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Cutting across the categories of identity politics forged from earlier exercises in enlarging the territories of academic validity, namely studies positioned from the vantages of: race, class, gender and religious affiliation, Queer Studies looks at the last great swath of humanity otherwise, and until very recently, deemed unspeakable and therefore ignored by the culturally dominant heterosexual majority. As a gay man, the ability to study the lives of other gay men and how they make sense of their realities is both personally self-affirming and empowering. Interestingly, I find that the examination serves the same ends for the men who were the focus of my research.

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Jeffrey Pounds achieved his M.A. in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His inquiries focused on the subcultures of gay men in the urban centers of the United States through history and the development of the gay rights movement.He is currently Academic Dean of a small private college in St. Louis, Missouri.

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