“ High-Risk Homosexual is an absolute marvel in voice, style, and its raucous, tender, heartbreaking, compassionate, and ultimately triumphant examination of gay spaces, the politics of gender, violence against GLBTQ folks, and, of course, the human heart. This book signals the arrival of a major new talent.” -Laila Lalami, author of Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America and The Other Americans
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From the cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was taken by his uncles to learn how to be a man, to Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where he witnesses freedom and joy on the dance floor, Edgar Gomez writes with honesty and humor about the difficulty of straddling boundaries and the courage of finding oneself. “ High-Risk Homosexual is a keen and tender exploration of queer identity, masculinity, and belonging. An engagingly candid memoir from a promising young writer.” - Kirkus Reviews “Poignant, vivid, and often hilarious, this coming-of-age memoir fearlessly explores intersectional identity and shows what it means to live and love authentically as a gay man today. A brilliant and provocative interrogation of sex, gender, race, and love.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Packed with dry wit and searing cultural insight. Among them are ‘Maybelline foundation shade: Rich Tan,’ ‘A baby wailing in an ancient Jesuit language,’ and ‘The most famous woman in the world.’ If that doesn’t entice you to read Gomez’s account of figuring out how to embrace his queer identity amid a culture of machismo, I’m not sure what will.” -Keely Weiss, Harper’s Bazaar, A Best LGBT Book of the Year “The catalogue page for this debut memoir lists a number of things you can expect to find within the book’s contents. His story is a scintillating, beautiful reminder of the importance of leaving space for joy.
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With vulnerability, humor, and quick-witted insights into racial, sexual, familial, and professional power dynamics, Gomez shares a hard-won path to taking pride in the parts of himself he was taught to keep hidden. Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor’s office where he was diagnosed a “high-risk homosexual.” In a world desperate to erase us, queer Latinx men must find ways to hold on to pride for survival, but excessive male pride is often what we are battling, both in ourselves and in others.Ī debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez’s uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at thirteen years old to become a man. I’ve always found the definition of machismo to be ironic, considering that pride is a word almost unanimously associated with queer people, the enemy of machistas. Gomez’s witty memoir follows a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing his gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo-from his uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to cities across the U.S.-and the bath houses, night clubs, and drag queens who helped him redefine pride.