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11corvus11's review
4.0
Great short book on the topics described. Many queers and/or trans folks will not find many of the accounts detailed to be surprising, but the book is written in a way that it flows well and remains interesting. Despite the difficult subject matter, I didn't find it to be an unbalanced trauma porn book. I think it has one of the better analyses I've read of the problems with hate crimes legislation and increasing the power of the state. I would feel comfortable giving this to people, queer or not, who needed education on these topics.
The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars is that disability appeared maybe twice in the entire book. Disabled lgbtq folks make up a large amount of people harmed by the system. There was a lot of talk of stereotypes that lgbtq folks are seen as deranged but we walk a fine line with calling attention to those stereotypes if we don't also call attention to the ableism in them (e.g. It can come off as saying "trans people aren't crazy like those dangerous crazy people!" Folks with disabilities are far more likely to be victims of violence than they are to be violent.)
The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars is that disability appeared maybe twice in the entire book. Disabled lgbtq folks make up a large amount of people harmed by the system. There was a lot of talk of stereotypes that lgbtq folks are seen as deranged but we walk a fine line with calling attention to those stereotypes if we don't also call attention to the ableism in them (e.g. It can come off as saying "trans people aren't crazy like those dangerous crazy people!" Folks with disabilities are far more likely to be victims of violence than they are to be violent.)
larryerick's review
2.0
What a mess this book is! I wanted to read this or something like it, after reading about the abuse of gays by San Francisco law enforcement in Randy Shilts' The Mayor of Castro Street. The book failed in so many ways to present a case for the state of affairs, perhaps because it had three authors and they were all so passionate about their subject that they couldn't control themselves. The beginning part of the book is particularly poorly done. (Because all three authors co-wrote it?) It jumps all over the place, making points, supposedly about injustices to gays, by pointing out examples of injustice to blacks and other minorities. (Huh?) And it does that while failing to point out many key nuances of those injustices to blacks that are easily learned by studying the literature readily out there. Certainly, there are several examples of LGBT injustices given, many quite memorable and to the point, but there are inadequate statistics to give backing to those examples. In the end, this should have been no more than an extended magazine article plus a booklet for handout to persons interested in the topic. The book does make a very key point about the connection between the perceived "deviance" of LGBT lifestyles and what then becomes the presumed "illegality" of anything LGBT people do. But what about the questions of why religion has a fetish with homosexuality abuse or why so many homophobic people go into law enforcement and other related questions that are never approached in this book? After reading this, I'm not sure the book I'm looking for even exists yet.
xavz_'s review against another edition
4.0
a heavy read indeed. would recommend to anyone who somehow remains unradicalized.
personally, i'm adding this book to the pile of physical objects i would throw at someone who believes cops belong at pride.
4.1312 ⭐
personally, i'm adding this book to the pile of physical objects i would throw at someone who believes cops belong at pride.
4.1312 ⭐
_lilbey_'s review against another edition
5.0
Devastating book, but a good overview of the kinds of oppression that queer folks face in many realms of the legal system. Making my students read a couple chapters as well for class.
audaciaray's review
4.0
This is, as far as I'm concerned, a must read.
It's a sharp analysis of the criminalization of sexual diversity and gender variance, and centers the experiences of people of color, people living in poverty, immigrants, and trans women and men. The writing is very concrete, with lots of stories and evidence to back up the authors' critiques. Really sharply written and thoroughly researched, and its obvious that the authors are activists who are working on these issues and interacting with queer communities directly, not studying them from afar.
The reason I'm only giving it four stars instead of five, however, is that there wasn't enough attention paid to the ways in which the, uh, gaystream has played a role in denying rights to criminalized people, especially trans women, people who do sex work, and immigrants. Although they touch on this a bit in the last chapter when comparing responses to the Matthew Shepard murder to responses to the Duanna Johnson beating and murder, it's a missed opportunity. The Duanna Johnson didn't get the kind of attention the Matthew Shepard case did not just because they media glommed onto the Shepard story, but also because LGB rights groups did not make enough noise about the Johnson case.
I'll leave you with this quote, an important thing to chew on:
"Yet as LGBT movements have institutionalized, visions of queer liberation have been tamed into a narrow rhetoric of equality within existing systems rahter than challenges to the systemic violence and oppression they produce. ... Ruthann Robinson puts it bluntly: "LGBT rights" agendas are premised on an understanding that "distance from criminality is a necessary condition of equality.""
It's a sharp analysis of the criminalization of sexual diversity and gender variance, and centers the experiences of people of color, people living in poverty, immigrants, and trans women and men. The writing is very concrete, with lots of stories and evidence to back up the authors' critiques. Really sharply written and thoroughly researched, and its obvious that the authors are activists who are working on these issues and interacting with queer communities directly, not studying them from afar.
The reason I'm only giving it four stars instead of five, however, is that there wasn't enough attention paid to the ways in which the, uh, gaystream has played a role in denying rights to criminalized people, especially trans women, people who do sex work, and immigrants. Although they touch on this a bit in the last chapter when comparing responses to the Matthew Shepard murder to responses to the Duanna Johnson beating and murder, it's a missed opportunity. The Duanna Johnson didn't get the kind of attention the Matthew Shepard case did not just because they media glommed onto the Shepard story, but also because LGB rights groups did not make enough noise about the Johnson case.
I'll leave you with this quote, an important thing to chew on:
"Yet as LGBT movements have institutionalized, visions of queer liberation have been tamed into a narrow rhetoric of equality within existing systems rahter than challenges to the systemic violence and oppression they produce. ... Ruthann Robinson puts it bluntly: "LGBT rights" agendas are premised on an understanding that "distance from criminality is a necessary condition of equality.""
emjay24's review against another edition
3.0
This was a book club selection at my office, and it took me a while to read. Part of the time, I ended up reading both this and Fairyland at the same time, so I was getting LGBT history from two different formats, which was very complimentary. I read a little bit of this every day on the way to work, which was a depressing, yet informative, start to the day. The book is very dense with cases and facts, so it doesn't flow very well at all, making it hard to read, but the information that was presented made up for the readability factor. The title of the book is self-explanatory as to what it is about, and I wasn't very shocked to read what's been going on. I live in a big city where things are more accepted, but I know that's not the case overall. Reading this just gave more concrete examples of how far we still have go go.