The Gift - Terry, Scott

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Résumé :
A haunting tale of religious extremism and the struggle for acceptance in mid-20th century America. Butch Blackwell, raised in the insular world of Jehovah's Witnesses, grapples with his burgeoning homosexuality amidst the church's condemnation. His mother, Pansy, brings him to rural Siskiyou County, California, where he finds solace and unexpected kinship with a kindhearted rancher, Steve Bultemeyer. Butch embraces the cowboy culture, but his journey to self-discovery is fraught with prejudice and family secrets. As Butch navigates faith, sexuality, and the complexities of small-town life, he confronts the hypocrisy of religious dogma and the courage required to live authentically. Will Butch find a path to acceptance and forge his own definition of family and faith? The Gift explores the enduring power of love, the search for belonging, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Perfect for readers seeking character-driven historical fiction with LGBTQ+ themes....

Biographie:
Scott Terry was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and spent his childhood praying for God and Armageddon to heal him of his homosexual thoughts. At the age of sixteen, he escaped from the Witness religion and was riding bulls in the rodeo as a gay cowboy.Scott's memoir, (Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth) was named one of the Top 20 Must Read Books of 2013 by Advocate magazine. It was named one of the best LGBT releases of 2012 by Out In Print and Band of Thebes book lists, and was a double-award winner of the Rainbow Book Awards (Best Gay Debut, and Best LGBT Non-Fiction, 2013). Scott's new novel, The Gift, is a work of fiction and scheduled for release in Fall 2024. Scott has written often for the San Francisco Chronicle, and his essays has been featured in the Huffington Post and Alternet Magazine, amongst others. Scott's rodeo gear, clothing, and championship buckles are in the permanent collection of the Autry Museum of the American West (Los Angeles), and are currently on display in the museum's Imagined Wests exhibit. He and his husband operate an organic farm in the San Francisco Bay Area....

Sommaire:
A turbulent telling of one woman's immersion in her faith, and one man's journey to acceptance. Seeking comfort in the isolation of the western landscape, young single mother Pansy Blackwell brings her son Butch to the Siskiyou Mountains. Fully engulfed in the Jehovah's Witnesses assurances for a soon-to-arrive end of the world, Pansy raises her son to conform to the constrictive requirements of their religion. But as Butch discovers the wonders of the world around him with an endlessly patient and kindhearted rancher, he embraces the cowboy culture and struggles to live as his authentic self. In the late 20th Century, rural communities in America were often hostile to the rising-awareness of LGBT people, and Butch is soon cast aside by his church for homosexuality. In The Gift, Scott Terry crafts a memorable and historically-accurate tale of religious extremism and the struggle for acceptance, before the truth of those times are swept under the forgotten rug of history....