The Soul Beneath the Skin: The Unseen Hearts and Habits of Gay Men

Among the most acclaimed books on the gay male experience, The Soul Beneath the Skin explores the wide variety of social and ethical experiments in gay men’s lives, and their implications both for gay men and society at large. David Nimmons radically reinterprets gay men’s sexuality, intimate relationships and ethics by looking at seven patterns of behavior widely practiced by gay men but rarely acknowledged: non-violent public culture; high rates of altruism, service, and volunteerism; robust sexual caretaking; friendship patterns of diffuse intimacies; friendship with women; diverse forms of sexual union; and unique forms of bliss and pleasure seeking.

These social innovations, striking similar to the teachings of the great spiritual traditions, suggest a new and profound public ethics, a stirringly optimistic vision of a social revolution as radical as it is unnoticed.