Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told

Lin shrewdly braids the history of gay marriage into an account of his relationship with his husband in this gorgeous follow-up to Gay Bar. He met the man whom he would marry on a dance floor in London in May 1996, at the end of a post-college trip to Europe. They spent two nights together before Lin returned to California. Noting that their cross-Atlantic relationship developed against the backdrop of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed U.S. states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, Lin seamlessly ties his own love story to a broader history of legal efforts to thwart gay love. Describing the first time he and his future husband had sex, Lin frames it as an act of resistance: “By surrendering to you, and through that to myself, I saw how not to surrender to them.” Elsewhere, he profiles pioneers who paved the way for their eventual marriage, including a British government worker who stamped a fake visa into his Brazilian lover’s passport, and a Colorado couple who in 1979 filed “the first case seeking recognition of a same-sex marriage at the federal level.” Stylish, sexy, and deeply moving, this blends beautiful prose and incisive social history to stunning effect. Agent: Laura Macdougall, United Agents. (June)