OUT IN PUBLIC - REINVENTING LESBIAN/GAY ANTHROPOLOGY IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD

Out in Public addresses, and engages us in, the new and exciting directions in the emerging field of lesbian/gay anthropology. The authors offer a deep conversation about the meaning of sexuality, subjectivity and culture.
Affirms the importance of recognizing gay and lesbian social issues within the arena of public anthropology
Explores critical concerns of gay activism in a variety of global settings, from the U.S., the European Union, Singapore, Nigeria, India, Nicaragua, and Guadalajara
Offers a unique focus on the politics of being gay and lesbian - in cross-cultural perspective
Deals with broad-ranging issues that affect human sexuality and human rights globally
Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize in the category of "Best Anthology"

Ellen Lewin is Professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture (Cornell University Press, 1993) and Recognizing Ourselves: Lesbian and Gay Ceremonies of Commitment (Columbia University Press, 1998), and the editor of Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America (Beacon Press, 1996) and of Feminist Anthropology: A Reader (Blackwell, 2006). With William L. Leap, she has co-edited two volumes of essays on lesbian and gay anthropology, Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (University of Illinois Press, 1996) and Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and Gay Anthropology (University of Illinois Press, 2002).


William Leap is Professor of Anthropology at American University. He is the author of Word’s Out: Gay Men’s English (University of Minnesota Press, 1996), and editor of Public Sex, Gay Space (Columbia University Press, 1999) and co-editor of Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language (University of Illinois Press, 2004). With Ellen Lewin, he has co-edited Out in the Field and Out in Theory.

"Lewin and Leap have done it again. Out in Public is an innovative collection of essays focusing on anthropology’s place in public debates over lesbian/gay lives. This book demonstrates the crucial contributions that lesbian/gay anthropology can offer contemporary debates over sexuality and justice."
–Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine
"For the contributors to this fine volume, practicing anthropology in public is not about "problem-solving." Rather, to be out in practice is to use anthropology to protest the dominant gender order."
–Richard Handler, University of Virginia
"Lewin and Leap have collected many intriguing insights about the neoliberal global order, real-world problems, and non-normative sexualities and genders. Those looking for sharp analyses of contemporary sexual politics will find Out in Public to be indispensable. It is a timely and fascinating read that demonstrates, once again, the centrality of lesbian/gay studies in anthropology to the field at large and to the wider academy."
–Jeff Maskovsky, Queen’s College, City University of New York
"Insightful, rich portraits of Gay/Lesbian communities as they come Out in Public in Nicaragua, Thailand, Mexico, Nigeria, Europe, Singapore and the U.S. Anthropologists engage in contemporary debates such as gay marriage, gay fatherhood, LGBT rights, and HIV/AIDS prevention. Critical, sensitive, and compelling reading."
–Louise Lamphere, University of New Mexico

Acknowledgments.
Notes on Contributors.
Editors’ Introduction.
Part I. Out in Public: Reflecting on Experience.
1. My Date with Phil Donahue: A Queer Intellectual in TV-Land (Esther Newton, University of Michigan).
2. Changes and Challenges: Ethnography, Homosexuality, and HIV Prevention Work in Guadalajara (Héctor Carrillo, San Francisco State University).
3. Going Home Ain’t Always Easy: Ethnography and the Politics of Black Responsibility (E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University).
Part II. Sexual Sameness is not a Self-Evident Terrain.
4. The Personal Isn’t Always Political (Karen Brodkin, University of California, Los Angeles).
5. Who’s Gay? What’s Gay?: Dilemmas of Identity Among Gay Fathers (Ellen Lewin, University of Iowa).
6. A Queer Situation: Poverty, Prisons, and Performances of Infidelity and Instability in the New Orleans Lesbian Anthem (Natasha Sandraya Wilson, University of Iowa).
Part III. Unpacking the Engagements between Sexuality and Broader Ideological Positions.
7. Tuskegee on the "Down Low": A Bioculturalist Brings the Past into the Present (Rachel Watkins, American University).
8. Back and Forth to the Land: Negotiating Rural and Urban Sexuality Among the Radical Faeries (Scott Morgensen, Macalaster College).
9. The Power of Stealth: (In)Visible Sites of Female-to-Male Transsexual Resistance (Elijah Adiv Edelman, American University).
10. Rumsfeld!: Consensual BDSM and "Sadomasochistic Torture" at Abu Ghraib (Margot Weiss, Wesleyan University).
11. Professional Baseball, Urban Restructuring and (Changing) Gay Geographies in Washington DC (William L. Leap, American University).
Part IV. International and Local Formations of Same-Sex and Transgender Identities.
12. Public Sex:The Geography of Female Homoeroticism and the (In)Visibility of Female Sexualities (Megan Sinnott, Georgia State University).
13. Neither in the Closet nor on the Balcony: Private Lives and Public Activism in Nicaragua (Florence Babb, University of Florida).
14. Life Lube:Discursive Spheres of Sexuality, Science, and AIDS (Harris Solomon, Brown University).
15. Man Marries Man in Nigeria? (Rudolf Gaudio, State University of New York College, Purchase)
Part V. Sexuality and Neo-liberal Citizenship.
16. LGBT Rights in the European Union, a Queer Affair? (Mark Graham, University of Stockholm).
17. Turning the Lion City Pink?: Interrogating Singapore’s Gay Civil Servant Statement (Chris Tan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).
18. The Marriage between Kinship and Sexuality in New Mexico’s Domestic Partnership Debate (Lavinia Nicolae, University of New Mexico).