States Of Desire Revisited: Travels in Gay America

If you've traveled in this beautiful continent of North America, your eye most likely opened up to the diversity that makes our country thrive, separating us within our micro-cultures while uniting us as members of the LGBT community. Such is the case in Edmund White's reissue of "States of Desire - Revisited: Travels In Gay America."

Throughout many chapters, "States of Desire" allows the reader to pack their bag and take the journey with White through the checklist of USA's regions; Los Angeles, Pacific Northwest, Santa Fe, the Midwest, et. al. It's a decent case study of what life was like in the late 70s and early 80s - a trying yet simpler time when gay men and women were more open to sexual freedom, but still living in the closet and going about their everyday lives. White's journey in the pre-AIDS and pre-Internet era expresses something completely freeing. While traveling with White and just his bag and a blank journal, I was prepared to live vicariously through him in "State of Desire."

White's travelogue features individual real life characters, addressing many important issues such as the early years of: "The Advocate," gay life in the Los Angeles film industry, Big Business gays in the lucrative lap of luxury, Northwest brimming lumberjack-type men (they grow them that way in the Northwest), "Tranvestsphobia," and LGBT led neighborhood revitalization. While there was contentment, sexual exploration, and happiness in so many of these communities it didn't mean that hate didn't exist either. White does a reputable job of painting the picture of discrimination occurring in each of these stomping grounds.

Here's where I get confused. Why republish this compendium today? A comment on how far we've come textsince then? Okay, that I'll except. However, the journey pretty much concludes there.

"States of Desire - Revisited" although seemingly important to a younger LGBT generation on an historical level, and significant to the LGBT community now in their 60s and 70s, shouldn't be looked at as a definitive study of life during that time. Loosely narrative in many areas and somewhat laborious, "States of Desire" was originally written in 1980 and this is its fourth printing.

We've gone from the pre-Damaron Guide word of mouth of traveling to our present day of the LGBT Internet. Weekly gay rag B&W classifieds are replaced with Craigslist & 'Room for Rents'; and hookup sites like Scruff, Grindr, Qrushr. (and other sites missing the last vowel before its 'r'.) Now people from across the globe can pre-meet with a simple email or hook-up with a hottie within arms' reach. Arguably as a mid-life married gay man I recognize the Internet has changed the landscape of this country and the geographical characteristics that contain the specific breeds of LGBT people who live in them.

While I remain a champion for the LGBT community knowing as much of its history as possible, "Travels In Gay America" wouldn't be my primary choice to suggest to fellow readers. The book lacks the narrative to convey the change and progress that it boasts. Perhaps the entire novel of "Travels in Gay America" can be looked at more as chapter one in the forty-year transformation of all that is gay rights today. This book was written before a time of major change in the LGBT community. It should only be experienced if the reader wishes a personal case study on pre-AIDS decade and Queer civil rights just after the time of the murder of Harvey Milk. While our country was beginning its journey of what can loosely be called a radical change in LGBT civil rights, the slice of life the book represents is not far into the point where it translates as passive and immobile to the reader.