The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992.
Not since John Fortunato’s Embracing the Exile has there been such a moving and touching work on the pain and loss which is ever present in the lesbian and gay community. This collection of personal vignettes manages to bring the reader in touch with how truly universal loss is. The essential theme of this work is that through our acceptance of loss in life, which O’Neill and Ritter compare to the bearing of the cross by Jesus, we can as spiritual beings, transform that loss into something wonderful and new. By “integrating” loss within our lives, O’Neill and Ritter state that gays and lesbians can then move on and “reformulate” their lives and a new realistic and meaningful image.
Most remarkable in this work is the author’s compassionate final chapter which embraces all people in that it seems to paraphrase 1 Josh by saying “God is love, and any relationship that reflects love reflects the source of love.” In what seems to be a truly inspired work, one statement stands tall:
… Regardless of how God is understood or defined, the goodness and providence of a supreme being is reflected in the gay and lesbian soul. God has knit gay men and lesbians out of the fiber of her or his being and as such, their sexual orientation reflects the image and likeness of the living God …
How ironic that after the publication of this work, O’Neill’s Catholic hierarchy has sought once again to do “violence” to the gay and lesbian community by rendering a loss to the Catholic community of one of its most compassionate priests. One can only quote O’Neill and Ritter in saying, “God has created lesbian and gay people, and to do violence to them heaps contempt on their Creator.”
Reviewed by Charles Whitlow
AT& T Tax Librarian
Morristown, New Jersey
