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Welcome to the World of Gay Spirit as Seen
Through
the Eyes of Author-Editor-Photographer
“Fellow Travelers: Liberation Portraits.” Words and pictures by Mark
Thompson. An Automat Pictures Production produced and directed by Jeffrey
Schwarz. (2005, 20 min.) This film is a collection of 14 stunning black and
white images of gay liberation pioneers taken by one of the foremost activists
and chroniclers of the movement. The show has been exhibited at the San
Francisco Public Library, The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, Pasadena AIDS
Service Center, ONE National Gay Archives, and elsewhere.
“Fellow Travelers is the manifestation of a masterful collaboration
between photographer Mark Thompson and writer Mark Thompson. With uncommon
sensitivity, he manages to capture the heart and soul of 14 extraordinary men
who redefine what it is to be beautiful. The pictures in tandem with the text
achieve an intimacy and vibrancy that is electric--at once graceful, insightful,
political and lyrical.”
--Michael Kearns, actor-playwright-activist
“Even the briefest glimpse of these pictures is worth the bother….The show
is dedicated to the exploration of gay male spiritual consciousness.”
--David Lamble, Bay Area Reporter
“Author, journalist, therapist Mark Thompson has spent more than 30 years
articulating the ineffable. As an artist, he waits for that one ‘perfect’ moment
to capture the interior of the gay soul.”
--Karen Ocamb, IN Los Angeles Magazine
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Now that
you have met these remarkable men,
read more
about them and others in the books below.
 Gay
Spirit: Myth and Meaning broke new ground when it first appeared
in 1987, giving voice to an entire generation of gay men seeking
alternative visions about the fundamental questions facing their lives. This now
classic volume has been widely acclaimed, cited by the Lambda Book Report
as “among the 100 gay books that changed our lives.” It was followed by two
others, Gay Soul and Gay Body, creating a foundational trilogy
that has helped define a now international movement of spiritually aware gay
men. In its deft weave of anthropology, history and sexual politics, Gay
Spirit provides illuminating insight for all students of gender and
religious studies.
“Gay Spirit is so terrific at making the reader feel there might be
something more wondrous, more miraculous to life…the exciting challenge to
conventional thinking is that it’s not merely time for society to tolerate but
cherish its intermediate sexual types.”
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Gay Spirit is daring, which only proves its timeliness…it signals
the opening of a new area of gay publishing, a field of spiritual exploration
outside the context of religion or politics.” ---The Advocate
“Mark Thompson’s joyous collection will come as a gust of fresh air to
anyone who has ever explored spirituality outside the bounds of conventional
religion.”
--Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City
“Gay Spirit calls gay people back to the Circle of Life as full
participants in the dance of survival and joy…this anthology is like the rains
of spring hastening our unique growth, flowering and
fruition.” --Gay Community News
Does being gay bestow a special two-spiritedness? Is there a unique
advantage to exploring the soul through a queer prism? What is “gaiety of soul?”
How can flesh and spirit be integrated in a soulful life? The 16 vibrant gay
male elders, both young and old, who speak out in Gay Soul: Finding the Heart
of Gay Spirit and Nature have each pondered the nature of the soul through
the lens of “otherness. In a series of long and intimate conversations, Mark
Thompson calls out their deepest emotions with his searching, perceptive
questions. Well-known community figures, spiritual leaders, and artists such as
Harry Hay, Ram Dass, Andrew Harvey, Paul Monette, James Broughton, and many
others are interviewed and photographed in this widely read collection.
“What Thompson has given men in Gay Soul is an outpouring of
much-needed healing love—from new kinds of ‘fathers.’” --Judy Grahn, The
Advocate
“What makes his work successful is Thompson’s portrayal of the diversity of
gay spiritualities. I came away with a great deal of hope, for gay
spiritualities have the potentiality for profound cultural transformation in the
coming years.”
--Robert Goss, author of Jesus Acted Up
“What a gift: this wake-up call to gay souls which celebrates the special
joys and responsibilities that come with being gay.”
--Christine Downing, author of Myth and Mysteries of Same Sex Love
The spiritual journey to adulthood is, for most gay men, particularly
difficult. Often suffering the hurts of traumatic childhoods, the assaults and
rejections of indifferent or confused families, and the outsider status
conferred upon them by society at large, many get lost along the way. In Gay
Body: A Journey Through Shadow to Self, an electrifying mix of theory and
autobiography, Mark Thompson explores the stages of healing and recovery that
gay men can experience if they dare to take the path leading to a fully
integrated body and spirit. In his own life, he details the experience of
growing up in a dysfunctional family, the heady days of the early 1970s in San
Francisco, and his attempts to heal himself—from radical fairie circles to the
deepest reaches of the leather movement. Intermixed is an explanation of
archetypes and how they function, and the lessons that must be learned for each
gay man to heal his own gay soul, spirit, and body.
