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Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader?

Book Marks (Q Syndicate)
Minnesota Literature | The Washington Blade

Book Marks (Q Syndicate), December 2, 2007 By Richard Labonte This collection of more than 80 personal essays from deaf queers (and a scattering of hearing friends) is a marvelously proud--and loud--book. Luczak, who edited the first Eyes of Desire in 1993, nimbly divides contributions--all but a handful of them original--into the categories of coming out, family and friends, self-identity, love and desire, and community. Literary quality varies widely, but that's not important when it comes to the impact, or the import, of the writing. In this often viscerally emotional anthology about personal experience, each piece contributes in its own way to a colorful, instructive mosaic--by turns joyous, tearful, raunchy, or defiant--of deaf GLBT life. Standouts include poetry by Steven Reigns, Shane Gilchrist, and Luczak; a travel memoir about being gay in Iran, by Thierry H.; and Jane van Ingen's account of a woman's experience receiving a cochlear ear implant--something of a controversy in the deaf community, an issue often addressed in this ambitious, accomplished, and handsomely designed, anthology.

From Minnesota Literature (December 2007, Vol. 33, No. 4) By Elizabeth Bance In his poem "Instructions to Hearing Persons Desiring a Deaf Man," Luczak writers, "A deaf man is always a foreign country. / He remains forever a language to learn." In his sequel to Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader, he navigates us through this "foreign country" with this compilation of thick, rich stories from members of the deaf GLBT community. The result is an eye-popping experience for readers of all kinds. Through funny, awkward and painful experiences, more than 85 individuals spanning five different continents share their struggle to find a community both as GLBT and as deaf individuals. Although each writer categorizes themselves with a variety of unique characteristics ("Black Deaf Pagan Lesbian Tomfemme," "Late-Deafened Cochlear-Implanted Transman," "A Lesbian Who Wanted to Lose her Hearing"), many hope to find love and understanding. As Alex C. Leffers, a female-to-male transsexual and former sorority girl, writes, "Our two dogs would care less what's in between my legs--they just want their treats, a warm bed, and lots of hugs and kisses." Each story is unique, but the quest is universal."

From Washington Blade Hearing New Voices Anthology of gay deaf writers illuminates intriguing queer subculture By Kathi Wolfe Jon A. Kastrup, a deaf gay man, has loved art since his youth in the1970s. Yet, Kastrup became a mechanical engineer and a lawyer because he felt the need to prove himself in the hearing world. He later found happiness when he moved to San Francisco and became an artist. “Would I have been an artist if I were hearing?” Kastrup wrote in a recent essay, “I do not know. I could have stayed on as a lawyer … dealing with money-grubbing clients.” Kastrup is one of more than 85 deaf and hearing people who tell their stories in Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader, a new anthology edited by Raymond Luczak, a gay deaf writer. Contributors to this wide-ranging collection include R.N. Taber, a British gay and partially deaf librarian; U.S. performance artist Terry Galloway, who’s finishing up her memoir Mean Little deaf Queer; Kavo Sharma, a deaf Hindu lesbian, who writes about drug addiction and recovery; and “Grygon,” a hearing asexual who, according to the contributor’s notes, “draws inspiration for her art from the deaf and sexual communities.” (The essayists distinguish between being culturally “Deaf,” communicating by sign language, and others who are small-d “deaf” who communicate through lip-reading.)     Desire is an engaging portrait of a relatively unknown part of queer culture. The essays, poems and interviews in the anthology are a mosaic of the lives of gay and trans deaf people, who encounter prejudice based on their deafness and sexuality in the gay and hearing worlds. As is so often the case with people who live at the intersections of identities, struggles for dignity and self-awareness are complex, involving various parts of the self. For example, “Ocean” is a Gallaudet University graduate and an ordained Wiccan high priestess. “I’ve been blessed to deal with the burden of being double marginalized as a member of both [the Deaf and Pagan] communities,” she writes, “as well as the beauty that comes in merging my identity with my spirituality.”  Yet, “sexuality is one of those things that defy any kind … of labeling.” Finding ways to merge identities also comes up in an essay by the anthology’s editor, Luczak, who came out in 1984. Early on, he learned of an “old tradition” from “Buzzy” Contrerio, a member of the Capitol Metropolitan Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. “They hosted ‘eye’ parties back in the days when it wasn’t as acceptable to be out,” Luczak writes. “They never said the word ‘gay’… but they pointed to their eyes discretely to indicate that a certain person … might be ‘one of the family.’” Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay and Lesbian Reader, an anthology edited by Luczak and published in 1993, was an invaluable first look at queer deaf life. Yet, as Luczak writes, this collection was compiled before the advent of “accessible and affordable technologies” such as e-mail, when more people were hesitant to be open about their sexuality. Eyes of Desire 2 offers an updated and more diverse view of this cultural subset. Transgender and intersex voices are included, there is more of an international perspective, and more of the contributors are comfortable with coming out. This collection is an intriguing showcase of how the writers, often facing discrimination, seek to connect with others. Some of the best pieces in the book are those with a pointed sense of humor. Mel Whalen’s essay is an amusing response to being asked, “What are the benefits of being deaf?” She skipped church as a child because “they couldn’t figure out how to make it accessible,” Whalen writes, “… but I didn’t miss the guilt … that so many religions install.” As with many anthologies, the writing is uneven. Some pieces such as Galloway’s or the excerpt from Reading Lips, a play by Michael Conley, are of a high literary quality. In other essays, the writing= is pedestrian, though the stories are worthy of attention. Despite this caveat, Eyes of Desire 2 is an intriguing compilation of seldom-heard voices.

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