Though the link between sexuality and spirituality is no surprise to many of us, it remains a radical and shocking concept to most Americans. According to orthodox Judaism, Christianity and Islam, sex is at best a necessary evil whose only purpose is procreation. The idea that sex could be a link to the divine smacks of paganism or worse, and U.S. public opinion, not the mention its sex laws, do their best to make sure that the two never meet.

Though most Americans believe that nonprocreative sex goes against the Law of God, their view is not shared by a minority of queers, witches, nudists, pagans, sex workers and other free spirits. Some of these people have set their views to paper, and they are represented in RITUAL SEX, a new anthology of fiction and nonfiction about religion and sex.

"When David [Clark] and I invited contributors to participate in RITUAL SEX, we asked them to explore the uneasy-yet-sublime territory where sexuality, religion, and spirituality intersect," writes editor Tristan Taormino. "We wanted to collect writings which strive to accomplish a number of different goals: they challenge the separation of sex and spirit; they melt the boundaries of false dichotomies like Western/Eastern, Judeo- Christian/New Age, and Anglo/tribal religions; and they create and celebrate diverse notions of sin, worship, faith, and healing intertwined with pleasure and desire."

The contributors to RITUAL SEX are a diverse group. They are queer, straight, bisexual and asexual; Jewish, Christian, Pagan and atheist; female, male and transgender. Many of the authors are familiar to readers of the Kasak/Rhinoceros/Badboy/Rosebud line of books: Laura Antoniou, Pat Califia, Michael Lowenthal and Michael Perkins, among others. Others are bright newcomers. Some of the writers use fiction, some non-fiction, some autobiography and some poetry. All of them will make you think.

Like religion, sex takes you beyond mundane reality into another state of being. Often the feeling gained through sexual ecstasy is no different from that attained through religious ecstasy. Each of the contributors to RITUAL SEX see the link between the sexual and the spiritual differently. To Pat Califia, it is carving a design on a lover's back. To Guy Baldwin, it is how Roman Catholic rituals interact with the "erotic rituals of SM sexuality," Genesis P-Orridge views the act of [heterosexual] sex as "the supreme homage" in which "the Mistress religiously devours her lover, and by taking and drinking his pleasure makes it her own." Beth Brant bridges sexual and spiritual truths through her Native American traditions; as does D. Travers Scott through the Radical Fairies and Simon Sheppard through a fictional(?) sexual encounter with the Hindu god Shiva. For her part, pansexual sex worker Annie Sprinkle describes a "Yoni Massage Ritual" for women that she teaches around the country. Other writers discuss the spiritual dimensions of blood and semen, both as sources of life and (in this Age of AIDS), the transmitters of death.

The authors and editors of RITUAL SEX do not expect their readers to agree with everything in this book. I certainly don't agree with all that I read in this book. However, there was little here that was not find thought-provoking, curious or at least controversial. Their views need to be aired, especially in a sex-negative society like ours.

THE NINTH ANNUAL LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS, held May 30 at the Midland Hotel in Chicago, brought a few surprises and a new category: Transgender books. The winner of that category -- which also won the Small Press award -- is BODY ALCHEMY (Cleis), Loren Cameron's photographic account of his transformation from female to male. Other "Lammy" winners, and their categories, are: