While there has been increased attention to issues of sexuality in the Caribbean over the past decade, there continue to be very few in-depth ethnographic studies of sexual minorities in this region. A timely addition to the literature, Flaming Souls explores public discourses focusing on homosexuality and the everyday lives of gay men and ‘queens’in contemporary Barbados.

David A.B. Murray's dynamic study features interviews with government and health agency officials, HIV/AIDS activists, and residents of the country's capital, Bridgetown. Using these and records from local libraries and archives, Murray unravels the complex historical, social, political, and economic forces through which same-sex desire, identity, and prejudice are produced and valued in this Caribbean nation-state. Illustrating the influence of both Euro-American and regional gender and sexual politics on sexual diversity in Barbados, Flaming Souls makes an important contribution to queer studies and the anthropology of sexualities.

David A.B. Murray is an associate professor of Anthropology and member of the Sexuality Studies Program at York University.

David A.B. Murray's profile page

‘Flaming Souls succeeds in bringing largely theoretical critiques of (gay) rights discourse to life… This book is useful not only as a primer for those new to this transdisciplinary line of critique, but also as a needed reminder of the material stakes therein.’

QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol 1:01:2014