This may be a hyperintersectional text. It's not only about lesbians of color, a triply-oppressed minority group, but about how social workers can aid them.
The editor said she solicited articles and these are the only 7 that she got. You can feel the gleaning taking place. The book is short, as are the chapters.
It's fascinating how most contributors prioritize sexual orientation of the 3 characteristics. However, the books makes quite clear that lesbians of color could lead easier lives if there were less class equality, more affirmative action, and more pay for women's work. In the light that sexuality is emphasized here, white lesbian allies and allies that are gay men of color may find this book much more useful that straight women of color and other groups that share similarities with lesbians of color.
The chapters are just not well done. One researcher asked several social workers to describe the needs of lesbians of color, gay men of color, white lesbians, and white gay men. She then just describes what the interviewees said about lesbians of color. Why make them describe the other groups if you are just going to throw the results out and fail to do anything comparative? One article is about adopted lesbians; however, of the 13 women interviewed, only 2 were of color. The author says little about transracial adoption specifically in her piece. Yes, the author rightfully says not enough has been written about adopted lesbians, but why bring the issue up if you are not going to specifically talk about adopted lesbians of color? Further, with the exception of Latina lesbians, the specific needs of black lesbians, Native lesbians, and Asian lesbians are not spelled out here in the slightest.
In so many ways, this book is the female counterpart to Longres' "Men of Color." That book is sooooo much better than this one. It's long; the articles are strong; specific concerns of black, Latino, Native, and Asian gay men are spelled out. This book pales in comparison, almost embarassingly so.
There have been so many fantastic lesbians of color writing in the United States: Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Paula Gunn Allen, Merle Woo, Gloria Anzaldua. It just does not make sense for this anthology to be so poor.
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