Works by
Walter L. Williams
(Writer)
[1948 - ]

Fiction

• Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo (2006) by Toby Johnson and Walter L.. Williams -- Nominated 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Religion/Spirituality
  Twenty years after publishing his groundbreaking The Spirit and the Flesh, anthropologist Walter L. Williams breaks his silence and publishes another book on Native Americans by teaming up with award-winning writer Toby Johnson. Together they have produced a work of historical fiction that is striking in its evocation of Navajo philosophy and spirituality. Set in the Civil War era of the 1860s, this novel tells the story of a feckless Virginian who finds himself captivated by a Two-Spirit male highly respected among the Navajo. It is a story of tragedy, oppression, and discrimination, but also an enlightening story of love, discovery, and beauty. This book illuminates the truth of what the United States did to the largest indigenous people of this nation. Full of suspense, plot twists, and endearing romance, Two Spirits will captivate readers.

Non-fiction

• Southeastern Indians Since the Removal Era (1979)

• The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual diversity in American Indian Culture (1986) -- Winner American Library Association Ruth Benedict Award, Winner Gay Book of the Year Award; Winner Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists Award for Outstanding Scholarship, World Congress for Sexology
  ""Walter L. Williams's excellent research has produced one of the most extensive studies of the berdache culture among Native Americans. Unlike the larger American society, Native Americans historically have respected, and in many tribal nations venerated, homosexuals. Williams explains the berdache as a custom, its social roles, and the berdache history, including its introduction to the European concept of sin and intolerance of sexual diversity. The word berdache applies almost exclusively to males, mainly because historical records only relate dealings with aboriginal males, but Williams also includes a chapter on female sexual diversity, using the word amazon to describe these often warriorlike women." -- Amazon.com

• Javanese Lives: Women and Men in Modern Indonesian Society (1991)
  Java is the most populous island of Indonesia, the fifth largest nation in the world. Yet despite its importance, outsiders know little about the country or its people. With the help of Indonesian students and scholars, Walter L. Williams has collected and translated the life histories of twenty-seven Javanese women and men. The people interviewed tell how they have coped with rapid social and economic change, and with the transformation of their traditions. Williams has carefully selected the individuals he includes to represent a wide diversity of Java's people. We hear from fascinating women and men of various religions, from the rich and the poor, and from different ethnic backgrounds. Diversity is a constant theme, as evidenced by a poor pedicab driver who can barely scrape along, by a rich businesswoman who explains how she balances her professional domestic roles, by an educated and respected homosexual school principal, and by an illiterate mother of fourteen children. All of them present in their stories a unique Javanese approach to living. These oral histories were gathered from elderly people, who have a larger perspective on the changes they have seen in their lifetimes. The focus of the first section of the book is the way people have adapted in their daily lives massive social and economic changes. In the middle section, we hear from the Javanese who represent traditional values in the midst of change. Finally, we hear from educators and parents who tell us of their concerns for Indonesian youth and the future of the country.

• Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice (1994) by W. Dorr Legg and Walter L. Williams

• Overcoming Heterosexism and Homophobia (1997) by
  James T. Sears and Walter L. Williams
  Providing strategies that can be adopted by educators, counselors, community activists and leaders, and those working in the lesbian and gay community, the contributors discuss role-playing exercises, suggestions for beginning a dialogue, methods of "coming out" effectively to family members and coworkers, and outlines for workshops.

• Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History (2003), Yolanda Retter and  Walter L. Williams, eds.
  The movement for gay and lesbian rights in America is a response to long-held beliefs that have, at times throughout the history of the United States, made homosexuality legally, politically, and socially unacceptable. This collection of primary documents explores those beliefs and their counter-arguments, providing varying viewpoints on the complex issue of gay and lesbian rights. Personal testimonies, laws, opinion pieces, court cases, and other documents, dating from colonial times to the present day, encourage students to challenge their assumptions and strengthen critical thinking skills. The struggle for gay and lesbian rights in the United States is founded on the idea that feelings of love and sexual attraction between persons of the same sex are natural, moral, normal, psychologically healthy, and deserving of full equality in all aspects of society. The documents presented in this unique collection clearly portray the arguments that have been used to refute this idea, and how homosexuals in U.S. society have fought for acceptance as people worthy of equal rights. The struggle is traced chronologically, providing a multifaceted overview of the issues for anyone studying the history and volatility of this movement.