Books like Rubyfruit Jungle

I read this book the year it was published. I was a young woman of 21, and it was during a time when it was still considered shocking, by most of mainstream straight America,to be gay. My sister had recently come out to me, and my head was spinning. We were very close, and she was much older. Her "roommate" of many years was not just a roommate any more. I wasn't sure what to think or feel. In short, I was confused as hell.This book was a good antidote. Hilariously written, human, sexual, occasionally profane: it's hard to be a homophobe when you're laughing that hard.Later that year,while Anita Bryant was still trying to "save our children" by getting gays and lesbians banned from any job involving children on the no-facts-involved notion that they would molest them, I went to my first Pride march in my sister's place. (She was a pediatric nurse, and terrified lest she lose her position; she is retired now). My mother turned on the evening news to see a close-up of a very young version of me, clad in a halter top and carrying a sign, chanting "Three, five, seven, nine, lesbians are MIGHTY FINE!"Things are different now, and more people are probably open to reading a book like this, even when there are no humming-wire family issues involved. It did me a world of good. If you are lesbian, are in favor of gay rights but aren't sure if you are comfortable about actual lesbians--a lot of people have told me this over the years: 'it's a private matter, but I don't want to hear about it'-- or if you are not easily offended and just want to laugh, and laugh, and laugh, get this book. Read it now.