Television conveys powerful messages about sexual identities, and popular shows such as Will & Grace, Ellen, Glee, Modern Family, and The Fosters are often credited with building support for gay rights, including marriage equality. At the same time, however, many dismiss TV’s portrayal of LGBT characters and issues as “gay for pay”—that is, apolitical and exploitative programming created simply for profit. In The New Gay for Pay, Julia Himberg moves beyond both of these positions to investigate the complex and multifaceted ways that television production participates in constructing sexuality, sexual identities and communities, and sexual politics. Himberg examines the production stories behind explicitly LGBT narratives and characters, studying how industry workers themselves negotiate processes of TV development, production, marketing, and distribution. She interviews workers whose views are rarely heard, including market researchers, public relations experts, media advocacy workers, political campaigners designing strategies for TV messaging, and corporate social responsibility department officers, as well as network executives and producers. Thoroughly analyzing their comments in the light of four key issues—visibility, advocacy, diversity, and equality—Himberg reveals how the practices and belief systems of industry workers generate the conceptions of LGBT sexuality and political change that are portrayed on television. This original approach complicates and broadens our notions about who makes media; how those practitioners operate within media conglomerates; and, perhaps most important, how they contribute to commonsense ideas about sexuality.

"Gay for Pay" is the story of a straight man who resorted to selling sexual services over Craigslist to make ends meet. It is told from the author's own perspective, and thus includes all the details of the methods used to arrange meetings with clients and the meetings themselves. An inside glimpse into the mind of a man willing to offer his body up for monetary gain comes through in each word. Some readers will be shocked and some will be entertained. Others still will be intrigued and even turned on. This first person account can serve as much as an educational tool as an erotic memoir.

Television conveys powerful messages about sexual identities, and popular shows such as Will & Grace, Ellen, Glee, Modern Family, and The Fosters are often credited with building support for gay rights, including marriage equality. At the same time, however, many dismiss TV's portrayal of LGBT characters and issues as "gay for pay"—that is, apolitical and exploitative programming created simply for profit. In The New Gay for Pay, Julia Himberg moves beyond both of these positions to investigate the complex and multifaceted ways that television production participates in constructing sexuality, sexual identities and communities, and sexual politics. Himberg examines the production stories behind explicitly LGBT narratives and characters, studying how industry workers themselves negotiate processes of TV development, production, marketing, and distribution. She interviews workers whose views are rarely heard, including market researchers, public relations experts, media advocacy workers, political campaigners designing strategies for TV messaging, and corporate social responsibility department officers, as well as network executives and producers. Thoroughly analyzing their comments in the light of four key issues—visibility, advocacy, diversity, and equality—Himberg reveals how the practices and belief systems of industry workers generate the conceptions of LGBT sexuality and political change that are portrayed on television. This original approach complicates and broadens our notions about who makes media; how those practitioners operate within media conglomerates; and, perhaps most important, how they contribute to commonsense ideas about sexuality.

LEOPOLD GIDEON spent his childhood as the poor kid in a rich school until he met an older man who took him under his wing and into his bed, teaching him to not only survive but thrive among the elite and to never submit to anybody…except him. For fifteen years, Gideon had everything, but then tragedy strikes, leaving him alone once again. CALLUM WHYTE was raised with every conceivable luxury but one: loving parents. When his father is indicted for federal crimes and his assets frozen, Cal has to learn to survive with nothing. When a friend offers him money to spend the night with a hot older man, Cal has no choice but to say yes or literally risk going without medication he needs to stay alive. One night with Gideon leaves Cal’s head spinning and his body longing for something he never thought he’d want: discipline. Too bad Gideon never plays with the same boy twice, not even ones who beg as sweetly as Cal. Just when Cal thinks all hope is lost, he discovers Gideon is the new headmaster for his school, leading him to devise a plan to get what he wants by blackmailing the older man into spending the next six weeks with him. But Cal is about to learn it doesn’t pay to blackmail someone who doles out his punishments. Will this battle of wills end in a ceasefire or heartbreak?

Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously silent and invisible population. She presents powerful stories of the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. The voices and stories captured by Balay--by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and devastating--challenge contemporary understandings of what it means to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence, or rape. Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves, Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay life in America.

A Haitian American woman survives a brutal kidnapping in this “commanding debut novel” from the New York Times–bestselling author of Bad Feminist (The New Yorker). Author and essayist Roxane Gay is celebrated for her incisive commentary on identity and culture, as well as for her bestselling nonfiction and short story collections. Now, with An Untamed State, she delivers a “breathtaking debut novel” (The Guardian, UK) of wealth in the face of crushing poverty, and the lawless anger produced by corrupt governments. Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she lives in the United States with her adoring husband and infant son, returning every summer to stay on her father’s Port-au-Prince estate. But the fairy tale ends when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, just outside the estate walls. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As her father’s standoff with the kidnappers stretches out into days, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who despises everything she represents. An Untamed State is a “breathless, artful, disturbing and original” story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places (Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings).

Hagen didn't want to be Baxter's Dom. He wanted to be his Daddy.College professor Hagen St. Croix is done with his life as a Dom since his two previous boys left him. When his former club organizes an event, he wants to go...but not alone. He finds a date-for-hire through the Valentine's Inc. app, but he's shocked when his date turns out to be his sexy student Baxter Lafelle, and even more shocked by the feelings Baxter evokes in him.When tragedy strikes for Baxter, Hagen realizes that he doesn't want to be his Dom. He wants to be his Daddy... But will Baxter let him? And what happens when their contract is up?Kissing the Teacher is a full-sized (73k words), sexy and sweet MM romance with daddy kink, a May/December relationship, and a very happily ever after. It's part of the Valentine's Inc. series but can be read as a stand alone, since these books are only connected through a shared premise.

The hatred of lesbians, gay males, and bisexuals remains an "acceptable" prejudice in our society, despite the widespread damage it causes in all of our lives. Inviting sexual minorities and heterosexual men and women to become allies in the fight against homophobia, the contributors to this anthology explore how homophobia colludes with sexism by forcing people into rigid gender roles; how homophobia causes unnecessary pain and alienation in family relationships; how it works against health-care policy and arts administration that would benefit all members of society; and how homophobia leaves the policies of religious insitutions unfulfilled In both personal and analytical essays, the contributors show how the fight to end homophobia is everyone's fight if we are to bring about a less oppressive and more productive society. They offer concrete suggestions on transforming attitudes, behaviors and institutions.

A series of whimsical essays by the New York Times "Social Q's" columnist provides modern advice on navigating today's murky moral waters, sharing recommendations for such everyday situations as texting on the bus to splitting a dinner check.

As a werewolf and an enforcer for the Committee for Supernatural Behavioral Enforcement, Mick Matranga has seen his share of lowlifes, but Kevin Sutter, pack alpha, is one of the lowest. He has forcibly turned and taken prisoner a young human. Mick has been assigned to affect a rescue and bring Sutter to justice. Dispatching the bad guy turns out to be the easy part of his assignment. Sutter's prisoner, Rio Hardin, turns out to be a smart-mouthed, sassy brat with the face of an angel who takes Mick's heart by storm. He's also a runaway turned hustler who has suffered numerous abuses in the course of his tumultuous life. Bound by his code of honor and determined that Rio be protected at all costs, Mick makes it his personal duty to see to it that no one hurts Rio again. If that includes ignoring the instinctual knowledge that Rio is his mate and Rio's own desire to be with him, so be it. There's only one flaw in his plan. Rio is about to go through his first shift, a very painful process which can only be made tolerable by applying a certain amount of distraction--sexual distraction. Mick has two choices. He can leave Rio in the hands of his very capable brother or he can give in to the mutual heat and need between them and indoctrinate his young charge into the ways of the werewolf. Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices, sex for money, sex while in shifted animal form, violence.