Neil Miller - Out in the World: Gay and Lesbian Life from Buenos Aires to Bangkok

Sharp, informative, and always engaging, this is first-rate work.

Christopher Bram, The Advocate

A welcome book Out in the World recounts the experiences of people Americans would probably never hear from otherwise lesbians in black townships in South Africa, for instance, and homosexual males from traditional Chinese neighborhoods in Hong Kong. In each country he visited, what he learned helps put in perspective the kinds of personal, professional and legal challenges that gay men and lesbians still face here.

Washington Post Book World

Continuously fascinating Miller poses questions about gay identity [and] finds a world in various states of advancement, ranging from Denmark, the first nation to legalize homosexual marriages, to Egypt and Thailand, where a self-determined gay identity is still struggling to surface.

San Francisco Review of Books

Compulsive reading impressive, entertaining Miller is a journalist and he knows how to write: coolly, sometimes skeptically, often humorously, with an eye always to the salient. There is much that is serious in this book but it is all written up in entertaining and readable prose.

Matthew Parris, National Review

A magnificent Odyssey Miller is a seasoned journalist [and] an expert storyteller. Unlike many male writers about gay sociology, Miller makes an assiduous effort to investigate lesbian experience as well. A wonderful accomplishment.

Philip Gambone, Bay Windows

Compelling richly thoughtful Miller is heroically scrupulous in giving proportional attention to men and women, people of color, and minorities within minorities. [With] Millers fresh observations readers will find themselves in the hands of a reliable guide.

Stan Persky, Toronto Globe and Mail

The first large-scale look at gay and lesbian life around the globe. Miller looks at topics of sexuality, relationships, politics, social patterns, community building, and the impact of AIDS. Out in the World introduces us to an unusual and vivid cast of characters, [and] enlightens as it uncovers a wide range of attitudes, lifestyles and behaviors. Miller brilliantly captures the touching, often inspiring stories of women and men simply trying to live their lives, often in climates of repression or opposition.

Stonewall News

A grand tour an exploration, from one vastly different culture to the next, of what it means to be homosexual. Some of the sketches are worthy of a short story.

Philadelphia Inquirer

For his latest work Miller traveled to twelve nations, speaking with, among others, gay South African miners, Australian AIDS activists, a lesbian couple legally married in Denmark and Japanese men. Miller sees his book as a memoir of a people, and hopes lesbians and gays here can learn from their foreign counterparts, and can also offer advice to those just reaching toward the edges of gay and lesbian liberation.

Boston Globe

Miller records nuances of gay life the world over, [and] what he found has been largely uncharted up to now.

Houston Post

Engaging Out in the World pays special attention to developing countries where gay and lesbian identity is evolving along with political and cultural reforms. Throughout the book, Miller is careful to track the status of lesbians so often overlooked in the popular conception of what it means to be gay. Heartfelt quotations give Out in the World a necessary warmth and human connection. Out in the World documents red-hot emotionsnot merely love and passion but hatred and persecution.

Toronto Star

Neil Miller is the former editor of Bostons Gay Community News and was a staff writer at the Boston Phoenix. His book In Search of Gay America won the 1990 American Library Association Prize for lesbian and gay nonfiction, as well as a Lambda Literary Award. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

ALSO BY NEIL MILLER:

In Search of Gay America

VINTAGE DEPARTURES EDITION

Copyright 1992 by Neil Miller

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1992.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, Neil (Neil I.)
Out in the world: gay and lesbian life from Buenos Aires to
Bangkok / Neil Miller.
p. cm.(Vintage departures)
eISBN: 978-0-307-76724-0
1. Homosexuality. 2. Gays. 3. Lesbians. 4. Gay communities.
I. Title.
[HQ76.25.M55 1993]
305.90664dc20 93-1300

v3.1

For my parents,
for Morgan Mead,
and for Jonathan Strong

I am grateful to many people around the world whose goodwill and generosity made this book possible. Although I cannot name everyone who was of help to me (and in some cases am unable to do so, out of respect for privacy), I would like to express my particular thanks to:

Argentina: Eileen Ahearn, Rafael Freda, Christopher Leland, Osvaldo Sabino;

Australia: Dennis Altman, Sue Brooks, Michael Browne, Rodney Croome, Ken Davis, Chris Dobney, Scott Fraser, Robert French, Chris Gill, Martyn Goddard, Ian Grubb, Scott Grundy, Keava and Vienna Leahry, Kimberly OSullivan, Cath Phillips, Yvette Sneddon and Louise Titcombe, Nick Toonen, Danny Vadesz, Nick Wade;

Czechoslovakia: Jan Lny, Andrzej Selerowicz;

Denmark: Ove Carlsen, Ivan Larsen, Mie Nielsen;

Egypt: Zachy Sherif;

Germany: Burt Falkenstein, Kersten Handau and Liszie Libera, Michael Haney, Jrgen Lemke, Camille Mandler, Jrg Ossowski, Colin Sherman;

Hong Kong: Julian Chan;

Japan: Minako Hara, Atsuko Ito, Masanori Kanda, Gary Leupp, Teishiro Minami, Hiroshi Niimi, Gregory Pflugfelder, Yasushi Sawasaki;

New Zealand: Terry Fairchild, Paul Kinder, Tony James, Bill Logan, New Zealand AIDS Foundation, Albert Sword, Gays and Lesbians of Timaru, Tony Walker and Tony Hughes, Fran Wilde;

South Africa: Peter Busse, Kim Berman, Cindy Berman, Edmund Cameron, Gays of the Gold Fields (GOGS), Mark Gevisser, Gordon Isaacs, Matthew Krouse, Sheila Lapinsky, Simon Lewin, Ron Nerio, Simon Nkoli, John Pegge, Lee Randall, Kevin Ruthuen, Barbara Speyer;

Thailand: Eric Allyn, Nukul Benchamant, Mayuree Rattanawannathip, Natee Teerarojjanapongs;

Uruguay: Clever Velzquez;

U.S.A.: Hassan Abouseda, Don Austin, Mike Blim, Michael Bronski, Chris Bull, Richard Burns, Siong-Huat Chua, Elyssa Faisson, Lesli Gordon, Kathleen Hirsch and Mark Morrow, Sue Hornik, Ken Mayer, Jane Miller and Robert Mackler, Jim Marko, David OBrien, Eric Rofes, Jason Schneider, Steve Schwartzberg, Philip Shehadi, Ross Terrill, Michael Watson, Daniel Wolfe.