Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life

Raymond Luczak shares stories from his days growing up as a deaf gay man in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and learning signs in secret, trying to follow the music on the radio in order to be cool like his hearing classmates, and feeling clueless whenever gay cultural icons like the Village People, Queen, and Bette Midler were promoted in his small hometown. After he graduated from high school and enrolled at Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for Deaf people, he discovered gay literature and came out soon after. He eventually got involved with Deaf theater collaborators, educators, and sign language interpreters, from which his worldview is substantially reshaped on issues of identity, literacy, technology, and family. Assembly Required offers a rare in-depth glimpse into what it means to be a Deaf gay man who lives between the Deaf and hearing worlds. View Less