“Stories like this don’t usually get told--perhaps that’s what makes
Thompson’s cri du coeur noir feel so fresh and original…I see both
selfless generosity and fearlessness in the telling of these extremely intimate
stories, which the author has put out in the hope of helping other gay men to
see and learn about themselves.”
--Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review
“Gay Body is as much a meditation on the spirit as it is the flesh.
Thompson’s moving, sometimes harrowing, sometimes gut wrenching memoir…is but
one version of the journey that all gay men must take if they are to find
themselves whole.” --Lambda Book Report
“Gay Body has the warmth and humanity of an autobiography and the
depth and analysis of a theological work, yet reads like a mystery
novel…Thompson seems to have found the unconscious pulse of a gay man’s soul,
for as I read, I found my own experiences coming back to me within a wider
perspective and with new understanding.”
--White Crane Journal
“Thompson seamlessly weaves an unsparingly candid autobiographical narrative
with broader observations, drawing on elements of Jungian archetypes, gay
history and mythology, and New Age spirituality…A provocative work.” --Library
Journal
“This brilliant book should be required reading for every gay man interested
in personal growth and healing….Gay Body offers invaluable insight,
compassion, and wisdom to guide us in our search for meaning.”
--Genre Magazine
“The road Thompson travels is fascinating, as he unlocks closets
within closets….A powerful inner quest truthfully described.” --The
Washington Post
“Thompson elucidates his ideas with charm, energy, and enormous conviction.
Gay Body is an important addition to the writing and thinking gay men
have produced these past three decades, as they try to figure out not only how
to make sense of their own lives, but to make the world a better place for
themselves and everyone else.”
--Michael Bronski, author of Culture Clash
Since its publication in 1991, Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People,
Politics, and Practice has become a classic, must-read book on human
sexuality and identity. Widely acknowledged as being among the most useful books
of its kind, the co-gender anthology is both historical witness and provocative
treatise on this unique and often misunderstood subculture. The diverse
contributors look at the history of the gay and lesbian underground, how radical
sex practice relates to their spirituality, and what it means to them
personally.
“A groundbreaking anthology…This first non-fiction, co-gender collection to
document the queer leather scene is an instant classic.” --The San
Francisco Review of Books
“Leatherfolk reveals a side of leather as no book before—its heart
and soul. It is an intelligently edited work with essays that complement and
contrast in vibrant concert. Thompson gives us the varied voices of those who
use extreme sex as an integral part of their lives—those who have undertaken the
hero’s journey into a forbidden world and have been transformed. The writers in
this book have earned their chaps.”
--Lambda Book Report
“Leatherfolk is probably the finest book ever published on leathersex
history and philosophy. Fascinating, comprehensive, informative, and sexy.”
--International Leatherman
“Leatherfolk issues a bracing challenge to all of us—to see where the
carnal meets the soul. From so many fine writers one might have expected the
exuberance and the wit gathered here, voices fresh and vital, full of fire and
the power of transformation. In a world of hypocrites and false prophets, it’s
the outlaws who know where the spirit resides. Fasten your seat belts and
prepare for a shock to the system. If you want vanilla, read something else.”
--Paul Monette, National Book Award-winning author of Becoming a Man
“Leatherfolk challenges the last taboo: use of the body and erotic
energy to explore spirituality. Probably our first glimpse of the neo-tribal,
fusion-oriented fourth phase of a cultural revolution that begun in
1960.” --Fakir Musafar, author Spirit + Flesh
“If you haven’t read this book, do so. It will open your mind and possibly
your limits. If you have read it, you might want to do so again, just in case
you missed something the first time…or the tenth time, for that matter. You
can’t do better than this one.”
--The Leather Journal
 Long
Road to Freedom documents the remarkable early history of the modern gay and
lesbian movement—a quarter century of rebellion and reform, tragedy and triumph.
Editor Mark Thompson fills hundreds of pages with news, photographs, essays,
cartoons, and interviews culled from The Advocate, the national gay
newsmagazine, where he worked for two decades as a journalist and Senior Editor
(1975-1994). From first-person accounts of the Stonewall Riots to the tragic
last day of Harvey Milk’s life, the crisis of AIDS to the controversy over
outing, the milestones of the movement are presented as they happened, along
with accounts of the lighter side of gay life, from disco divas to the politics
of drag.
“Renowned journalist Mark Thompson has constructed a remarkable gift to the
nation’s gay communities. This magnificent coffee table tome is now available in
paperback.”
--Corrine Hicks, Gay Today
“This engrossing and profusely illustrated book documents the increasingly
prominent and embattled place of gays and lesbians in American culture. This
chronicle is a stirring scrapbook of a movement whose greatest victories may be
yet to come.” --Publishers Weekly
“An amazing history of an American movement that continues to evolve.”
--San Francisco Chronicle
“Turmoil, joy, and cultural phenomenon come together here in a cohesive
blend…25 years of history-making at its most fascinating.” --Albuquerque
Journal
“A remarkable scrapbook that, like a family photo album, allows the reader
to relive both the stunning victories and the crushing defeats of the past
25-plus years of gay liberation.”
--New York Newsday
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