Publisher's Synopsis
Growing up in Orrville, Ohio, is a daunting task for a gay boy. In this Memoir, Steven captures the pathos of "coming out" to his family at the age of 21. With humor and with drama, Steven conveys his family's background and their lives as being the only Jewish family in Orrville. He takes us with him on his journey from California to New York, then back and forth again. He talks of those in his life who spurned him, and those who gave him love.
Steven takes us with him step by step showing us the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. He recalls his experiences in the theatrical community and intersperses his original songs within his text that reflect the moment he describes. He is blunt with his language and assessments of what he experienced. He shares his pain as a man living with AIDS, and the successes and love that have been his.
We become voyeurs as we join Steven on his tumultuous odyssey.
Rabbi David Horowitz
Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel, Akron, OH, and VicePresident of PFLAG, National Board of Directors
As a fellow northeast Ohioan who made the trek through Orrville on my way to the College of Wooster in the mid 1980s, I am familiar with the physical space depicted in Steven's Memoir, and yet I can only begin to imagine the trauma he has had to endure in the past two decades. While his visceral words convey sadness, they also serve as a call to arms-a call to work tirelessly to create the kind of world I was fortunate to grow up in-one in which parents, siblings, spouses, and children love and respect one another for who they are, regardless of their skin color, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
Jonathan Friedman
West Chester University
Singer/Songwriter STEVEN HENRY GOLDRING
likes to play the piano, enjoys a glass of Merlot or a Stoli-martini, straight-up. He has opened for Joan Rivers, ruffled Barbra Streisand's feathers and is HIV-positive, but that is only the beginning of his story.
