ABSTRACT

Get an inside perspective on life as a disabled gay man!

Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories reverberates with the sound of “cripgay” voices rising to be heard above the din of indifference and bias, oppression and ignorance. This unique collection of compelling first-person narratives is at once assertive, bold, and groundbreaking, filled with characters—and character. Through the intimacy of one-on-one storytelling, gay men with mobility and neuromuscular disorders, spinal cord injury, deafness, blindness, and AIDS, fight isolation from society—and each other—to establish a public identity and a common culture.

Queer Crips features more than 30 first-hand accounts from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the reality of the everyday struggle disabled gay men face in a culture obsessed with conformist good looks. Themes include rejection, love, sex, dating rituals, gaycrip married life, and the profound difference between growing up queer and disabled, and suffering a life-altering injury or illness in adulthood. Co-edited by Bob Guter, creator and editor of the webzine BENT: A Journal of Cripgay Voices, the book includes:

  • two performance pieces from acclaimed author and actor Greg Walloch
  • poetry from Chris Hewitt, Joel S. Riche, Raymond Luczak, Mark Moody, and co-editor John Killacky
  • essays from BENT contributors Blaine Waterman, Raymond J. Aguilera, Danny Kodmur, Thomas Metz, Max Verga, and Eli Clare
  • interviews with community activist Gordon Elkins and Alan Sable, one of the first self-identified gay psychotherapists in the United States
  • and much more!
Queer Crips is a forum for neglected cripgay voices speaking words that are candid, edgy, bold, dreamy, challenging, and sexy. The book is essential reading for academics and students working in lesbian and gay studies, and disability studies, and for anyone who's ever visited the place where queerness and disability meet.

chapter 1|5 pages

Two Performance Pieces

chapter 2|5 pages

Hustlers: A Buyer's Guide

chapter 3|4 pages

Sticks and Stones

chapter 5|6 pages

Nasty Habits

chapter 6|1 pages

Piano Bar

chapter 8|5 pages

Working It Out

chapter 9|6 pages

Boy Scout of America

chapter 10|6 pages

Rolling On (from Chapter 3)

chapter 12|1 pages

Repetitions

chapter 13|17 pages

How to Find Love with a Fetishist

chapter 14|4 pages

Loving You Loving Me

chapter 15|4 pages

A Meeting with George Dureau

chapter 18|3 pages

A Wedding Celebration

chapter 19|6 pages

My Dictionary on Dicks

chapter 20|4 pages

Four Poems

chapter 21|7 pages

On Being (Un)Representative

chapter 22|7 pages

Alone in the Crowd

chapter 24|5 pages

The Boy I Used to Be

chapter 25|4 pages

Homo on the Range

chapter 27|6 pages

Three Poems

chapter 28|10 pages

Becoming Daddy's Boy

chapter 30|1 pages

Night Murmurs

chapter 31|7 pages

Beginner's Sex

chapter 34|5 pages

Gawking, Gaping, Staring