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AUTHOR: Marina Peralta, Penelope James
PUBLISHER: Barriers Press
LANGUAGE: English
DATE: 2013
PAGES: 196
ISBN: 9780989900706

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Barriers to Love: Embracing a Bisexual Identity

In “Barriers to Love,” psychotherapist Marina Peralta uses her own life story to address the question of bisexual identity. Set in Mexico and California, Marina reveals how early sexual abuse led to sexual confusion in her adolescence. Jilted by her first boyfriend, comforted by a lesbian, and controlled by her widowed mother, she marries an emotionally detached man, and finds love with a woman. With vivid honesty, she portrays her love affairs with both men and women, and why the person and not the gender guides her choice of partner.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I: Mami
- Barrier One: Consequences of Past Actions
- Barrier Two: A Hidden Memory
- Barrier Three: Loss of My King
- Barrier Four: A Symbiotic Relationship
- Barrier Five: Left on My Own
- Barrier Six: Interrupted Sexual Development
- Barrier Seven: Sexual Feelings Are Wrong
- Barrier Eight: The Wrong Prince Charming
- Barrier Nine: Infatuation with a Woman
- Barrier Ten: Catholic Guilt
- Barrier Eleven: Loving a Woman
Part II: Carlos and Claudette
- Barrier Twelve: Marriage as a Solution
- Barrier Thirteen: Married, but Loving Another Woman
- Barrier Fourteen: Finding a Father for My Lover’s Child
- Barrier Fifteen: An Emotional Conflict
- Barrier Sixteen: Betrayal
- Barrier Seventeen: Late-Life Recognition of Sexual Orientation
Part III: The Straight Life
- Barrier Eighteen: A Powerful Man
- Barrier Nineteen: A Different Reality
- Barrier Twenty: Leading a “Straight” Life
Part IV: Julia
- Barrier Twenty-One: A Heterosexual Woman
- Barrier Twenty-Two: The Complexities of Loving Another Woman
- Barrier Twenty-Three: Different Directions
- Barrier Twenty-Four: My Lost Child Returns
- Barrier Twenty-Five: Repeated Patterns
- Barrier Twenty-Six: Separating Self from Mother
The Last Barrier: My Struggle to Be True to My Bisexual Identity
Therapist’s Notes
Myths and Realities of Bisexuality
Therapist’s Insights
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgments