BOOK REVIEW: Straight Jacket by Matthew Todd

Straight Jacket

By Matthew Todd

With an interesting foreword by John Grant this is a handbook for the Queers. Todd knows his stuff and his book is as readable as it is eminently sensible. I’d defy any LGBT person to read this book and not have an opportunity to reflect, learn something and give themselves an opportunity to be happier people.

Todd writes from his own experience and also from watching others and experiencing the communities and cultural changes that gay life has gone through over the last twenty years.

Part memoir, part sotto voice rant, he looks beneath the shiny facade of contemporary gay culture and asks if gay people are as happy as they could be – and if not, why not?

He addresses our ‘crisis of shame’ and offers compelling guidance on coping while shining a light on his and our problematic relationships with drugs and alcohol.

This is a courageous and life-affirming book, as engaging as it is challenging and Todd offers invaluable and more importantly practical advice on how to overcome a range of difficult issues.

He states the LGBTQiNB communities need to acknowledge the importance of supporting all young people and suggests it’s time for older people to transform their experience and finally get the lives they really want.

An excellent and timely book.

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