Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South by E. Patrick Johnson (review)

Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, 16.2

Opening Section

Thirteen years in the making, E. Patrick Johnson’s new book Sweet Tea is a wealth of information about Southern black gay men and a valuable addition to gay cultural history. Sweet Tea is an oral history, or rather a series of oral histories. The book is divided into seven sections—growing up, coming out, the church, “homosex,” “trannies,” love and relationships, and the generation gap. Johnson further divides these sections by interviewee: that is, the opinions of the men in Sweet Tea are not compiled and summarized by the book’s author. The men of Sweet Tea speak for themselves.