Global gay : how gay culture is changing the world
(Book)

Translation of French original, Global gay : comment la révolution gay change le monde; published: Paris : Flammarian, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A panoramic view of gay rights, gay life, and the gay experience around the world.

"In [this book], Frédéric Martel visits more than fifty countries and documents a revolution underway around the world: the globalization of LGBT rights. From Saudi Arabia to South Africa, from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv, from Singapore to the United States, activists, culture warriors, and ordinary people are part of a movement. Martel interviews the proprietor of a 'gay-friendly' café in Amman, Jordan; a Cuban-American television journalist in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; a South African jurist who worked with Nelson Mandela to enshrine gay rights in the country's constitution; an American lawyer who worked on the campaign for marriage equality; an Egyptian man who fled his country after escaping a raid on a gay club; and many others. He tells us that in China, homosexuality is neither prohibited nor permitted, and that much Chinese gay life takes place on social media; that in Iran, because of the strict separation of the sexes, it can sometimes seem as easy to be gay as it is to go to jail for being so; and that Raul Castro's daughter, a gay rights icon in Cuba, expressed her anti-American sentiments by calling for Cuban Pride celebrations to be held in May rather than in June, as they are in the United States. At least ten countries maintain the death penalty for homosexuals. 'Homophobia is what Arab governments give to Islamists to keep them calm, ' one activist tells Martel. As the West progresses from the criminalization of homosexuality to the penalization of homophobia, and the 'gay American way of life' offers a global template for gay activism and culture, Martel finds that every country offers distinctly local variations. And around the world, the status of gay rights has become a measure of a country's democracy and modernity. Global Gay has been translated into seven languages and adapted into an award-winning television documentary. This English edition has been thoroughly revised and updated."--Jacket.

Translated from the French.

French Voices Award, 2016