Books
Friend of Pride flag designer oversees release of posthumous memoir
Late seamster fond of gender-fuck photo shoots, wearing dresses and wigs to meetings


āRainbow Warrior: My Life in Colorā
By Gilbert Baker
Chicago Review Press
$26.99
256 pages
In his entertaining and historical memoir, the Pride flag creator recalled an early debate over which way to hang the flag for its inaugural flight. The solution was to fly two of them.
āWeād hang one with the pink stripe on the top and the other with the pink strip on the bottom,ā the late Gilbert Baker writes in his book āRainbow Warrior: My Life in Color.ā
āāWe are a versatile peopleā,ā he adds, quoting a friendās joke regarding ātalk of tops and bottoms.ā
āRainbow Warriorā is Bakerās deeply personal memoir which weaves together his process for creating an iconic LGBT symbol of hope, in contrast to the Nazi-era pink triangle, with his own struggle for identity and freedom.
It opens with his difficulties as a queer youth in a repressive 1950s household, discovering love and sexuality in the Army and eventually blossoming as a seamstress for the early San Francisco gay rights movement. The work also details Bakerās activism during the AIDS crisis, culminating in the creation of the worldās longest Pride flag in time for Stonewallās 25th anniversary celebration in New York City.
āOne of the funnest memories was when he was doing the mile-long rainbow flag he was represented by a company called Stadtlanders,ā says Charley Beal, Bakerās friend and estate manager, while in New York celebrating Stonewallās 50th anniversary. āThey were essentially a mail order pharmacy (during the AIDS crisis) and the corporate sponsors for the flag.ā
He remembered āall these straight peopleā at Stadtlanders pretending to be sympathetic to the cause while complaining about Baker wearing dresses to board meetings. Beale, who is also gay, is more conservative in his attire.
āSo, Gilbert read them the riot act about Stonewall,ā Beal says. āAnd how Stonewall was started by drag queens and trans people, not rich, white gay people down on Wall Street and said, āYou canāt talk to me that way. You canāt tell me not to wear a dress.ā He was furiously sewing when I showed up. He explained what happened and I said, āOh God, youāve been driven to drag.āā
Baker returned to the meeting dressed even more flamboyantly in his best black sequined gown and Barbra Streisand wig.
This empowering moment underscores Bakerās lifelong struggles with gender identity, which is an intriguing undercurrent in his memoir.
āThe idea of a sex change had first crossed my mind in childhood,ā he writes. āIt was more than just wearing dresses. I wondered if I was a woman trapped in a manās body. Ultimately, I didnāt surgically remove my penis, but I didnāt stop wearing dresses.ā
Beal, went on to describe that while the photogenic Baker would often wear long hair and luxurious gowns in pictures, āhe would keep his beard and mustache.ā
āVery genderqueer,ā Beal says. āI have photographs of him in some of the āgenderfuckā photography. That is a term used for people posing using very clear male and female imagery.ā
While in New York for World Pride, Beal spoke with trans flag creator Monica Helm. He tried to better understand his friendās femme gay expression.
āSo he did not identify as a woman by gender, but he questioned it,ā Beal says. āBut reading Monicaās book, Monica felt like she had to have the surgery. I think Gilbert liked to express himself by dressing in dresses but he never expressed any interest in becoming physically a woman.ā
For Beal the matter seemed relatively settled, Baker was a gender non-conforming gay man. But Bakerās thoughts revealed in his memoir seem more fluid, similar to his āversatileā decision to fly his flag in both directions simultaneously.
These historical gems and insights from Bakerās memoir illustrate why Beal felt it was important for LGBT youth to go to primary sources and their LGBT elders instead of just āGooglingā their past.
āI just kind of laugh because Google is just so notoriously corrupted,ā he says. āGoogle is only going to show you what (its formulas) decide you want to see. It keeps you in your silos and itās terrible. Itās not a reliable source of data for history. They should learn from their elders directly instead of just Googling it.ā
Beal also felt the internet could encourage divisiveness and discourage LGBT youth while the intention of the Pride flag was to show āwe all share universal values despite our differences.ā
āThey were getting it,ā Baker originally wrote after seeing the crowds gathered to witness the Pride flag fly for the first time. āOwning it, feeling it as part of them, understanding the diversity of sexual freedom it represented for everyone: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, straight, whatever your sex, whatever your color. Visible, with liberty and justice for all.ā
Beal agrees, believing Bakerās greatest legacy is when Pride flags are used to create LGBT safe spaces throughout the world.
Books
How one gay Catholic helped change the world
āA Prince of a Boy,ā falls short of authorās previous work

Brian McNaught, the pioneering gay activist and author of 1986ās āOn Being Gayā and 1993ās āGay Issues in the Workplace,ā has written a personal account about his Catholic faith and homosexuality. It is a memoir without much substance.
āA Prince of a Boy: How One Gay Catholic Helped Change the Worldā (Cascade Books) is a strong personal statement by McNaught. He helped change family relationships. He helped change attitudes about homosexuality. He helped change workplaces, but the world?

