“I CAN imagine a book made up entirely of examples,” wrote the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. This is the first of many quotes that James McCourt uses as a chapter heading in his new book, Queer Street, and it’s a revealing one. …

… For his research, Besen interviewed movement leaders and rank-and-file “ex-gays,” scrutinized the history of their spiritual and scientific beliefs, and went undercover to infiltrate their organizations. …

The Friend by Alan Bray University of Chicago Press 380 pages, $40. THE FRIEND begins with the author’s dramatic discovery two decades ago at Christ’s College, Cambridge,…More

The Gilded Age Construction of Modern American Homophobia by Jay Hatheway Palgrave  Macmillan 232 pages, $45. Jay Hatheway’s The Gilded Age Construction of Modern American Homophobia traces the…More

Rick Whitaker introduces the essays in his new book, The First Time I Met Frank O’Hara: Reading Gay American Writers, by suggesting that a writer’s sexuality may influence not only what he writes, but also how he writes. While this is nothing new in the realm of literary inquiries, it’s a worthy question and will snag the attention of many readers.