In this groundbreaking book, playwright and social critic Sarah Schulman explores the family, the first place where all people: straight, gay, and bisexual, learn homophobia. It is within the family that homophobia begins to control the lives of perpetrators and recipients. Written in the tradition of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (Ballantine Books, 2000), which transformed rape from a private problem into an internationally recognised cultural crisis. Ties That Bind uncovers the hidden crime of 'familial homophobia' and moves it into the open.