Sacred Band: How building resilient gay men saves lives and strengthens society (working title), to be published by the Lanham, Maryland-based Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, will be the first and only ‘post-AIDS’ commercial book to draw on emergent research and the real-life stories of gay men–including my own–to present a bold and inspiring message: Gay men have a powerful source of health, resilience, strength, and pride available to us by claiming for ourselves what I call ‘gay America’s heroic legacy.’
The book will invite readers to imagine a future in which gay men live from a place of conscious resilience, drawing strength from our various sources of identity (including ethnic/racial, family, faith, and regional); embracing ourselves and being embraced by our community at every age; acting as mentors for younger men; and leading healthy, politically aware, and productive lives as engaged American citizens.
By joining me in this campaign, you will become an important financial patron of a book that will benefit many–including gay men of all ages and colors, parents, pastors, teachers, counselors, HIV prevention educators, medical and mental health care providers, college professors and their students (the book is expected to have wide university adoption), and those who simply wish to understand and support their gay friends and neighbors.
You will help to provide a ‘handbook’ on building resilient gay boys and men.
And you will be helping me to continue my efforts to present the work I do in Sacred Band to audiences across America, as I create a website, use social media to share what I find in my reporting, and offer educational workshops for community groups, conferences, and universities.
Your support will enable me to bring a message of hope, backed by science, in a book that will be bold, compassionate, well-informed, wise–and precisely right for this moment of equality.