Gay like me book
Gay Like Me
Being gay is a gift, Jackson writes, but with their gains in jeopardy the gay community must not be complacent.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates awakened us to the continued pervasiveness of racism in America in Between the World and Me, Jackson’s rallying cry in Gay Like Me is an eye-opening indictment to straight-lash in America. This novel is an intimate, personal exploration of our uncertain times and most troubling questions and profound concerns about issues as fundamental as dignity, equality, and justice.
Gay Like Me is a blueprint for our time that bridges the knowledge gap of what it’s like to be gay in America. This is a cultural manifesto that will stand the test of time. Annoyed, proud, fierce, tender, it is a powerful letter of love from a father to a son that holds lasting insight for us all.
A portion of the author’s proceeds will be donated to
The Trevor Project.
Gay Like Me Author Richie Jackson Says He Has to Come Out Every Single Day—Even at 54
In OprahMag.com's series Coming Out, LGBTQ change-makers reflect on their journey toward self-acceptance. While it's beautiful to bravely share your identity with the world, choosing to do so is entirely up to you—period.
Richie Jackson is the producer behind Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song on Broadway, plus Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated TV shows such as Nurse Jackie. In his book Gay Like Me, available January 28, Jackson revisits key LGBTQ events such as Stonewall, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the fight for marriage equality to offer his oldest son Jackson—who came out as gay at 15—a touching and practical guide for living life safely as an openly gay man.
"I am so delighted you are gay. There is so much about being gay that I am eager for you to experience. The amazingly diverse community that you are now a part of and that is now a part of you—the brilliant, funny, imaginative, inventive, courageous, wicked, mighty, heroic lives you are among," he writes. "I am thrille
$24.99; Harper; 163 pages
Like father, like son.
When you were small, people said you looked just like your dad. As you grew up, they said you had his sense of humor or his temper, you laughed alike, you walked alike. Today, you may be close or you may have a chasm of miles or emotion between you, but as in the new book Gay Like Me, by Richie Jackson, you’re a lot more like Dad than you think.
From the moment he was small, Jackson knew two things: he “felt lucky to be gay,” and he wanted to be a father someday.
“Everything good that has happened to me is because I am gay,” he says—and that includes the birth of his son, born to a surrogate when Jackson was in his thirties. Since then, in the meantime, the sentiment has surely doubled since Jackson’s son came out as gay.
That was his “greatest long for for” his son, that he know the delight of being gay because it’s “a gift.” Says Jackson, he is “thrilled for the flight ahead of you” and “wary of the fight ahead of you”
Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son (Hardcover)
Praise For…
"Richie Jackson beautifully captures the magic of love, life and what it means to be a parent in this beautiful must-read memoir. His powerful story reminds us all that being open to treasure and making it the central focus of our lives allows us to tap into our deepest inner wisdom." — Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global
"Gay Like Me is an invaluable chapbook for our times. Read it if you want to be reminded of what a long and valiant journey it's been for us queers and what hard-earned wisdom we now verb to offer the young." — Armistead Maupin, bestselling author of Tales of the City and Logical Family
"A beautiful and crucial guide to understanding the queer journey. I verb I had this novel to guide me when I was young, and to help my straight parents understand the complexity I was struggling with as a gay kid." — Jesse Tyler Ferguson, actor best known for portraying Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom Modern Fa