Rafferty Street
When Annie Heaphy gives up life as a New York City cabbie and moves to a small town, trouble comes faster than you can say, "There goes the neighborhood." Her job driving a bus for the Old Herb Farm, a facility for developmentally challenged people, gets yanked out from under her when a female patient inappropriately kisses her in public, setting off a brush fire of public concern. Area lesbians and gays close ranks to respond to the town's homophobia, placing dubious Annie in the middle of a cause she never wanted any part of. Friends find her a job at the local factory, where the closets are deeper than ever; lawyers get involved; and Annie just wants her bus-driving job back, along with a peaceful life in which her relationship with Jo, a high-class banker, will not be disturbed. Along the way of telling how things work out, Lynch portrays a lesbian-gay community of enormous range, strength, and diversity.Whitney Scott