Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time

Review\nNathan Burgoine Queer Culture Can only Come from Sharing Queer Stories June 14, 2015 It's pretty rare I step into the world ofnonfiction. When I do, I generally read biographies, and try to readbiographies about people whose lives follow lines very different from my own (and I try doubly hard to find biographies about people whosevoices aren't as often heard). It's not that I don't find nonfictionenthralling, it's actually quite the opposite - the reality ofnonfiction makes it hit me all the harder.
Case in point, Ipurchased The Up Stairs Lounge Arson by Clayton Delery-Edwards and I aminching my way through it because it disturbs me so. It is importanthistory. It's brilliantly written. It's heart-crushing.
So, if you wonder why I rarely talk nonfiction, that's the answer.
That said, nonfiction can also bring joys.
Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time, by Elisa Rolleis one of those joys. I'm willing to bet that if you're an LGBT readerand you think you don't know who Elisa Rolle is, you actually do -chances are someone in the LGBT world has linked to one of her reviewsabout their work. In the interest of full disclosure, I've been on thelucky receiving end of that honour. Rolle's reviews are complete,honest, and - even when critical - provide a reader with enoughinformation to know whether or not the book is something for them. She's a force for awareness in the LGBT literary world, and we're the richerfor having her.
This book is a collection of true stories aboutLGBT relationships spanning back from Alexander the Great and thepurported love he shared with Hephaestion to relationships that began in 2012. Each page is a couple, telling of their meeting (if known), theprogression of their romance (again, what details might be found), andtheir ultimate ends.
Organized as it is in a chronological sense, something happens as you page your way through these stories - you find a continuum.
Now, I've said this over and over, but one of thethings about being a queer is that you don't inherit a queer culturallineage from your biological family. Those who have come before arealmost surely strangers to you. It is quite likely you know nothing ofqueer history (because, if we're honest, it's just not taught in anymainstream way). The individual stories that make up queer culture areout there - yes - but that's exactly it: they're out there. A brand newqueer kid has to go looking.
Books like this are invaluable. As I read the stories, I found myself moving through eras, seeing - achingly slowly - the progression queer culture has made, the gains and lossesand victories and pain. Near the end of the collection, entries are full of queer couples marrying after decades of being together without thatright. It is a hopeful collection.
We have to share our stories.It's the only way we'll continue to have our culture, this strange andwonderful queer culture that is made of individuals that begin in somany different places. Every single love story in this collection,whether joyful, painful, or ongoing, is a story worth knowing, andtelling, and celebrating.\nJim Provenzano Epic LGBT, day by day February 16, 2015 Elisa Rolle, the prolific book review andbiographyblogger, has wisely collected hundreds of her short onlineessays on the lives and loves of notable LGBT authors, artists,musicians and more,from historical figures back to the 17th century tocontemporaryauthors, a few of whom are my own colleagues and neighbors.
What an inspiration to learn a bit about so many couples, whose lives shaped art and culture for centuries.
What's also amazing is how thorough Rolle's list is, along with photosonnearly every page. 'Days of Love' thoroughly makes the caseforvisualizing and remembering the many LGBT artists from manycountries,each of whom shaped societies and cultures\nA new book chronicling 2,000 years of same-sex love stories, from Alexander the Great to the latest Literary Award winner, makes the pe