By Faith BeaucheminHow Queer! gathers together fourteen autobiographical essays written not by sociologists or professional activists, but by ordinary bisexual, pansexual, and sexually-fluid people. These writers come from diverse backgrounds, but their personal narratives explore overarching themes of non-monosexual visibility, activism, confrontation with homophobia and religious bias, and endlessly double-edged experiences in the LGBTQ community.These stories help bring understanding to anyone who wants to learn more about gender and sexual identity whether to help define their own journey, to grow their own awareness, or to build solidarity with one another.As a complement to these narratives, Faith Beauchemin offers her own personal commentary in a series of reflective essays, which place the writers' experiences in the context of broader movements for radical social change. Beauchemin argues that a trend toward bisexual erasure in LGBTQ activism is all too prevalent, and functions only to serve the interest of patriarchy, sexism, and homophobia.In contrast to this trend of erasure, the stories collected in How Queer! subvert oppressive hierarchies by highlighting the perspectives and revolutionary potential of people who refuse to fit neatly into the narrow categories of sexual identity that are imposed upon them at every turn.
