City of Friends is an ambitious, comprehensive, and sensitive text that provides a thorough, multi-disciplinary introduction to the gay and lesbian issues. In their preface, the authors describe their goal as surveying 'what it means to be gay or lesbian.' The book fully delivers on this promise.
Jon W. Davidson, Supervising Attorney, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
A mervelous book, with a clear vision for the future, that analyzes the gay and lesbian community in all its diversity. The authors are not afraid to take controversial stances, based on a wealth of information drawn from numerous sources. Not everyone will agree with all the views expressed in City of Friends, but everyone can learn something important from it.
Walter L. Williams, Professor of Anthropology, University of Southern California, and author of The Spirit of the Flesh
This book greatly contributes to the understanding of our gay sons and lesbian daughters and to the awareness of the broad diversity whithin the gay and lesbian community.
Adele Starr, First President Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
With their skilled blend of the analytic and the anecdotal, LeVay and Nonas, a scientist and a novelist, have crafted a resource both hugely informative and highly readable. It's a book for the classroom and for the casual reader, a primer for coming out and a solid reference point for where we find ourselves 25 years after Stonewall.
Richard Labonte, General Manager, A Different Light Bookstores
This book is an introduction and much more to everything we should have known all along about being gay... Perfect for the classroom, or anyone who wants to learn about gay and lesbian people.
Lynn Witt & Sherry Thomas, co-editors, Out in All Directions: The Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America
The extraordinary achievement of this book is that it takes the scope of America's gay and lesbian community beyond portrayal to illumination. Even gay people convinced that they know much of this history will find fresh perspective and clarity. Every minority group should have so cogent and insightful and up-to-the-minute a profile of the 'who, what, why, when, and where' of its presence in American society.
Katherine V. Forrest, author of ten works of fiction including the novel Flashpoint and the Kate Delafield mystery series.
This is the most up-to-date book I have read on the diversity of the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community. Its description of where our community is at in the 90's is right on. This is a book that should be in every library and read by anyone who wants to know what our community thinks about itself.
Rev. Troy D. Perry, Founder, Metropolitan Community Churches
Between the barricaded fortresses of `essentialist' and `social constructionist' visions of human sexuality, this book comes as a breath of fresh air. Lucid and concise, it is at once a useful introduction to a complex subject and a learned exposition of what precisely is at stake in the debate. A superb choice for any lesbian and gay studies or human sexuality class.
Jonathan D. Katz, Chair, Department of Gay and Lesbian Studies,City College of San Francisco
