THE GROOM WILL KEEP HIS NAME

By Matt Ortile

This is the daring, funny and heart-warming memoir of a young, gay immigrant moving from Manila to the USA. Ortile once believed that marrying a white man was a strategic means to finally “belong” among mainstream white American society.

But, as he navigates the harsh reality of sex and romance, he quickly discovers it is not as straightforward as he previously believed. The locals can’t even pronounce his last name! Ortile transforms the bad experiences from his sex and dating life into refreshing observations about brown gay men making sense of themselves in a new and alien culture.

In the first chapter, Barong Tagalog, he responds to white people praising his English fluency “for an immigrant”, by reminding readers that the Philippines’ colonial history is entangled with US imperialism and, therefore, also the English language.

The next chapters follow Ortile to New York and, while pop culture offers some clues to navigating the city (including Sex And The City), living alone means he looks to others to help him through dates, relationships, friendships and “whateverships”.

In Rice Queens, Dairy Queens, he recalls the gay beauty standard that places a white muscular body at its epicentre, throwing him back into the men’s underwear section where he was brainwashed for the first time.

Frank, bold, and often riotously funny, Ortile sheds new light on being a gay Asian man in the not-so-post-racial world.

Uncensored has an abundance of images that are sexually graphic but is also beautifully composed.