Presents a study of federal regulation of homosexulity, arguing that the United States government systematically penalized homosexuals and gave rise to their second-class citizenship.

Fourteen essays examine the unexpected relationships between government power and intimate life in the last 150 years of United States history. The last few decades have seen a surge of historical scholarship that analyzes state power and expands our understanding of governmental authority and the ways we experience it. At the same time, studies of the history of intimate life—marriage, sexuality, child-rearing, and family—also have blossomed. Yet these two literatures have not been considered together in a sustained way. This book, edited and introduced by three preeminent American historians, aims to close this gap, offering powerful analyses of the relationship between state power and intimate experience in the United States from the Civil War to the present. The fourteen essays that make up Intimate States argue that “intimate governance”—the binding of private daily experience to the apparatus of the state—should be central to our understanding of modern American history. Our personal experiences have been controlled and arranged by the state in ways we often don’t even see, the authors and editors argue; correspondingly, contemporary government has been profoundly shaped by its approaches and responses to the contours of intimate life, and its power has become so deeply embedded into daily social life that it is largely indistinguishable from society itself. Intimate States makes a persuasive case that the state is always with us, even in our most seemingly private moments.

In Sailors and Sexual Identity, author Steven Zeeland talks with young male sailors--both gay- and straight-identified--about ways in which their social and sexual lives have been shaped by their Navy careers. Despite massive media attention to the issue, there remains a gross disparity between the public perception of “gays in the military” and the sexual realities of military life. The conversations in this book reveal how known “gay” and “straight” men can and do get along in the sexually tense confines of barracks and shipboard life once they discover that the imagined boundary between them is not, in fact, a hard line. The stories recounted here in vivid detail call into question the imagined boundaries between gay and straight, homosexual and homosocial, and suggest a secret Pentagon motivation for the gay ban: to protect homoerotic military rituals, buddy love, and covert military homosexuality from the taint of sexual suspicion. Zeeland’s interviews explore many aspects of contemporary life in the Navy including: gay/straight friendship networks the sexual charge to the Navy/Marine Corps rivalry the reality behind sailors’reputations as sexual adventurers in port and at sea men’s differing interpretations of homoerotic military rituals and initiations sex and gender stereotypes associated with military job specialities how sailors view being seen as sex objects Everyone interested in the issue of gays in the military, along with a general gay readership, gay veterans, and gay men for whom sailors represent a sexual ideal, will find Sailors and Sexual Identity an informative and entertaining read. Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com

“Heterosexuality,” assumed to denote a universal sexual and cultural norm, has been largely exempt from critical scrutiny. In this boldly original work, Jonathan Ned Katz challenges the common notion that the distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality has been a timeless one. Building on the history of medical terminology, he reveals that as late as 1923, the term “heterosexuality” referred to a "morbid sexual passion," and that its current usage emerged to legitimate men and women having sex for pleasure. Drawing on the works of Sigmund Freud, James Baldwin, Betty Friedan, and Michel Foucault, The Invention of Heterosexuality considers the effects of heterosexuality’s recently forged primacy on both scientific literature and popular culture. “Lively and provocative.”—Carol Tavris, New York Times Book Review “A valuable primer . . . misses no significant twists in sexual politics.”—Gary Indiana, Village Voice Literary Supplement “One of the most important—if not outright subversive—works to emerge from gay and lesbian studies in years.”—Mark Thompson, The Advocate

A Family and Friend's Guide to Sexual Orientation helps individuals and families to bridge the divide between gay and straight, to heal wounds that often accompany individuals and families' negative feelings about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered persons. Consisting of thirty stories by individuals who have come to accept and embrace their own sexuality, twelve of the stories are by heterosexuals who, in addition to talking about their own sexuality, speak of the homosexuality of a loved one. The book also includes five personal stories from two families.

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

What if every church in America preached the truth - that the Bible is pro-gay - what would happen? It would change the world. There are many churches that do not welcome gay congregants and refuse to promote gay professionals within their church hierarchy. But imagine if mainstream Christian churches spoke up for their gay brothers and sisters in Christ? What if mainstream churches preached the pro-gay Word of God that is in the Bible? This is now possible. God is Gay shows step-by-step what God says on the gay issue in the Bible. It is there now-hiding in plain sight. Once the reader sees what God has plainly stated in His Word, the reader can never return to the state of "un-seeing." Learn what the Bible was actually saying to the people in the times the Bible was written. The Bible is still saying that to us today. Forget what the media tells you about the Christian Bible supporting homophobia. They're lying to you. And this book will prove it. Simply put; God is not against homosexuality. In this book you will learn: -What specific blessing God has placed on gay believers; -That Jesus said he is like the gay population, forgoing women; -That the gay population in Bible times were prized and appreciated; -That in Bible times, the gay population was considered a third gender, but -The Catholic Church disposed of the third gender concept, by church decree, more than 300 years after the Bible was written; -There is no law in the Bible against gay sex; and -What the Bible says that supports gay marriage today. If you are ready to take the blinders off and read what the Bible truly says, then buy this book now.