In January 2023, the Catholic News Service reported that Pope Francis announced that, ābeing homosexual is not a crime.ā In December 2023, NPR reported that Pope Francis approved āCatholic blessings for same-sex couples, but not for marriage.ā Francis died Monday at age 88. Although Catholics may not see homosexuality as a crime, they see sex outside of marriage as a sin. They see same-sex marriage as a sin.
In 2021, Gallup reported that membership in the Catholic Church had declined 20 percent since 2000. In 2025, the Pew Research Centerās Religious Landscape Study found that nearly 40 percent of Americans identified as Protestant, while the same study found that only 19 percent identified as Catholic.
McNaught devotes much of his book to his life as a gay Catholic. It is challenging to read about his personal struggle. Some readers may find it interesting. Others might find it boring. Catholic readers may find it more compelling than Protestant readers.
As the above statistics prove, McNaught has much more work to do to change the Catholic Churchās views about homosexuality. We should be glad for his contribution to the debate within the Catholic Church. We should pray for full acceptance of gays in the Catholic Church.
āA Prince of a Boyā becomes more interesting when McNaught describes his work as an educator on LGBTQ issues. He has had an impact on workplace policies, academic programs, and public education, and his lectures, books, and other materials are widely used.
Based on my experience in the federal government and volunteering with LGBTQ organizations from the Bay Area to Washington, D.C., I believe McNaughtās work as an educator has improved LGBTQ lives, careers, and families. During the Clinton administration, I gave many copies of āGay Issues in the Workplaceā to personnel directors. I felt their staff could benefit from reading it. I thought it would help the lives and careers of my federal LGBTQ colleagues.
McNaughtās āA Prince of a Boyā was released in December 2024. Anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant died the same month. Bryant campaigned against a gay rights law in Florida. She began a national campaign against gays.
When Bryant successfully reversed a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida, McNaught wrote the important essay āDear Anita, Late Night Thoughts of an Irish Catholic Homosexual.ā The essay is not in āA Prince of a Boyā; however, McNaught mentions Bryant.
In his training programs, McNaught describes homosexuals as journeying from confusion to denial to acceptance to pride. āAnita Bryant and AIDS brought Gay people to identity pride very quickly,ā McNaught writes. San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (1930-1978) and other activists reached similar conclusions about Bryantās vicious anti-gay campaign.
McNaught helped change the LGBTQ world and brought pride to many people’s lives. McNaught walks in pride, works in pride, and educates others in pride.
āA Prince of a Boyā is a disappointing book. It provides small details about Brian McNaught’s large, proud life. A meaningful biography about this great gay leader is long overdue.
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Books
āPronoun Troubleā reminds us that punctuation matters
āTheyāĀ has been a shape-shifter for more than 700 years

āPronoun Troubleā
By John McWhorter
c.2025, Avery
$28/240 pages
Punctuation matters.
Itās tempting to skip a period at the end of a sentence Tempting to overuse exclamation points!!! very tempting to MeSs with capital letters. Dont use apostrophes. Ask a question and ignore the proper punctuation commas or question marks because seriously who cares.Ā So guess what? Someone does,Ā punctuation really matters,Ā andĀ as youāll see inĀ āPronoun Troubleā by John McWhorter,Ā so do other parts of our language.

