50 ways to support lesbian & gay equality The complete guide to supporting family, friends, neighbors-- or yourself

Advocacy seems to be the buzzword of the gay rights movement today, and one sign is the plethora of books aimed at the sympathetic heterosexual audience. Ayres (law, Yale Law Sch.) and Brown (law, Quinnipiac Univ. Sch. of Law) approach the subject of advocacy in the book's first half by positing the notion of heterosexual privilege and its concomitant responsibility to make society more inclusive to its gay citizens. That privilege, they argue, should be used to further a broad-based program of legislative and legal change in education, the workplace, and civic organizations. Additionally, the authors provide "concrete steps to take at home" and print and Internet resources for further study. The second half moves into more conceptual waters, promoting the notion of "ambiguation" whereby heterosexual supporters of gay rights make their own sexual orientation more publicly ambiguous (e.g., by using gender-neutral speech) in the hope of fighting stereotypes and encouraging positive change. Finally, the authors lay out a theoretically elegant (if realistically problematic) incremental and voluntary approach to open up the U.S. military to gays and lesbians. 50 Ways takes a much more personal look at heterosexual advocacy for gay rights in the form of short personal essays by a variety of gay rights advocates that includes celebrities, writers, and artists. These clear-cut essays ask readers to do the simple things: read a gay book, mentor a gay teen, and choose words with care. Among the contributors are Ben and Jerry's cofounder Jerry Greenfield, who discusses ways to create a gay-friendly workplace; author and award-winning high school soccer coach Dan Woog (School's Out), who urges gays and straights alike to come out of the "locker room closet"; and comedian Margaret Cho, who urges supporters to "grab the brass ring of equality" by standing up to the "silent complicity of the status quo." Larger public libraries may opt for both titles given their different approaches, while smaller libraries may find 50 Ways preferable for its more personal take.-Jeff Ingram, Newport P.L., OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.