My Queer Life - Tapa blanda

My Queer Life is a selection of one activist's writing over a 30-year span that follows his life as a gay man living in a straight world. The author is a well-known community activist in Wisconsin's queer community. The book includes speeches, poetry, essays, monologues, and journal notes from that period on a variety of topics with the central theme of living an authentic queer life. The book includes material from an early tentative coming out journal note to a speech delivered before more than a thousand people at a pride event to Facebook notes and blog entries about today's issues and includes selections from produced plays, published essays, and more, all focusing on living life as an out and proud gay man.

Originally from Shullsburg, Wisconsin Callen Harty is the author of 23 full-length plays, a one-act play, and 50 monologues that have been produced. Most of them have been produced at Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin where he has worked as an actor, writer, and director since 1983. He served as the Artistic Director of the theater from 2005-2010. Monologues that he wrote for the Wisconsin Veterans’ Museum won him awards from the Wisconsin Historical Society and the American Association of State and Local History. His essays, poems, and articles have been published in newspapers and magazines around the country and he has taken the top prize in several photo contests. His writing has appeared in Out!, James White Review, Scott Stamp Monthly, Wisconsin State Journal, Our Lives, and elsewhere. He has had several essays published online for Forward Seeking, Life After Hate, and The Progressive. Callen has also been a community activist for many years. He was the co-founder of three different groups--Young People Caring, UW-Madison’s 10% Society, and Proud Theater. He served as the first President of Young People Caring and as the Artistic Director for Proud Theater during its first five years. He is still an adult mentor for the group. In 2003 he won OutReach’s Man of the Year award for his queer community activism. OutReach is Madison, Wisconsin’s lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community center. In 2013 he won Community Shares of Wisconsin’s “Backyard Hero” award for his work on organizing a conference on surviving childhood sex abuse. He has been invited to speak before many community groups, at a roundtable on queer community theater in New York City, and has emceed several events. Callen's home on the web can be accessed at callenharty.com. He is also the administrator of the Facebook page Solidarity with Child Abuse Victims/Survivors.