Book excerpt: In the 2011 edition of Best Gay Stories Peter Dub questions the representations of gay men's lives found in the general media that present gay life and culture as some monolithic structure--that we all go to the same bars, shop in the same stores, eat in the same restaurants, hold the same kinds of political opinions, have similar backgrounds, and work the same kinds of jobs (more often than not urban, and vaguely white-collar.) He has collected authors who have stepped up the proverbial microphone to tell stories that are different through unique voices. Proof that we have moved well past the sentimental coming out story, the boy-meets-boy romance, the dangers and pleasures of sexual adventure, and we have done it without having to abandon them--because those things still happen and are still important. But we have found new ways of thinking about them, and have more experience to share, a deeper understanding of them, and we have added an array of other stories, from other parts of our lives, and dreams, and troubles to them. We have moved past the "gay story" and towards "gay stories." In these pages are a magnificent assortment of narratives and an equally fabulous range of ways of narrating them. The book includes experimental work and traditional tales, fantasy and realism, and as many different perspectives as one might hope to find.