Teaching the Cat to Sit A Memoir Author:Michelle Theall A compelling memoir of a gay Catholic woman struggling to find balance between being a daughter and a mother raising her son with a loving partner in the face of discrimination.Alternating between reflections on her childhood growing up gay and Catholic in the Texas Bible Belt and her present-day fight with her adopted son?s bigoted school, Mich... more »elle Theall?s memoir is the compelling story of a woman?s search for identity and belonging in an often intolerant world. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s under the watchful eye of her obsessive-compulsive mother, Michelle?s unconventional upbringing included a best friend whose mother spoke in tongues and a divorced Catholic priest who was the parent of a teenage boy. It took her twenty years of fumbling, pretending, and self-hatred before she escaped?from Texas and the disapproval of her mother?to a remote cabin in the mountains of Colorado. Finally able to accept her sexuality and redefine her faith as an adult, Michelle and her partner, Amy, decided to adopt a child together. After enrolling their four-year-old son at a Catholic school in liberal Boulder, Colorado and having him baptized, a priest suddenly decided to expel him due to the fact that he has gay parents. As Michelle stands up for her son, she takes a journey toward self-acceptance and discovers more about her family history than she?d imagined. Offering clear-eyed commentary on intolerance in today?s society, Teaching the Cat to Sit is also a poignant testament to love?s ability to shape our humanity, sense of family, and ultimately, our connection to one another.« less