Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Hosting Book Launch for New Book on Black LGBT Health
Book Talk to Be Held on January 11, 2017
ALLENTOWN, PA — Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center will host a book launch for a new academic book: Black LGBT Health in the United States: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. The book is co-edited by Lourdes Dolores Follins (City University of New York—Kingsborough Community College) and Jonathan Mathias Lassiter (Muhlenberg College) and published by Lexington Books.
The book launch will be held in the Community Room at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center (522 W. Maple St., Allentown, PA 18101) on January 11th at 6pm. The event is free to attend and the talk will be followed by coffee and conversation with the co-editors. The event is sponsored by Starbucks at the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley and Comfort Suites – Allentown.
The book focuses on the mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of health, and considers both risk and resiliency factors for Black LGBT communities. Contributors to this collection intimately understand the associations between health and intersectional anti-Black racism, heterosexism, homonegativity, biphobia, transphobia, and social class. This collection fills a gap in current scholarship by providing information about an array of health issues such as cancer, juvenile incarceration, and depression that affect all subpopulations of Black LGBT people, especially Black bisexual-identified women and men, Black lesbians and gay men, and Black transgender people. Black LGBT Health in the United States is recommended for readers interested in psychology, social work, health, gender studies, race studies, and sociology.
Co-editor, Lourdes Dolores Follins stated, “As we prepare for a level of systematic oppression that we have not seen in recent decades in the United States, some of us in Black SGL (same-gender loving) and LGBTQ communities are very concerned. While the health and well-being of Black SGL and LGBTQ people in the United States have always been given short-shrift, this book is more important than ever given recent political events. The authors in this book offer thought-provoking suggestions and tools for how we can continue to survive and thrive despite what seems like a constant battle for our lives.”
Co-editor Jonathan Mathias Lassiter stated, “This book is a testament to the resilience of Black SGL and trans people in the midst of intersectional oppression and trauma that aims to infirm and destroy us. I hope that this book provides current and future generations with scientific knowledge and inspiration to pursue social justice-oriented health care and activism.”
Adrian Shanker, Executive Director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, commented, “LGBT health promotion is core to our mission of supporting a vibrant LGBT community here in the Lehigh Valley. We are excited for this new book, and for this conversation about the specific health challenges affecting Black LGBT people in the United States so that we can learn, grow, and recommit ourselves to the fight for health equity for our entire community.”
About Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center (www.bradburysullivancenter.or
Information provided by:
Adrian Shanker, Executive Director
Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
