Written by Hello! I’m back!
It was a crazy weekend this past weekend. I knew I wouldn’t be able to post. I had a Kindle Fiction update planned for Monday but, to my horror, GoDaddy, my hosting provider had a major server outage due to the work of a hacker. This blog and millions of other sites were laid low because of it. I suppose I could have posted yesterday but, really, who wants to start off their week with a day like September 11th and all that the date places on the American psyche? Nope, I figured I better save my planned review for today.
Last week, unsolicited by me and without warning, it would seem, I received a book in the mail titled, The Dyke Diagnostic Manual
Published in May of this year, The Dyke Diagnostic Manual, or DDM for short, is a book that’s all about recognizing and solving the problems surrounding dyke drama. Eliason modeled this sometimes serious, often very tongue in cheek manual, after the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
34 “disorders” are defined and categorized in this dycology. Along with the diagnosis, we get “Prevelance” – the percentage of lesbians suffering from the disorder or who have had it or who might ultimately suffer it and we get “Treatment” information. Treatments often involves various forms of intervention or taking a hands off approach by partners, friends and the community at large.
I have to say that I enjoyed perusing this book. I saw a little bit of myself in here, although not so much the current me that’s pretty stable but the coming out me, the baby dyke me and the person I was after my break-up with my first long term partner. That stuff was all okay but, I’ve already lived it and moved on. This might have been a help then though, had I had it. No, what was interesting was seeing things about my wife defined:
- The tool obsession some dykes have (not really a bad thing!)
- DDM 30 – Lesbian Emotionally Exhausting Process Disorder
- DDM 31 – Dykolepsy
, that I can’t begin to do it justice with a simple description. It’s quite a story.
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, I thought for sure it was going to be another book on barbecue. I was very wrong and pleasantly surprised! This well kept secret from 2008 – until now – written by the author and illustrator team of Lee Lynch (Author, Editor), Nel Ward (Author, Editor), Sue Hardesty (Author, Editor, Illustrator), Marion Moir (Illustrator), is more than just a cook book. It’s a look at life and love, mostly through food, from the butch perspective. Oh, what a perspective it is!
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by Bonnie Kaye M.Ed. and Doug Dittmer suggests that there are several million gay men around the world living double lives as husbands and fathers in socially accepted and expected traditional marriage situations. The book combines Kaye’s experience as a renowned relationship counselor and author and the personal experiences of a dozen men to tell this story from the husbands point of view. Dittmer is one of those men profiled but he adds significantly to the body of this work aside from his own story given his background in the areas of corporate coaching, problem resolution and human/gay rights.
, by Mildred L. Brown, Ph.D. (a clinical sexologist and therapist) and Chloe Ann Rounsley (writer, journalist, transgender researcher). It’s a nice combination of medical, clinical and personal that I found most interesting. Additionally, right at the beginning, their book has three distinct sections that are very helpful: the childhood years, the teen years and the adult years. It’s the first book I’ve seen that addresses all three phases of life in one volume for those who are transgender.
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, a book that chronicles the trials and tribulations faced in lives of 40 out gay and lesbian Americans as the grew up. That’s right, none of the 40 “voices” representedwas transgender. They really should have been. I’m going to view it as an oversight and move on.
by Irwin Krieger. Krieger is a Master’s degree’d, board certified clinical social worker who has focused his career on the LGBT community for more than 25 years. For more than 7 years he has specialized in the needs of transgender adults and teens.
. In their book, they don’t address the typical “how to make your child feel better about himself/herself” psychobabble nor do they pound on the “just wait and you’ll see that they’ll all fade away” theme. No, instead, they offer workable solutions to get the pain to stop 
. The book was re-released in 2009 with a new cover and an all new forward by Judd. It is a tribute to their friendship, a stark reminder of the scourge of AIDS, and a bow to the dynamic Pedro and it’s still highly regarded 12 years after its initial publication.
was released by Wolfe Video, the LGBT powerhouse video distributor. It stars Alex Loynaz as Zamora and and other notables as his family and friends. It was penned by “Milk” screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by Nick Oceano. The movie chronicles Pedro’s life and lessons. While it does cover his time in The Real World 3 San Francisco house, it’s about much, much more than that. It doesn’t dwell for an extended length on a time when his life (and the lives of his other housemates) was dominated by “Puck”, another Season 3 cast member/housemate.
featuring the separate stories of three generations of women loving women. It’s likely you watched it to see Ellen DeGeneres and maybe Sharon Stone in their sequence. It’s the first of the three stories though that’s really entrancing. In it, Vanessa Redgrave plays a widow who’s life partner of more than 50 years has died. Her obvious, racking grief alone is one thing. The terrible, closed minded attitudes of her deceased partners family are something entirely different. She loses her long time home because of it and there’s nothing she can do about it because the law does not protect her. She has no rights.
. Vicky writes from her own, personal experience as she lost her own loving partner to stomach cancer. She also shares the stories of 24 additional lesbian women who experienced the death of their mates. Their stories run the gamut of emotions. Some of the deaths were unexpected (1 after an accident), many were after long illnesses. All of the surviving partners grieved deeply and struggled to overcome their grief in many cases in the face of social indifference. They lacked support and, often faced severe legal and financial hardships.