Outing Yourself by Michelangelo Signorile

The vast majority of people who have recurring homosexual thoughts or experiences, however, are truly homosexual, although they often don't want to face the fact. I've accepted that I'm really bisexual, and I realize there aren't many people like me. At first I thought I must be a lesbian, but my realization that I liked women did not stop or cover up my strong sexual attraction for men. Then in my early twenties I realized I was also really turned on by women. 'I was always really turned on by men,' says Sheila, a thirty-six-year-old rural Tennessee health-care worker. Some people are truly bisexual, equally attracted to both sexes. 'However, if someone has persistent homosexual experiences - and not necessarily encounters but day dreams and night dreams - and has had them for a long time, then that person is gay.' Richard Isay, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical College and the author of Being Homosexual. 'People may be experimenting and seeing where their sexuality lies,' notes Dr. In some cases a heterosexual person, particularly an adolescent, may simply be experimenting - mentally or physically. Such thoughts and actions don't actually mean a person is gay.

Neither scenario necessarily means that you have told yourself you are gay. Perhaps you have had one or two homosexual experiences.

A guide for the coming-out journey, Outing Yourself will convince all who read it that, in the words of the author, 'The stress of coming out will never be as hard on you as the stress of staying in was.' Excerpt Signorile's 14-step program-complete with exercises, meditation notes, and anger checks, as well as the accounts of the coming-out experiences of other lesbians and gay men-shows how you can successfully handle this life-changing, life-renewing process.

There's no magic formula, but Outing Yourself by Michelangelo Signorile offers structure, guidance, and straightforward advice to all those who are struggling with their sexuality and unsure of what to do, who have accepted that they are gay but are still afraid of coming out, or who consider themselves out of the closet but realize they have a few more steps to go. No matter how much you prepare, coming out as gay or lesbian is a difficult, emotional process - a process that will continue long after the words are spoken and the secret is out. Coming out isn't easy-but with Signorile's 14-step program, it's a lot easier.