Different Rainbows

Rating:
Summary: Excellent anthology on non-Western gay men and lesbians!
Review: Too often books on the international gay rights movement focus too much upon Western nations or those nations heavily influenced by them (i.e., Israel or Puerto Rico). Drucker's book is a wonderful survey of the "gay and lesbian" rights movement in non-Western nations. He discusses Latin America, Africa, and Asia equally. The book is well-divided between men and women. There is a nice inclusion of transgender issues as well. Most interestingly, both constructionists and essentialists will be pleased with this book: this book does an excellent job in problematizing that every person in the world will want to "come out" and identify with a "gay" community, yet it avoids being overly postmodern or assuming that non-Westerners are not influenced by Western gay rights at all. Some of the articles are by whites or concentrate on whites who pushed gay rights in the Third World. Luckily, the position of those writers, and the editor himself, is acknowledged and called into question. For those who have done extensive readings on non-Western "homosexuality" (i.e., fans of Roscoe & Murray books), this book may seem repetitive and nothing new. For those who haven't, however, this book will be a breath of fresh air. I think that every gay man and lesbian of color who is concerned about homeland politics should grab a copy of this book immediately.