Looking for Brothers

From the savage murder of a eighteen-year-old street youth far from home, to the author's search for the meaning of chosen family on the rust colored beaches of Prince Edward Island, Looking For Brothers presents a gay man's unique and captivating view of Canada- a native son's look at the culture and citizens who have shaped our consciousness. Spanning an eleven year period, these essays by award-winning journalist Michael Rowe examine, with a startling blend of objectivity and subjectivity, the places that society has allocated to gay men, and the places gay men have claimed for themselves: physically, emotionally, sexually, and geographically. They unflinchingly explore the carved in stone truisms cherished both by straight and gay society, in an attempt to dismantle the limiting stereotypes each group holds of themselves and the other, and to find the place where the two cultures meet. On themes including gay men in sports and the military; same-sex marriage; narcissism and the cult of male beauty; AIDS and the euthanasia debate; pornography and the limits of censorship; family, chosen and otherwise; the questionable merits of the ghetto; and a yeasty celebration of liking straight men; Looking For Brothers brings together for the first time Rowe's most acclaimed gay-themed writing. With this collection, Michael Rowe secures his position as one of Canada's most thoughtful and provocative jounalist-essayists, and one of our foremost gay writers.