Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays
“Bernadette Barton takes us on a vivid inside tour of Bible Belt America that us privileged gay folks from more liberal parts of the U.S. have a hard time imagining or even knew existed. The stories she tells are riveting, heartbreaking, infuriating, yet ultimately uplifting.”-Eric Marcus,author ofMaking Gay History"I highly recommendPray the Gay Awayto anyone with an interest in contemporary queer experience, in Bible Belt Christianity, and the intersection of the two. I’d go so far as to say it’s required reading for anyone who cares about what it means to be gay in America today. Whether or not you’ve ever lived in the 'toxic closet' yourself, too many of our fellow citizens still wake up there every morning. We owe it to them to listen to the stories they have so generously shared."-Anna J. Cook,The Feminist Librarian"[The author] draws on a trove of ethnographic data, including in-depth interviews with Bible Belt gays, visits to the Creation Museum and a local megachurch, attendance at an Exodus International conference for ex-gays, and her own experiences as an openly lesbian professor... Though Barton documents numerous cases of religious-based abuse, she is tolerant of conservative Christians."-Publishers Weekly,"The author’s tales of gay life in this area of the country, where anti-gay evangelical Protestantism holds sway, range from the harrowing to the mundane...[The book is] worthwhile reading for anyone interested in what it means to be gay in an overtly hostile environment."-Kirkus Reviews,"Very much worth reading, and at times moving, the book indicts the conservative wing of Christianity for promoting cruelty and intolerance." -Library Journal,