Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences
A message that needs to be heard in all its complexity. People should read this book.—Lambda Book ReportTies That Bindis one of the most exciting gay liberation texts to appear in years...this is a rewarding, wide-ranging, and challenging work from an original mind and a talented pen, one that will make you think and help you live.—Doug Ireland,Gay City NewsSchulman boldly declares that visibility is a failed strategy for cultural change.—Utne[Schulman is] a writer who has played a pivotal role in the cultural and political spheres of the gay community.—CurveTo call her book [Ties That Bind] pioneering would be redundant. . . . With its personal appeals, its call to arms — or rather, ethics — and its advice for therapists, family members, and gay people, I continue to be struck by the book’s usefulness above all else. . . .[I]t gives me hope that one day — just as Schulman stipulates — homophobia could actually be a punishable crime, we could be liberated from the systematic shame and humiliation that currently defines our culture, and in that liberation necessarily granted the rights thatwe’ve lived without all this time.—Velvet ParkSchulman’s lucid dissection of the role that families play as incubators of homophobia could hardly be better. This [is] a truly indispensable book. It should blow away the hot air generated by the public debate about ‘family values.’— Andrew Ross, chair of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at York UniversitySarah SchulmanTies That Bindtackles the familial and cultural homophobia that still pervade our society. She starkly lays out the fundamental immorality of such shunning behavior and its destructive consequences for everyone involved. This is an important and original book.— Martin Duberman, award-winning historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activistSarah Schulman is brilliant, vulnerable, and relentless.Ties That Bindshould be required reading for every family—gay and straight.— Ellen Bass, poet and author ofThe Courage to HealA cri de coeur woven into a Utopian vision.— Susan Brownmiller, author ofAgainst Our Will: Men, Women, and RapeSarah has taught me a great deal over the years of our being fellow activists and this book teaches me even more.— Larry Kramer