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Gay and Lesbian Psychology

The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World

A groundbreaking examination of the psychology of homosexuality, why it leads to shame over one’s identity and how to overcome it

The gay male world today is characterized by seductive beauty, artful creativity, flamboyant sexuality, and, encouragingly, unprecedented acceptability in society. Yet despite the progress of the recent past, gay men still find themselves asking, “Are we really better off?”

The inevitable byproduct of growing up gay in a straight world continues to be the internalization of shame, a shame gay men may strive to obscure with a faade of beauty, creativity, or material success. Drawing on contemporary psychological research, the author’s own journey to be free of anger and of shame, as well as the stories of many of his friends and clients, The Velvet Rage outlines the three distinct stages to emotional well-being for gay men. Offering profoundly beneficial strategies to stop the insidious cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior, The Velvet Rage is an empowering book that will influence the public discourse on gay culture, and positively change the lives of gay men who read it.

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Coming Out Spiritually: The Next Step

A spiritual leader in the gay community delivers a clear perspective and an optimistic and ambitious vision of the role gay people can play in the world for the benefit of all.

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Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning

Gay Spirit, the psychic and creative energies generated by people we now call gay, has always existed on the outer shores of our culture’s collective consciousness. In the past, gay people were labeled heretics, perversions of nature, or categorized pseudo-scientifically. Gay people lived on the edge of the global village or worked within its mainstream in denial and disguise. But today that spirit has re-emerged and lives among us.

This book of essays explores the possibilities of that spirit–suggesting ways in which gay people might find a place and purpose in human culture unique to themselves, departing with the questions asked nearly forty years ago by the Mattachine Society: Who are we? Where have we come from? Why are we here?

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Gay Spirituality

In this Lambda Literary award-winning title, author Toby Johnson explores how the rise of gay identity has become an important part of contemporary religious development.

This dramatic transformation has resulted due to the perspective of gay men; their ability to step outside the assumptions and conventions of culture and see things from a different point of view.

This book will reward readers seeking new insight into faith as well as culture, myth and traditions.

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