Welsh Boys Too - Softcover

John Sam Jones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1902638905 ISBN 13: 9781902638904

Publisher: Parthian Books, 2006

Synopsis

Unusual book

About this title

Review:

Funny, poignant and revealing... a bold and adventurous collection. The Western Mail --The Western Mail

A joy to read. Contemporary, yet timeless... a vibrant collection. Treat yourselves." Gay Times --Gay Times

These intriguing short stories look at gay life through the lens of Welsh culture... written with objectivity and sensitivity. Publisher's Weekly --Publisher's Weekly

From the Author:

I lived outside of Wales for more than ten years between 1981 and 1992, in sunny California for more than three years and then in not so sunny Liverpool. During the time I was away I changed a lot. Perhaps the biggest change was that I integrated my sexuality in a very positive way and escaped the burden of doubts and fears I’d had about being gay when I lived in Wales. So coming back to Wales to work in 1992 was a bit of a shock – for Wales hadn’t changed. Attitudes to gay men and lesbians were as negative as I remembered them to have been.... I got the title for this collection from one of my first encounters with a Public Health physician who, when asked what work was being done in North Wales with gay men around sexual health issues, said that there were no people like that in north Wales.

What I set out to do in writing these pieces was hold up a mirror.... Gay men’s lives are largely hidden from view in Welsh society and because of this hiddenness all sorts of myths and misconceptions are peddled about our lives – about my life. I wanted to show, through brief glimpses, the very ordinariness – but also the extraordinariness of the lives gay men lead today. I wanted to show the homophobia that pervades Welsh society – and I wanted to suggest some of the ways that individuals overcome such prejudice. I didn’t want to write about victims, but about men who are strong and who get on and make the best of their lives in hostile circumstances.

Two of the stories are about young men in their teens. Through a piece of work that I did in 1996/1997 with a group of gay and lesbian teenagers at the West Rhyl Young People’s Project I came to the very painful realisation that despite many gay characters in soaps (including the soap opera at Westminster) that seem to have played a role in fostering greater understanding and tolerance, life as a gay or lesbian teenager in rural north Wales was as awful as it was when I had been a gay teenager in rural north Wales at the beginning of the 1970s. The politics of Section 28 and the government’s unwillingness to define a sex education curriculum that is statutory leave gay and lesbian teenagers amongst the most vulnerable to sexual exploitation and leave teachers (even the most sympathetic) uncertain of what they can say to the gay or lesbian young person who seeks their counsel. Little is done to develop the self-esteem of gay and lesbian teenagers in school settings and little is done to address homophobic bullying in school settings.

I suppose I wanted this collection of stories to give insight, but also challenge us in Wales to think about what kind of life we would want for a gay son or a gay brother, a gay friend or a gay neighbour.... I hoped that the gay men reading these stories would see aspects of their own lives reflected back to them, and perhaps go some way to helping them articulate their own experience of being gay in Wales.... I hoped that the non-gay readers of this book would ask themselves how they might be (unwittingly) participating in the homophobia that is so pervasive, and how they might come out as gay friendly.

John Sam Jones
Summer 2001.

About this edition

• Publisher: Parthian Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1902638905
• ISBN 13: 9781902638904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 86