Father Knows Best?

Alison Wearing’s dad, Joe, was everything that a father is supposed to be in our culture—a consistent provider, a loving protector, a man who cheered on his adored offspring at every assembly, performance or gymnastics meet. He was also deeply enamoured of musical theatre, French cuisine, prancing along sidewalks and lounging in silk pyjamas. In other words, he was what is known in gay parlance as a screaming Mary.

Not an easy person to be, especially back in 1978. The daughter of a queer dad, that is. Reconciling the seeming contradictions of her beloved father’s identity, and in the process reconfiguring her own, is the tableau of Alison Wearing’s memoir Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter: Growing Up with a Gay Dad. Charting her personal journey from embarrassment to acceptance, Wearing shares with the reader her evolving understanding of the meanings of sexuality, gender and family as realized through her relationships with both of her...