Gay men of color often encounter double discrimination based on their sexuality and ethnicity. Giwa, who is gay, explores the latter in this account of racist interactions within Ottawa’s gay community. Based on the author's PhD dissertation, the book offers extensive commentary on the academic literatures regarding racism, homosexuality, and coping mechanisms. Giwa also draws on focus group interviews with 13 men of African, South and East Asian, and Arab backgrounds, although no Indigenous Canadians are included. Despite the pride Canadians take in their national congeniality and tolerance, Ottawa seems a hotbed of gay men who, consciously or not, subscribe to white supremacy. Most of Giwa’s subjects deal with such microaggressions as being ignored in bars and online dating platforms and feeling invisible in gay media, service organizations, and with white men whose stereotypes erase their individuality. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Choice Reviews

Racism and Gay Men of Color examines the complexities and everyday experiences of racism. Thoughtfully written, and grounded in a range of critical theories, minority stress syndrome is utilized to highlight coping responses to racism in the dominant white gay and same gender loving communities, making the text a superb and timely contribution. This book illuminates an understanding of structural and systemic racism from which analysis of social action and social changes are brought into view. Sulaimon Giwa pushes the boundaries of critical theories of race, sexuality, and wellbeing.

Wesley Crichlow, University of Ontario Institute of Technology and author of Buller Men and Batty Bwoys: Hidden Men in Toronto and Halifax Black Communities

Racism and Gay Men of Color is a “complete” book, in the sense that it draws on the author’s own experiences, it is based on a thorough theoretical framework, provides rich empirical data and advocates for social justice. Sulaimon Giwa goes beyond the dominance of the HIV/AIDS debate in relation to gay men of colour, providing an important contribution to the literature on coping strategies against racism and discrimination, including its online versions. This book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners from different areas who work on the intersection between race and sexual orientation. Racism and Gay Men of Color will also be of interest to a broader audience and should be read particularly by White gay men in order to start questioning some of their privileges within the GLTB community.

Ethnic and Racial Studies