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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 21, 1997
BOOKS
Photos, essays focus on the beauty of male relationships
Men Together
Portraits of Love, Commitment and Life Essays by Anderson Jones. Photographs by David Fields Running Press, $27.50 hardcover
Reviewed by Nels P. Highberg
These days, it seems impossible to be awake without hearing some commentary on how we as gay men and lesbians should be living our lives, whether we hear it from religious pundits, political leaders, gay writers, parents, or anyone else with or without a clue.
Many of those who speak out—whether gay or straight-often react against gay men or lesbians who choose long-term, committed relationships. In response, those in such relationships have begun to speak for themselves, and that is the purpose behind Men Together: Portraits of Love, Commitment, and Life. This collection of photographs by David Fields and essays by Anderson Jones provides detailed accounts of how twentynine gay male couples met, get along, and grow together.
In an interview, Anderson Jones said that writing and publishing the book was both "courageous and risky." At the same time, he felt a strong desire to complete this project "for young gay people to show that it's possible to be in a long term relationship."
Often, gay men have to look towards heterosexuals for ideas as to what relationships should be. This book sets out to present other role models, especially because, as Jones commented, such images "are not supported by our culture."
In the preface Jones writes, "We tried to make this book a reminder that love does not
require anybody's stamp of legitimacy in order to exist."
Jones and Fields met the men through ads on the Internet, people they knew, referrals, and a "personal wish list" of celebrities like Dan Butler and Erasure's Andy Bell. Still, Jones comments that the book is "by its nature, incomplete."
"They all, of course, have undertaken considerable risk by acknowledging--and celebrating their love in this book," Jones writes. "But they are not the only examples of longterm couples among us." Still, Jones and Fields present images and tales of men around the country and in a variety of circumstances.
Jones said in the interview that he wanted to write so that people could "read it, get it, and understand it." Each essay centers on the words of the couples themselves. We read of men meeting at discos, parties, in the military, through friends. They have been together for ten, twenty, thirty or more years.
Each couple expresses their own personal struggles of staying together through diseases like AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and bipolar disorder or debates about marriage, parenting, and employment discrimination. Jones said that getting the men to speak was easy because they felt it was "time to be honest and real."
Many of the stories did surprise Jones, including accounts of those who met at eighteen and are still together, who met in places like the military, and who found love so soon after previous losses. Each of the stories conveys some quality that makes the couple stand out from the rest.
Leonard Green's story of life as a gay, African American, ultra-conservative Republican who lives with "left-leaning moderate" Steve Langley is one such story. Another example concerns how John Sproule met Reverend Brent Hawkes after Hawkes began a
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hunger strike to protest a mass arrest of gay men in Toronto. At the same time, each couple also sounds similar to the rest, recounting the fact that maintaining relationships takes effort, strength, and time.
The black-and-white photographs reflect a lot of laughing. Men have their arms around each other and lean together. They confront the camera, looking through the lens directly into the viewer's eyes. These photographs are a welcome contrast to many recent popular collections of gay male photography that focus on the "beauty" of some male bodies.
Jones commented on just this fact, saying that this book is "not about naked men."
Instead, this book is a welcome addition to representations of issues surrounding gay male relationships, especially since we get to see and hear from men who actually live these lives. The debates about marriage are not resolved, and probably never will be, but hearing these stories certainly extends the discussion in a productive way.
Nels P. Highberg is a Chronicle contributing writer.
Film explores Filipino gay group's religious festival
by Dawn Leach
Sunflowers is a documentary about a gay men's group in the Philippines that holds an annual parade in their small town for the religious festival of St. Helen. While the local residents are clearly not entirely comfortable with gays, the gay festival is far more popular than the one provided by the local church.
The film explores the relationships between the gay group, their families, the local Catholic church and the conservative town residents. It also explores the attitudes that locals have towards homosexuality and how gays feel about themselves.
In a culture where sexual orientation and gender identity blend, gay men explain that they don't want to date other gay men, they seek straight male partners.
A Sunflowers member performs in the Festival of St. Helen.
Sunflowers holds some surprises for a North American audience, and gives some insights into what it is like to be gay in another part of the world.
is
Sunflowers showing at Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave., at 5 pm on Saturday, November 22 as a part of the Ohio Independent Film Festival. For more information, call Bernadette Gillota at 216781-1755.
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