House & Home

An openly gay Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, Gunderson has fought what he sees as his party's increasingly strident assault on homosexuality. As the leader of what he calls a militant moderate Republican faction, he has voiced his support of gay rights and AIDS funding to his political mentor, conservative power broker Newt Gingrich, whom Gunderson credits here with expressing an implicit trust and acceptance that enabled him to fully come out of the closet. Morris, an architect who is Gunderson's longtime companion, views Gingrich as an enemy of the gay and lesbian cause, and this interesting memoir, told in the couple's alternating voices, reveals their interpersonal dynamics as well as their political differences. Gunderson, a devout Lutheran, reminisces about his Norwegian American boyhood in Wisconsin and dramatically describes how he was outed on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1994 on live national television. He refutes the religious right's doctrine that being homosexual contradicts family values. The writing had an assist from noted gay cultural critic Bawer. (Aug.)