The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World
By: Mason Funk / Narrated By: Mason Funk, Robin Miles, Eileen Stevens, Kevin R. Free, Charles Constant, Rick Adamson
Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
A VERY important book tho’ 10 hours of snippets gets to sounding a tad repetitive
I s’pose, however, that Mason Funk was simply trying to get as many people in as possible here in The Book of Pride. It has an AMAZINGLY diverse cast of heroes whose struggles got society from way back when all the way to how things stand now in the LGBTQ communities. There are gays, lesbians, transgenders, and bi’s, naturally. But there are also inter-sex, and two-spirit individuals as well. There are people who were struggling with their status as, say, African-American and the hardships that entailed right there, in addition to their sexual orientation, their sense of gender. There was one woman who was REALLY angry with God that she was 1) A woman, 2) African-American, 3) Lesbian, and 4) Disabled. Trying to live as just ONE of those was hard enough, but all four together at once? Too much!
But she did it, and you’ll find many more stories of courage to stand up and be counted, of being at the right/wrong place at the right time, of kinda sorta simply stumbling into the position where they had to speak out. Then too there are people here who did desperate and/or calculated acts of mischief and mayhem—anything to get the conversation started (that diverse sexual orientation existed and was NOT and out and out sin).
I didn’t have a chance to really note the names of any of the people interviewed as their stories went by so quickly and in so few words, but perhaps if it was my own community I would know some of them. After all, many received awards recognizing lifetime commitments to the causes.
Most of the people were Baby-Boomers and just pre-Baby-Boomers coming up on their later years, soon to be gone, with stories that needed to be recorded for history. And it was mostly fascinating. I’d heard a bit about the struggles, but not of, say, the Stonewall Riots, which came up time and time again with each individual telling of them from their own unique perspectives. I also figured that, given what I’d seen in my public school years, things could get pretty bad, but I had no idea how much violence was visited upon each individual. Yes, I’d heard of murders, but that society as a whole could endorse such outcomes was really disheartening.
But each person interviewed was able to see that all they went through brought them to a better time, a better place, though there’s still so much to be done.
Yes, 10 hours did start to feel long, as person after person after person after person told their story, but when you take the book as a whole, it was really inspiring and life-affirming. And that Robin Miles, with her well-loved and oh so familiar voice, was one of the narrators added to a very positive experience.
Definitely quite a moving tribute to people who looked after each other, to people who were brave enough to risk it all.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.