Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor’s office where he was diagnosed a “high-risk homosexual.” In a world desperate to erase us, queer Latinx men must find ways to hold onto pride for survival, but excessive male pride is often what we are battling, both in ourselves and in others."Ī debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez’s uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at thirteen years old to become a man. In particular, effeminate queer men represent a simultaneous rejection and embrace of masculinity. "I’ve always found the definition of machismo to be ironic, considering that pride is a word almost unanimously associated with queer people, the enemy of machistas. This witty memoir traces a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing a gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo-from a cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to cities across the U.S.-and the bath houses, night clubs, and drag queens who help redefine pride.
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