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Title details for Steel Closets by Anne Balay - Available

Steel Closets

Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers

by Anne Balay
ebook
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Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously silent and invisible population. She presents powerful stories of the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. The voices and stories captured by Balay — by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and devastating — challenge contemporary understandings of what it means to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence, or rape.
Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves, Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay life in America.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 7, 2014

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9781469615455

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781469614014
      • File size: 4940 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781469614014
      • File size: 3366 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2014

      America was forged in steel, as Balay notes in the book's introduction, "it is both a material and a metaphor...a part of the idealized American spirit." And that tough metal conjures up myriad images--molten rivers and glowing slabs in forgeries, smokestacks, skyscrapers, and automobiles. In this examination of LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual transgender) steel mill employees, Balay (English, gender studies, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) examines a different side of the industry. The author interviewed 40 men and women (including transgender individuals), chiefly in the Rust Belt city of Gary, IN. Their graphic descriptions of the toll of the remaining closeted individuals in this traditionally masculine, tightly knit, blue-collar milieu punctuate a detailed examination of the gritty mill culture, in which homophobia (and, for the women, sexism) is an ingrained part of the camaraderie. For most of these workers, coming out is not an option, and the hazards inherent in their jobs are compounded by physical and mental health issues and a lack of union support. VERDICT If this well-wrought contribution to LGBT studies has a flaw, it's that it may be too academically oriented for its working-class subjects, who need most to read it.--Richard J. Violette, Victoria P.L., BC

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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