Conversation is an odd thing. Itās spontaneous, it ebbs and flows, and itās often inferred. Take, for instance, if you talk about him. Chances are, everyone in the conversation knows who him is. Or he. That guy there.
Thatās the handy part about pronouns. Says McWhorter, pronouns āfunction as shorthandā for whomever weāre discussing or referring to. Theyāre āpart of our hardwiring,ā theyāre found in all languages, and theyāve been around for centuries.
And, yes, pronouns are fluid.
For example, thereās the first-person pronoun, I as in me and there we go again. The singular I solely affects what comes afterward. You say āhe-she IS,ā and āthey-you AREā but I am. From āBlack English,ā I has also morphed into the perfectly acceptable Ima, shorthand for āI am going to.ā Mind blown.
If you love Shakespeare, you mayāve noticed that he uses both thou and you in his plays. The former was once left to commoners and lower classes, while the latter was for people of high status or less formal situations. From you, we get yāall, yeet, ya, you-uns, and yinz. We also get āyou guys,ā which may have nothing to do with guys.
We and us are warmer in tone because of the inclusion implied. She is often casually used to imply cars, boats, and ā warmly or not ā gay men, in certain settings. It ālacks personhood,ā and to use it in reference to a human is ābarbarity.ā
And yes, though it can sometimes be confusing to modern speakers, the singular word ātheyā has been a āshape-shifterā for more than 700 years.
Your high school English teacher would be proud of you, if you pick up āPronoun Trouble.ā Sadly, though, you might need her again to make sense of big parts of this book: What youāll find here is a delightful romp through language, but itās also very erudite.
Author John McWhorter invites readers along to conjugate verbs, and doing so will take you back to ancient literature, on a fascinating journey thatās perfect for word nerds and anyone who loves language. Youāll likely find a bit of controversy here or there on various entries, but youāll also find humor and pop culture, an explanation for why zie never took off, and assurance that the whole flap over strictly-gendered pronouns is nothing but overblown protestation. Readers who have opinions will like that.
Still, if you just want the pronoun you want, a little between-the-lines looking is necessary here, so beware. āPronoun Troubleā is perfect for linguists, writers, and those who love to play with words but for most readers, itās a different kind of book, period.
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āThe Cost of Fearā
By Meg Stone
c.2025, Beacon Press
$26.95/232 pages
The footsteps fell behind you, keeping pace.
TheyĀ wereĀ loud as an airplane, a few decibelsĀ belowĀ the beat of your heart. Yes, someone was following you,Ā and you shouldnātĀ have letĀ itĀ happen.Ā Youāre no dummy. Youāre no wimp.Ā Read the new book,Ā āThe Cost of Fearā by Meg Stone,Ā and youāre no statistic. Ask around.

Query young women, older women, grandmothers, and teenagers. Ask gay men, lesbians, and trans individuals, and chances are that every one of them has a story of being scared of another person in a public place. Scared ā or worse.
Says author Meg Stone, nearly half of the women in a recent survey reported having āexperienced… unwanted sexual contactā of some sort. Almost a quarter of the men surveyed said the same. Nearly 30 percent of men in another survey admitted to having āperpetrated some form of sexual assault.ā
We focus on these statistics, says Stone, but we advise ineffectual safety measures.
āVictim blame is rampant,ā she says, and women and LGBTQ individuals are taught avoidance methods that may not work. If someoneās in the āearly stages of their careers,ā perpetrators may still hold all the cards through threats and career blackmail. Stone cites cases in which someone who was assaulted reported the crime, but police dropped the ball. Old tropes still exist and repeating or relying on them may be downright dangerous.
As a result of such ineffectiveness, fear keeps frightened individuals from normal activities, leaving the house, shopping, going out with friends for an evening.
So how can you stay safe?
Says Stone, learn how to fight back by using your whole body, not just your hands. Be willing to record whatās happening. Donāt abandon your activism, she says; in fact, join a group that helps give people tools to protect themselves. Learn the right way to stand up for someone whoās uncomfortable or endangered. Remember that you canāt be blamed for another personās bad behavior, and it shouldnāt mean you canāt react.
If you pick up āThe Cost of Fear,ā hoping to learn ways to protect yourself, there are two things to keep in mind.
First, though most of this book is written for women, it doesnāt take much of a leap to see how its advice could translate to any other world. Author Stone, in fact, includes people of all ages, genders, and all races in her case studies and lessons, and she clearly explains a bit of what she teaches in her classes. That width is helpful, and welcome.
Secondly, she asks readers to do something potentially controversial: she requests changes in sentencing laws for certain former and rehabilitated abusers, particularly for offenders who were teens when sentenced. Stone lays out her reasoning and begs for understanding; still, some readers may be resistant and some may be triggered.
Keep that in mind, and āThe Cost of Fearā is a great book for a young adult or anyone who needs to increase alertness, adopt careful practices, and stay safe. Take steps to have it soon.
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