cover image Gay Men's Friendships: Invincible Communities

Gay Men's Friendships: Invincible Communities

Peter M. Nardi. University of Chicago Press, $48 (264pp) ISBN 978-0-226-56843-0

Exploring what Hannah Arendt called ""the political relevance of friendship,"" Nardi, a professor of sociology at Claremont College, argues that a tremendous amount of gay political organizing emerges from the bonds between gay men. Although he contends that gay male friendships are ""poorly understood"" and ""not easily explained,"" he claims that friendship is the primary community institution for urban gay men. In addition to a review of the existing literature of male friendship (from Aristotle and Cicero to current popular and scholarly work), Nardi offers his own research findings, based on 161 questionnaires and 30 face-to-face interviews. While many of his conclusions seem like obvious common sense (such as his claim that many gay men choose not to have sex with their friends for fear of losing the friendship), he also offers some provocative flashes of insight (for example, that gay men's social circles have become less diverse in terms of class and race as political groups and social venues have proliferated and become more specialized). While Nardi attempts a blend of sociology and cultural history, overall, the latter element is more successful; when he lets his subjects speak, the book vibrates with lived experience. In particular, his discussions of the legal ramifications of gay men creating ""family"" out of friendships (e.g., friends do not have the legal rights to visit the critically ill in a hospital) are important contributions to the growing literature of gay sociology. (July)