Loving Men

Richard Hardy's LOVING MEN, GAY PARTNERS, SPIRITUALITY, AND AIDS is a thoroughly convincing argument for the strength of gay spirituality. Based on extensive interviews with gay men caring for partners who are HIV+, the book demonstrates that gay relationships can foster a deep spirituality marked by love, commitment, and self-sacrifice. In a culture in which churches often deny that such spirituality exists in gay relationships, the book's message is one that needs to be heard. Hardy (who has himself provided long-term care for a partner who died of AIDS) concludes that the spirituality fostered by many gay relationships is one that deserves attention in mainstream churches, since it has the hallmarks of holiness, as defined in traditional understandings of spirituality.