Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.36 (574 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 146962723X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 192 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-08-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Powerful, moving first hand accounts of life in a steel mill by LGBT steelworkers" according to Michael Olszanski. This compellingly readable and long-overdue study explores the lives of forty Northwest Indiana GLTB steel mill workers. I was privileged to read it as a draft and it is unbelievably powerful. I literally could not put it down .As a long time steelworker and past president of 10,000 member USW Local 1010, I believe this unique work deserves attention and needs to be widely read, especially by Union officers and activists. With this "coming out" of Powerful, moving first hand accounts of life in a steel mill by LGBT steelworkers Michael Olszanski This compellingly readable and long-overdue study explores the lives of forty Northwest Indiana GLTB steel mill workers. I was privileged to read it as a draft and it is unbelievably powerful. I literally could not put it down .As a long time steelworker and past president of 10,000 member USW Local 1010, I believe this unique work deserves attention and needs to be widely read, especially by Union officers and activists. With this "coming out" of 40 steelworkers, the abuse and terror suffered by steelworkers who are "different" can no longer be igno. 0 steelworkers, the abuse and terror suffered by steelworkers who are "different" can no longer be igno. Bucky's favorites said Valuable book for gays and their relatives and friends.. Great descriptions of work in steel mills and how gays survive. Also good info about unions. Outstanding writing. Highly recommend.. It looks thin, but it isn't Reading Junkie I am still making my way through this book. It isn't that it's bad; it's very well developed, and contains in-depth interviews conducted by the author. My initial thought that this book would be lightweight was in error. It is thin, but very, very mighty.You will get a good bang for the buck with this book. It's kind of sad though, too, these closeted steelworkers who cannot live their true lives. They are tough, gritty folk. You'd have to be to work in a steel mill (my grandfather worked in a steel mill, and my mom still tells me stories about his t
Highly recommended.--Choice. Their stories challenge our convenient stereotypes of what it means to be queer and how that has changed through time.--Chicago Sun TimesAn honest and intimate window into the lives of hard-working queer steelworkers whose lives stray far from the gets-better narrative.--Oral History ReviewAnne Balay has produced an astonishing work of ethnography. As a testament to the sheer magnitude of suffering, resourcefulness, and perseverance of our queer sisters and brothers in steel, she has written a labor of love.--Women's Re
. Anne Balay teaches at Haverford College
She presents powerful stories of the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously silent and invisible population. Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves, Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay life in America.. Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. The voices and stories captured by Balay--by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and devastating--challenge contemporary understandings of what it means to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence, or rape