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—National Edition #24 Gayellow Pages, The National Edition #24, USA and Canada, edited by Frances Green, Renaissance House, 2000, 544 pages, $15.95. Email: gayello@banet.net 
For twenty-seven years Frances Green, the New York-based editor and publisher of the Gayellow Pageshas been laboring to produce a gay guide to America's communities that has no comparable rival. While other guides, mostly imitations, are often poorly updated or clearly outdated, the Gayellow Pages keeps up with the comings and goings of thousands of bars and businesses with the meticulous care
that has always characterized Ms. Green's extraordinary work.
Reporters and correspondents for GAY, America's first gay weekly newspaper, were the first to notify me about her talents. “She's a perfectionist,” said John Francis Hunter, author of The Gay Insider USA (1972) “and you can be sure that she's painstakingly checked and double-checked every Gay Yellowpages entry. Ira Gruber, writing more recently in Seattle Gay News, points out that the Gayellow Pages is “more than a travel guide. It's the encyclopedia of Gay resources in the United States,” while Our World hails this annually-published guide to gay America as “a household necessity in the homes of many in our community for years,” and advises that those who want a dependable resource such as it is “won't find a more complete guide covering literally all aspects of Gay and Lesbian life.” I say that Frances Green's long-time and painstaking devotion to accuracy has proved itself often enough over the years that the Gayellow Pages deserves not only to be known not only as a pioneering guide, but as a committed individual's magnificent entrepreneurial tribute to gay and lesbian communities everywhere.
The first 90 of the Gayellow Pages comprise an amazing index with names, subjects, places, and cross references. Travel accommodations, bars, community centers, organizations, clothing stores, women's centers, religious groups, clubs, dentists, lawyers, therapists, youth groups, bookstores, publications, switchboards—and more. They're all listed—with addresses and phone numbers. If you're traveling during this first summer of the new century, this is the single resource you'll want to pack. Not only does it give focus to traditional gay venues, but there's a Women's Section and a section which appeals to those with ethnic and multicultural interests. Flipping through the Gayellow Pages can be amusing as well as informative. A display ad on page 213 says “Visit Eureka Springs, Arkansas—Historic Lodging and Holy Unions.” Recalling a day in the mid-1960s when there were barely 15 openly gay organizations in the country, I'm happy to report that there are now approximately 77 gay organizations, nightclubs, bookstores, and churches in the state of Arkansas alone. The Gayellow Pages is also an annual tribute to progress. “Informing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community since 1973,” says a blurb on the cover. Even if you're staying home this summer, you can find out more about your own gay environment than you possibly know. It's worth the $15.95 cost, believe me. See the e-mail address above to arrange a mailing of your own copy. |
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