Items

• A family matter : a parents' guide to homosexuality
  Psychologist Charles Silverstein (1935-2023) was a writer and pioneering advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. His presentation to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) contributed to the removal of homosexuality as a mental illness from the APA’s ‘DSM’ (the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’) in 1974. Three years later, he published his first book, ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’, co-authored with Edmund White – another ‘Operation Tiger’ seized title – and, in the same year, ‘A Family Matter’. While ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’ focused on a community of men who have sex with men, ‘A Family Matter’ is a contribution to the genre of books intended to help parents of lesbian and gay children “come to terms with their own feelings about homosexuality”. In a briefing document about the seized titles, the Defend Gay’s the Word Campaign noted that the book was “Dedicated to his ma and pa!!”
• Aphrodisiac : fiction from Christopher Street
  This anthology of “the best fiction from Christopher Street” was praised for its “literary excellence” by ‘Publishers Weekly’. It compiles eighteen short stories published in “America’s leading gay magazine”, from authors including Jane Rule, Edmund White, Tennessee Williams and Kate Millett. The magazine, named after the location of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, was founded in 1976 and published monthly until the mid-1990s. As well as original fiction, it featured writing on gay politics and culture, interviews and satirical cartoons. A series of essays about the unfolding AIDS crisis in New York by Andrew Holleran – one of the featured authors in this collection – was later published as ‘Ground Zero’.
• Men loving men : a gay sex guide and consciousness book
  Disappointed by the heterosexism of ‘The Joy of Sex’ (1972), Mitch Walker (1951-) produced this practical sex guide for men “who want to love other men” and “be themselves”, in the same year as Charles Silverstein and Edmund White published ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’. Walker also emphasises queer kinship, distinguishing a more emotionally and socially encompassing “gayness” from a medico-scientific “homosexuality”. Explanations of sexual acts such as masturbation and fellatio are interspersed with quotations and images on love and sex between men from other times and cultures. The book is illustrated with expressive line drawings by Bill Warwick and black-and-white photography by David Greene. Copies of ‘Men Loving Men’ sent to ‘Gay News’ in the late 1970s were destroyed by Customs. It also met with Customs’ disapproval in Canada and New Zealand, where it was banned as indecent in 1983.
• Men loving themselves : images of male self-sexuality
  The publisher of this book, Down There Press, was founded by sex therapist and feminist Joani Blank (1937-2016), to publish works advocating for sex positivity. She also edited this book which explores male masturbation, primarily through black-and-white images of men depicted in the act. Jack Morin (1946-2013) photographed twelve straight and gay men in settings of their choosing, alongside statements outlining how masturbation relates to their sexuality. The book ends with a section entitled ‘The Psychology of Male Self-Sexuality' which provides a conceptual framework for the images. It includes a list of recommended readings, and an advert for a poster of the book’s cover, available to purchase. Other books exploring gay men’s sexuality, ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’ and ‘Men Loving Men’, were also seized during ‘Operation Tiger’.
• The joy of lesbian sex : a tender and liberated guide to the pleasures and problems of a lesbian lifestyle
  Published a year after ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’, the subtitle of this volume introduces the “problems” as well as “pleasures” of lesbian life in marked contrast to its gay male counterpart. Written by Dr Emily L. Sisley (1930-2016) and novelist and Daughters, Inc. founder Bertha Harris (1937-2005), and illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert, Charles Raymond and Patricia Faulkner, it follows the formula set by ‘The Joy of Sex’ in 1972. It covers all aspects of lesbian life and sexuality from “Alcohol and sex” to “Water, water, everywhere”, followed by a bibliography. It had a smaller initial print run than ‘The Joy of Gay Sex’ – 50,000 rather than 75,000 copies – and its reception was mixed. One (lesbian) reviewer objected to its misandry while another suggested its “authors cling to the concept of a penis”. It was also criticised for its omissions, “myths and misconceptions”, particularly around disability, race and class.