Conner and Sparks devote the heart of their study to interviews with gay devotees in the U.S. and Cuba, as well as with Brazilian- and Haitian-born gay men and lesbians residing in the U.S. They cite numerous glbtq artists who sought the orishas' influence, including poet Audre Lorde, who considered herself a daughter of Ellegguá; Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite, a Vodou houngan; celebrated Cuban writer José Lezama Lima; and transgender writer and actor Max Valerio.

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Conner relates a story told by a gay initiate who reported that another devotee, who did not know about his sexuality, became possessed by the orisha Shangó, who said to him: "Do not use whom you love as a reason to be afraid of me." The significance of this anecdote is that Shangó, whose association with machismo has sometimes caused him to be seen as unfriendly to gays, is here depicted as an accepting and reassuring "voice" to a gay man.

Tradition and Adaptation

Scholars Matory and Clark, who examine aspects of gender fluidity in New World expressions of Yoruba religion, discern allusions to these traits in the Yoruba language. For example, both males and females possessed by an orisha are said to be "mounted," the term also used for the passive role in sex. The orisha is regarded as taking the male role, regardless of either the orisha's or the devotee's gender. Initiates undergoing affiliation with an orisha are called "iyawó," which also means "bride"--again, regardless of either the orisha's or the devotee's gender.

Some Yoruba traditionalists vehemently oppose such semantic associations and the implications drawn from them. Scholar Oyeronke Oyewumi, as quoted in Conner and Sparks, objects in particular to applying Western gender paradigms to traditional Yoruba culture.

Conner's presentation at a 2003 Havana conference on glbtq associations in Yoruba religion was denounced by Nigerian religious officials who view homosexuality as a foreign aberration, despite overwhelming evidence of same-sex relationships that long pre-date contact with the West. (It should be noted that traditionalists also object to Catholic influences in orisha worship.)

Against the objections of purists, however, African diasporic religions have adapted to New World contexts with remarkable resiliency. They will likely continue evolving and reaching out to an ever-broadening base of membership, including glbtq devotees who find particular relevancy in certain orishas.

With reports from hundreds of sub-Saharan African locales of male-male sexual relations and from about fifty of female-female sexual relations, it is clear that same-sex sexual relations existed in traditional African societies, though varying in forms and in the degree of public acceptance

Anthropology, the first of the social science disciplines to take sexuality--and particularly homosexuality--seriously as a field of intellectual inquiry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has achieved a new impetus in the post-Stonewall era.

Although one cannot speak of a gay community in Cuba, one can speak of a homoerotic environment for meeting and socializing in Havana that is constantly moving and reshaping itself.

Goddess religions, especially those that feature a singular Great or Mother Goddess, honor female energy for its role in fertility and the creation of new life.

"Indigenous" is a concept important in the history of anthropology, particularly as it regards anthropology's treatment of same-sex sexual relations.

Although the islands of the Caribbean are renowned for their pleasant tropical climate, the social climate for glbtq people is not always inviting and is sometimes dangerous.

Shamanism describes various people in indigenous ("tribal") communities who might also be termed "medicine men," "witch doctors," "healers," and "sorcerers": people who engage with spirits for certain socially sanctioned tasks.

Today's glbtq spirituality movements must be seen as part of a long history in which gender-special people were considered sacred to their tribe or family because of their obvious spiritual gifts.

Primarily a nature religion that seeks to commune with the divine through the contemplation and celebration of nature and its mysteries, Wicca--like other contemporary pagan traditions--celebrates our existence in this world.

A major Latin-American literary figure, Cuban José Lezama Lima included problematic homosexual passages in his two best known novels.

The work of African-American activist and writer Audre Lord was greatly influenced by her lesbianism.