The history of gay people in Alcoholics Anonymous - Audrey Borden

The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous documents and honors the ways thousands of LGBT peoplehave carried Alcoholics Anonymous' message. This illuminating chronicle includes interviewsand documents that detail the compelling history, recovery, and wisdom of gay people in AA. The bookexamines thechallenges AA faced as the fellowship endeavored to become a more inclusive and cohesive community. The first-person accounts narrate the important work of influential gay and straight AA members that led key events in AA's history. The author includes material on the steps and traditions of AA, andon becoming an ally to LGBT people on the road to recovery.

Topics in The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous include:

• the gay origins of AA's Third Tradition
  
• a comparison of treatments for alcoholism and homosexuality
  
• compelling portraits of sober gay life in the 1950s and 1960s
  
• the debate in AA over meetings for gay alcoholics
  
• interviews with members and co-founders of the first gay AA meetings
  
• the history of the first gay AA/Al-Anon conference
  
• interviews with pioneering gay addiction professionals
  
• the history of AA pamphlet "AA and the Gay/Lesbian Alcoholic"
  
• Alcoholics Together, and why a parallel AA organization for gay alcoholics formed in southern California
  
• strategies AA's gay members developed to make their meetings simultaneously safe and public-and why some of them are still necessary today
  
• much more
  

The History of Gay People in Alcoholics Anonymous is anenlightening book for members of the LGBT and heterosexual recovering community, alcoholism and addiction professionals, as well asphysicians, counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, clergy, historians, sociologists, educators, students,and anyone interested in learning more about AA or this aspect of the community's history.