Outskirts Press, INC.

A remarkable memoir of two women whose love story spans fifty years in our diverse, often homophobic world.

Structured around a course in Gay and Lesbian Literature taught by the author, this little memoir encompasses a broad sweep of experience. Jody uses wit and a deeply humane sensitivity to show how the students' encounter with the readings led her to confront her own lifetime of secrecy. While the story ranges from joy and adventure to pain and sorrow, the overarching message of this well-crafted book is one of love and affirmation.

Before I could identify the voice in the tiny whirlwind, Katie was explaining her lateness to class, announcing to everyone how thrilled she was to be there. Grabbing my arm, she held it in a firm grip, punctuating her comments with the white cane in her other hand. Her blank blue eyes were quivering, moving back and forth nearly as fast as she talked: “I’ve been wanting to take a course with you ever since I’ve been here, and finally I get to. Wow! I started hearing about you my freshman year—about this really cool lesbian woman in the English Department. Everybody said I just had to take a lit course with you, and since I’m a lesbian—.” Then she was tugging my arm and saying, “We’re sitting around a big table—right? I’ll just sit next to you. Is that ok”? Whack! with the cane on the nearest chair—”right here?” As Katie announced she had just broken up with her woman lover, was dating again and, by the way, was “looking around” for somebody new, I was still trying to process my reaction: blind people could be gay? It was an embarrassingly stupid realization,one that Katie already knew would probably dawn on someone every time she came out. She thought it was hilarious. As she took her seat, she said, “Blind, gay, whatever…the world is full of freaks. Most of them just don’t know they are!”