Ties That Bind

In this book, the author, a playwright and social critic explores the family, the first place where all people, straight, gay, and bisexual, learn homophobia. For it is within the family that homophobia begins to control people's lives, whether as perpetrators or recipients. Written in the tradition of Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, which reconceptualized rape and transformed it from a private problem into an internationally recognized cultural crisis that is now punishable in the International Criminal Court, this book uncovers the hidden crime of "familial homophobia" and moves it into the open for social and political scrutiny. The author illustrates how societal homophobia is rooted in the family but reaches into all levels of social interaction, including how gay people treat each other. She probes the complex issues involved and prescribes third party interventions on the part of both individuals and institutions of authority so that we can all live a better life together on truly equal terms. This work attempts to change our understanding of homophobia and redefine the political landscape not just for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people but for us all.