The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous: From the Beginning

465 Pages·2007·1.39 MB·English

by  Audrey Borden

The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous
From the Beginning
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The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous
From the Beginning
Audrey Borden
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First published 2007 by Haworth Press, Inc. 10 Alice
Street, Binghamton
This edition published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14
4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2007 by Audrey Borden. All rights reserved. No part
of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, microfilm, and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
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Haworth Press are not responsible for any errors
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Cover design by Marylouise Doyle.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Borden, Audrey.
The history of gay people in Alcoholics Anonymous :
from the beginning / Audrey Borden.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-7890-3038-2 (hard : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-0-7890-3039-9 (soft : alk. paper)
1. Gays—Alcohol use—United States—History. 2.
Alcoholics—Rehabilitation—United States. 3.
Recovering alcoholics—United States. 4. Alcoholics
Anonymous—History. I. Title.
HV5139.B67 2007
362.292′86086642—dc22
2006037370
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To the recovering community
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About the Author
Audrey Borden has been writing for many years,
primarily for the software industry, and has been
involved with the recovering community in the San
Francisco Bay Area since the early 1980s. She has a
bachelor’s degree in geography from Portland State
University in Oregon. She lives with her wife and
daughter in Marin County, California.
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CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: FROM THE BEGINNING, 1935-1970
Chapter 1. The Recovering Gay Community
Chapter 2. Barry L. and the Gay Origins of AA’s Third
Tradition
Chapter 3. Alcoholism and Homosexuality: A Brief
History of Treatment
Chapter 4. Five Views of Sober Gay Life in the 1950s
and 1960s
Chapter 5. Finding AA: Groups, Directories, and the
First Gay AA Meeting
Chapter 6. Printer’s Ink: A Conversation with Nancy T.
Chapter 7. Special Purpose Groups and the Debate over
Meetings for Gay Alcoholics in AA
PART II: BUILDING SOBER COMMUNITIES,
1970-2004
Chapter 8. Washington DC
Chapter 9. New York
Chapter 10. New Jersey
Chapter 11. We Never Looked Back: A Conversation
with NALGAP Cofounders Drs. Dana Finnegan and
Emily McNally
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Chapter 12. San Francisco
Chapter 13. AA’s Pamphlet for Lesbian and Gay
Alcoholics
Chapter 14. The Home Front
Chapter 15. On Our Way: A Conversation with Lillene
Fifield
Chapter 16. Pass It On
Chapter 17. Side by Side in Southern California:
Alcoholics Together
Chapter 18. A Few Conclusions (and Mysteries Solved)
Appendix A. The Steps and Traditions of Alcoholics
Anonymous
Appendix B. List of Narrators
Appendix C. Becoming an Ally
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
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