duncan has been accepted into one of the most prestigious law schools in the country and his father, LC Duncan, couldn't be more proud of him. Unfortunately for LC, Rio has plans of his own, and they don't include law school. If that weren't surprise enough, Rio's got a few more things to tell his dear old dad, one of which is that he is gay.

Now that he's come out of the closet, Rio is in the wind. He's headed to Europe to live life by his own rules and hook up with his sister for some fun in the European sun. Together Rio and Paris will do what they do best--have fun, find trouble, and break men's hearts.

Travel with Weber and Pete to Europe, to see how Paris and Rio became the dynamic duo of the Duncan clan.

Payne:

In search of: room to rent.

Must ignore the patheticness of a forty-year-old roommate.

Preferably dirt cheap as funds are tight (nonexistent).

There's nothing sadder than moving back to my hometown newly divorced, homeless, and lost for what my next move is.

When my little brother's best friend offers me a place to stay in exchange for menial duties, I swallow my pride and jump at the offer.

I need this.

I also need Beau to wear a shirt. And ditch the gray sweatpants. And not leave his door ajar when he's in compromising positions ...

Beau:

In search of: roommate.

Must be non smoker and non douchebag.

Room payment to be made in meal planning, repairs, and dumb jokes.

Since my career took off, I barely have time to breathe, let alone keep my life in order. I'm naturally chaotic, make terrible decisions, and scare off potential dates with my "weirdness".

So when Payne gets back into town and needs somewhere to stay, I offer him my spare room with one condition: while he's staying with me, I need him to help me become date-able.

And while he does that, I can focus on my other plan: ignoring that Payne is the only man I've ever wanted to date.

Written from Wilde's prison cell at Reading Gaol to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis explodes the conventions of the traditional love letter and offers a scathing indictment of Douglas's behavior, a mournful elegy for Wilde's own lost greatness, and an impassioned plea for reconciliation. At once a bracingly honest account of ruinous attachment and a profound meditation on human suffering, De Profundis is a classic of gay literature. Richard Ellmann calls De Profundis "a love letter...One of the greatest, and the longest, ever written."

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition contains newly commissioned notes.