Some of us found ourselves in rooms with sticky floors.Dollar drinks. Music loud enough to feel in your sternum. Strangers who became your people before you even knew their names. A world that existed before the apps, before the algorithms, before you had to optimize yourself for someone else's checklist.We are human first. Gay second. And this is a book about the human underneath.Boys Bars Becoming is a collection of essays about gay men of a certain age —...

In The Leaving Gene**, Huck Smith turns toward one of the central questions of his life: what does it mean to be someone who leaves?**A memoir-in-essays about staying, going, and the cost of both, The Leaving Gene examines leaving as wound, inheritance, coping mechanism, and survival skill. Through essays about family history, grief, chosen family, queer identity, singlehood, friendship, r...