It’s rare to have books like this in the world and I look forward to the joy people in the queer Latinx community will find when reading Edgar’s story. I laughed, cried, and continuously rooted for Edgar. “Goodbye machismo culture! We are moving on! Edgar Gomez’s memoir is a beautiful coming of age about what it means to be a gay Latinx man in a culture that still struggles with accepting the queer community within it. Clancey D’Isa, Seminary Co-op Bookstores, Chicago, IL Joy, he purports, might indeed be the thing, above all else, that is worth holding up as our highest ideal.” Lacking one, I pieced together my own rules based on the scarce examples I found around me of people attempting to find a new path. With wit, earnesty, and deeply-felt reflection, Gomez’s writing brings force to the experience of discovering yourself and finding pride in and against the models of masculine, Latinx life. As I came of age, writes Edgar Gomez in the introduction to High-Risk Homosexual, I longed for a guide to teach me how to navigate being a queer 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. “An honest reflection of embracing yourself, High-Risk Homosexual tells the story of Edgar Gomez as he struggles to find his stride as a gay, Latinx man admist a culture of machismo and masculine ideals.

Michelle Malonzo, Changing Hands, Tempe, AZ If you love Samantha Irby, then High-Risk Homosexual is your next read! It’s thoughtful while still making you LOL.” Yet he also writes about the joy at the intersections and ultimately this memoir is a celebration of what it means to be gay and Latinx. Gomez dissects the gender dynamics within Latinx families, speaks with honesty and vulnerability about queerness, and what it means to flip those power structures that seem difficult to break. “ High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez has my heart! This memoir is hilarious! But it is also a poignant and searing examination of machismo culture in the Latinx community.

High risk homosexual by edgar gomez