First Person Queer: Who We Are

by Richard Labonté (Editor), Lawrence Schimel (Editor), Mette Bach (Contributor)

In this amazing, wide-ranging anthology of nonfiction essays, contributors write intimate and honest first-person accounts of queer experience, from coming out to “passing” as straight to growing old to living proud. These are the stories of contemporary gay and lesbian life—and by definition, are funny, sad, hopeful, and truthful. Representing a diversity of genders, ages, races, and orientations, and edited by two acclaimed writers and anthologists (who between them have written or edited almost one hundred books), First Person Queer puts the “personal” back into “queer.”

Genres: Queer, LGBT, Nonfiction, Essays, Anthologies, Lesbian, Gay

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

i read a lot of books. i review many of them. i edit many anthologies. i edit technical writing so it reads more like real english. i live on a small island with a man and a dog (tiger-lily, r.i.p). once upon a time, i was a bookseller.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A startling, vivid, memorable collection. Diverse and inspirational. Like any anthology, there is a range of material. The difference here is the honesty— these are non-fiction stories, gifts from our friends and neighbours sharing insights into their lives, their histories, hopes, and dreams. All that and more.

Plus, a story from me about finding a homeless parakeet in Paris, and giving him to a French lifeguard.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Person Queer- Ed. By Richard Labonte & Lawrence Schimel

“Nowadays, when I sneak a sidelong glance at my reflection in some shop window, I see someone rapidly approaching “just this side of elderly.” Wild Nights- Simon Sheppard.

This is from the opening of my favorite essay in the book. Approaching seventy, I’m not sure if I’ve crossed over the line to “elderly;” I’m not sure I know what elderly is. Maybe it’s more than a number. I don’t feel elderly, most days.

I don’t think there is a gay person in America who couldn’t identify with at least one of the forty essays presented in this collection. There is even an essay by, pardon the expression, a fag hag. In fact, it’s the very first essay.

The essays are all the product of professional, working writers and the collection is well-edited. There is an even, but not boring, tone to the progression from one essay to another and the subject of each essay addresses another, and different, expression of the diversity of gay life as it is today. There are growing older themes, butch lesbian themes, lipstick lesbian themes (as the writers describe themselves.

One composition deals with older gay role models, another on dealing with disability. There is one paper on the joys of gay marriage and another objecting to gay men trying to be exactly as their neighbors are, middle-class and indistinguishable from everybody else on the block.

There are articles on transsexuals and bisexuals and growing up and being large. Each one of the forty small treatises present another perception, Black, White, Oriental and etc. They are equally divided between genders. In the end, I felt I was in a conversation with friends. I actually finished the book with regret that there weren’t more of the conversation, or the friends.

[Akiva ꙮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of put off by the fact that two of the first three essays are by a cis woman who only dates queer men and calls herself a "queer heterosexual" (it's not like queer is a reclaimed slur or anything, nooo) and a cis woman who only dates trans and gender variant people and casually throws around a lot of slurs. I'm sticking this out for Ivan E. Coyote, but I'm not as excited about it as I was. :/

ETA: Okay, it turns out that those two essays were the most iffy in the book. Lots of interesting stuff about different relationship models from gay and queer guys. Some other good ones I'm not remembering. Ivan's was all the way at the end and worth the wait, but sad. Overall: decent, but not amazing.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy, enjoyable read. It's full of essays that reflect the ever-changing definition of queer, and how one can be socially ostracized from the heterosexual scene for being queer and from one's own queer group for not being queer enough. One essay that I particularly enjoyed, written by Karen Taylor, discussed how, for her, being a lesbian and a strong woman was linked to her Jewish faith. This anthology is also filled with blatant truths that left me smiling and chuckling to myself. A worthwhile read.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The absolutely most inspiring thing about this book is seeing the thousands of ways that you can be queer and happy. This collection of essays serves to show the power of human beings to make their lives beautiful in spite of an unkind world. I strongly recommend this book and especially to anyone who is just coming to terms with their own sexuality.

[zaynab · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid anthology filled with disperate stories written in first-person perspective. I think the only thing that would have made this stronger is some subvisions so there is slightly more continuinty thematically. I understand that anti-continuity can be seen as the apex of queer or radical, the disruption from traversing the liminal space of one story to the next and they are not related in form and content. However, I do wonder once you get past the use of first person and the mention of gender idenity or sexual orientation what exactly these stories have in common with each other. Sometimes being "queer" really isn't enough of a binder to hold things together. The entire time I was reading this I kept thinking about what the call for submissions might have looked like: what are the central questions or tensions that authors within each of these essays are responding to? That became harder and harder to envision. And while that could play to the book's strengths, the essays themselves are not that long and naturally some are stronger than others.

[Joe Buchoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into a collection of essays so the first part of the book I was perfecting my reading ears to appreciate the full brunt of the content.

But I enjoyed it. It's was great to see through a window into lives usually unheard and unseen in mainstream America. Plus the sheer volume of different experiences, both related to being queer and just part of the human experience was invigorating. There were a variety of cultures represented and even a slam poetry piece written by a self-identified butch black woman in the midst of essays of prose.

I'd recommend it for anyone, on or off the LGBT spectrum.

[leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most amazing anthologies out there about being Queer! Sure it includes what feel like the obligatory coming out stories but it offers up so much more! Read it! And order it from Charis if you aren't in Atlanta!

[Carrie Rolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid essay collection (I think I only skimmed two) with a little bit of everything. In addition to gay and lesbian representation, there were trans essays, plus several that fell under gender-queer or other not as easily defined experiences.

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this collection of essays from a variety of queer authors. All were well written (which is sometimes rare). There were also a good representation of men, women and transgendered writers. An interesting look at a cross-section of the queer community.

[Jayne Furlong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love collections of short, personal narratives, so this book was right up my alley. I loved going through this book with my pencil, underlining all the parts that felt relevant to my journey. Truly a great addition to my bookshelf :)

[tara sh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile.

[David Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ground breaking anthology in which my essay, "Hecklers and Christians", appeared!

[mcwitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

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