New Book ‘Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer’ Explores Issue from Diagnosis to Recovery
VIA PRESS RELEASE
(New York, NY) June 12, 2018 – On June 19, LGBTQ scholarly publisher Harrington Park Press will release their latest book, “Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer (from Diagnosis to Recovery).”
Like previous titles from the imprint, such as “Transgender Sex Work and Society” and “LGBTQ Hospice and Palliative Care,” the book is not only the first of its kind, but also necessary and timely.
Medical science has conspicuously–and shamefully–been complicit in valuing straight white men above all others. Women, racial minorities, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning/queer (LGBTQ) communities are underrepresented in clinical trials, which limits our ability to identify their needs and to respond to them thoughtfully.
The LGBTQ community has been described as experiencing an “ignored epidemic” and characterized as a “growing and medically underserved population” in the area of cancer care.
In no disease is this inequality more apparent than in prostate cancer. Of the hundreds of thousands of studies devoted to prostate cancer, only 88 small-scale efforts have focused on understanding the experiences of gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals with prostate cancer.
“Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer” provides an overview of research and practice dealing with the specific needs of gay and bisexual men living with prostate cancer and features both cutting-edge research and powerful portraits of gay and bisexual men living with prostate cancer.
In Chapter 17, we hear from a gay man who wondered whether anyone was listening to him when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 46. He recalls, “What about anal sex? Penetrative sex? Receptive sex? How will the absence of semen affect my orgasm? How can you reach orgasm with a flaccid penis? Will I still be a sexual man? Will I feel attractive to other men? These were all such personal questions interconnected with my identity, and I needed answers to reduce my anxiety, and yet I just couldn’t bring myself to ask them. I felt embarrassed revealing myself to this man and caught up in a heterosexist world, just as I always had.”
If we are to make progress toward equality, we must listen to these men and value their humanity as tenderly as we would their straight male counterparts. “Gay & Bisexual Men Living with Prostate Cancer” will be indispensable for healthcare, oncology, and mental health practitioners who seek to address their specific experiences and challenges.
Harrington Park Press, distributed by Columbia University Press, is an academic, scholarly, and professional book publisher devoted to emerging topics in LGBTQ diversity, equality, and inclusivity. www.harringtonparkpress.com
To request an advance copy of the book or an excerpt, or to speak with the editors, please contact Andy Reynolds at andy@popularpublicity.com .