Driving You Mad, Driving You Crazy

2 Dec 2015

Talking with … author David Hardy … + a book review

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Talking with … author David Hardy … + a book review

The title of David Hardy‘s book describes it perfectly … BOLD: Stories from older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex people.
It is available from the publisher (Rag and Bone Man Press), Readings, and other and independent booksellers.
Listen to the podcast, including Sue putting on her teacher’s voice to read a beautiful segment about an older Aboriginal woman.

David left a copy of his book at JOY. Margaret the Podcaster has read the book ( a page-turner!) and offers the following review …

Anyone interested in people will find this a wonderful book, full of diverse characters whose lives have been both ordinary and amazing, often at the same time. This beautifully illustrated book celebrates older LGBTI people in the community through their own stories – real words from real people. This age cohort has lived through a time when “homosexual acts” were a criminal offence, into and through the AIDS epidemic and on to where to be LGBTI is acceptable if still not always accepted.
The stories are sad, inspiring, provoking, funny, even a bit cerebral where they are based on academic studies. The stories cross genders, cultures, races, nationalities. They are mostly Australian but not exclusively so.
While not mentioned, there is some commonality with the heterosexual community, especially in terms of aged care. In Australia, while the LGBTI community is particularly badly off, no aged person can look forward confidently to being cared for well if they become unable to care for themselves. A continuing fight for us all, LGBTI and S(straight!).
Most, if not all, subjects in this book have been activists of one kind or another. As a (very!) broad generalisation, the G cohort has been involved in sexual liberation, the Ls much more so in women’s lib, although the lesbians separated from their S counterparts after initially working together. The BTIs have further to go in terms of both understanding and acceptance.
A new battleground in the eyes of some is ageism, and the lack of understanding, even knowledge, by the young about what a cataclysmic change has taken place in the decades covered by the lives of the people who tell their stories here.
The final two contributors, one male, one female, from their different perspectives, sum up the “where we’ve come from” picture and point to “where to from here?”, suggesting important issues that remain to be addressed, including in those countries that have made little or no progress in recognising the existence of LGBTI people, let alone that they have rights.

I highly recommend this book as a fascinating read, a peek into the lives of others, showing the diversity of LGBTI community, possibly more than you imagine. Everyone has a story and each story is unique.

BTW, lesbians do not have a monopoly on comfortable footwear! 🙂

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BOLD: Stories from older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex people / David Hardy with Elizabeth Whiley
ISBN: 9780992584504
The Rag and Bone Man Press, 2015.