Travels with Penny · True Tales of a Gay Guy and His Mother

Two things flashed through my mind when I opened the door to the sex shop to find my mother standing in front of the display case talking to a tall salesman wearing a leather harness, jock strap and a dog collar. The first was, “Oh, crap!” The second was, “I hate it when Dad’s right.”

Thus begins David Alan Morrison’s hilarious memoir about the evolution of a family. Following the sudden death of his right-wing, conservative father, a middle-aged, liberal gay guy struggles with the idea of his own mortality by reminiscing about the quirky travel experiences he shared with his gregarious mother. Told through a combination of journal entries, random thoughts and interviews, TRAVELS WITH PENNY takes us on an adventure both funny and touching as David tries to make sense of seemingly random vacations that, somehow, weaved a new relationship with his estranged parents. As he and Penny travel through an Amsterdam hash bar, a New York gay theatre and the most conservative states in the USA, they learn that the events of their stormy past does not mean they must face the future in a broken relationship. They learn love trumps traditional notions of “family,” despite the pain of change and a society filled with anti-LGBT bias.