“Why This Gay-Married Protestant Loved Eve Tushnet’s ‘Gay and Catholic'”

Very kind & thoughtful review of the book, at New Directions:

…Part One of Gay and Catholic is Eve’s own account of coming out as a lesbian in her atheist family, falling in love with the Catholic church in college, choosing to be baptized, and then confronting her alcoholism – a story made all the more interesting because its pieces seem to be scrambled and assembled in the opposite order from your average gay Christian autobiography.

Eve has a remarkable gift for mixing incisive wit and quirky humor with mature, vulnerable introspection. At certain moments this killer combination surprises you like a swift punch to the gut – I promise, her reflections on the toy soldier figurine of her childhood will floor you. What I appreciated most about this section, besides her descriptions of her evolving outfits (“hot pink fishnets, a tiger-print skirt held together with safety pins and lies, and a Boy Scout T-shirt”), was her outspoken defense of the gay community in which she was nurtured. She debunks claims that homosexuality only produces self-centered narcissists; among her reasons for continuing to call herself gay is that “gay communities were places where [she] encountered beauty and learned solidarity and humility.” Although she is now celibate, she recounts scenes of her early lesbian relationships with a gratitude that almost approaches reverence. This stereotype-busting effort is valiant, considering her conservative audience, and I gratefully applaud her for it.

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