Past Book Clubs

Internalized Homonegativity Among Same Gender Loving Black Men: An Exploration of Truths by P. Ryan Grant

This book accessibly explores the phenomenon of internalized homonegativity among same gender loving Black men who love other men, providing practical tools to help therapists identify the underlying motivations for their clients' feelings.

Written from personal and clinical experience, P. Ryan Grant defines internalized homonegativity as the negative thoughts felt by a person due to their same gender loving identity. The book's introduction provides a backdrop of the developmental experiences Black same gender loving men often encounter and connects theoretical concepts with qualitative Black same gender loving male experiences. Chapters then explore the contextual consequences of internalized homonegativity and educate readers on how conditioned shame and anxiety relating to these factors alter mental health and functioning in various spaces. The final part of the book presents therapeutic techniques based on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to assist readers in helping clients to navigate a homonegative world.

Out of Touch: How to Survive an Intimacy Famine by Michelle Drouin
Originally streamed October 5, 2022

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A behavioral scientist explores love, belongingness, and fulfillment, focusing on how modern technology can both help and hinder our need to connect.

Millions of people around the world are not getting the physical, emotional, and intellectual intimacy they crave. Through the wonders of modern technology, we are connecting with more people more often than ever before, but are these connections what we long for? Pandemic isolation has made us even more alone. In Out of Touch, professor of psychology Michelle Drouin investigates what she calls our intimacy famine, exploring love, belongingness, and fulfillment and considering why relationships carried out on technological platforms may leave us starving for physical connection. Drouin puts it this way: when most of our interactions are through social media, we are taking tiny hits of dopamine rather than the huge shots of oxytocin that an intimate in-person relationship would provide. Some technological developments will help us develop and maintain intimate relationships—our phones, for example, can be bridges to emotional support. Some, on the other hand, might leave us out of touch. Drouin explores both of these possibilities.

Dirty Works by Brett Gary
Originally streamed April 28, 2022

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A rich account of 1920s to 1950s New York City, starring an eclectic mix of icons like James Joyce, Margaret Sanger, and Alfred Kinsey―all led by an unsung hero of free expression and reproductive rights: Morris L. Ernst.

Dirty Works sets the stage, legally and culturally, for the sexual revolution of the 1960s and beyond. In the latter half of the century, the courts had a powerful body of precedents, many owing to Ernst's courtroom successes, that recognized adult interests in sexuality, women's needs for reproductive control, and the legitimacy of sexual inquiry. The legacy of this important, but largely unrecognized, moment in American history must be reckoned with in our contentious present, as many of the issues Ernst and his colleagues defended are still under attack eight decades later.

Trans Care by Hil Malatino
Originally streamed November 12, 2021

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"What does it mean for trans people to show up for one another, to care deeply for one another? How have failures of care shaped trans lives? What care practices have trans subjects and communities cultivated in the wake of widespread transphobia and systemic forms of trans exclusion?

Hil Malatino explores these questions and more in Trans Care, which won the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature and was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Transgender Nonfiction.