Gay straight jacket
This is an essential read for every gay person on the planet.
Elton John
Utterly brilliant.
Owen Jones, The Guardian
Amazing. A seminal work. It will be used as a study book.
Will Young
Todd doesn’t grip back in calling for a shift both outside and inside the gay community. He calls out hook-up apps such as Grindr, the 'mean girls' persona that so many gay men adopt, and the gay push itself… Straight Jacket isn’t just a self-help book. It’s a resource for anyone with an interest in knowing what needs to change to bring about real equality For that, Matthew Todd has another reason to be proud.
Evening Standard
The book everyone is talking about… This is probably the most important thing I’ll ever read as a gay man. Full of profundity and fearless honesty.
Calum McSwiggan, Youtuber, Calum McSwiggan, Youtuber
I recommend it to everyone I meet. I've bought 15 copies to offer to people. In my notion it should be on every teacher's reading list. Whoever you are - especially if you are straight - go and buy it now. It could help change your
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Matthew Todd, Straight Jacket: How to be Gay and Happy (Bantam Press, )
I borrowed this book from my local library. I had it on reserve and so had to gather it from the reception desk. As the librarian handed me the guide, she caught sight of its subtitle and looked a little uncomfortable. She was embarrassed, but I wasn’t; I found it rather amusing.
Matthew Todd is another gay man whom people might assume would be embarrassed but isn't. In Straight Jacket, Todd exposes some of the problems and pain that are prevalent in the LGBT community, admitting what many people have wanted to keep hidden. But Todd isn’t embarrassed. He’s also not amused, and rightly so.
Todd is a former editor of Attitude, the UK’s best-selling male lover magazine. In this manual, he faces head-on the reality of a major problem within the LGBT community: ‘Despite more LGBT people than ever before, thank goodness, leading cheerful, successful lives, it is becoming increasingly clear that a disproportionate number of us are not thriving as we should’ (p.9).
This failure to thrive is seen in ‘di
Straight Jacket
October 6,I see I study the version with the more appropriate subtitle!
This is a beautiful, passionately written exhortation for lgbtq+ men to affectionate themselves more and take better protect of themselves.
Gay shame is something I guess I'm still dealing with. Maybe we all are. Even as I wrote this review I was like, "Do I get to chat about it? Will people mind? Will they judge me?" And even yesterday at my filmmaking club I had a weird feeling when someone brought up the evidence that I had a husband. There were new members from Turkey, and I scanned my brain for any info of how not cool it is to be gay in Turkey and whether or not that "too early" reveal of my gayness might have scared off great filmmaking collaborators. Like, I'm so sorry my soulmate and I adore one another so, you theoretical versions of people from a country I know nothing about.
I guess this guide reminded me that in an optimal world this wouldn't be an issue. Meanwhile I'm trying to navigate the realities of living in the actual world. It's right that in Norway the culture is accepting of lgbtq+ people, b
Matthew Todd &#; Straight Jacket &#; Overcoming Society&#;s Legacy of Gay Shame
Straight Jacket is a revolutionary clarion call for gay men, the wider LGBT collective, their friends and family. Part memoir, part ground-breaking polemic, it looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be—and if not, why not? Meticulously researched, courageous and life-affirming, Straight Jacket offers invaluable practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues. It also recognizes that this is a watershed moment, a piercing wake-up-call-to-arms for the gay and wider community to acknowledge the importance of supporting all young people—and helping older people to transform their experience and finally receive the lives they really want.
About the Author:
Matthew Todd is the editor of the UK's bestselling gay magazine, Attitude. In he was named Men's Magazine Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors and Stonewall Writer of the Year. He has written for the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph and Sun.