Life Outside uses hundreds of interviews with American men in a groundbreaking study of fundamental issues shaping gay life: sex in the age of AIDS, family relationships, long-term commitment, and aging in an often youth-obsessed culture.

The acclaimed bestseller finds three major trends: the cult of masculinity, the deurbanization of homosexuality, and the death of the lonely old queen.

Signorile draws on illuminating accounts of life on the "circuit" -- drug-fueled parties dominating the "scene" and largely defining the gay aesthetic -- to show the pressure to conform to an impossible physical ideal, and how that pressure creates anxiety and insecurity even for those far from the circuit.

He also identifies a positive phenomenon. Life in gay urban centers has long set the pace for life outside. But with more gays coming out and staying in rural, suburban, and small-town America, life outside the urban scene is changing the face of what it is to be gay in America.

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No matter how much you prepare, coming out as gay or lesbian is a difficult, emotional process continuing long after the words are spoken and the secret is out.

There's no magic formula, but Outing Yourself offers structure, guidance, and straightforward advice to all who are struggling with their sexuality and unsure what to do, who accept that they are gay but are still afraid to come out, or who consider themselves out but realize they have farther to go.

Signorile's 14 steps -- with exercises, meditation notes, and anger checks, as well as accounts of others' coming-out experiences --show how to navigate this life-changing, life-renewing process.

A guide to for the coming-out journey, Outing Yourself will convince all who read it that, in Signorile's words, "The stress of coming out will never be as hard on you as the stress of staying in was."

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Reviews: Life Outside

"Exhaustively researched, surpassingly perceptive."
--New York Magazine

"A stunning expose. Gay men should be handed three things when they come out of the closet: a box of condoms, a videocassette of George Cukor's The Women, and a copy of Life Outside."
--The Advocate

"Life Outside bravely advances a critique of the attitudes and ideologies that have shaped the gay 'scene' and merits the attention of a broad audience for its courage and informativeness."
--The New York Times Book Review

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Reviews: Outing Yourself

"Magnificent... Interesting and clear... Signorile takes your hand and guides you through the entire self-outing process."
--Chastity Bono, The Advocate


"Signorile's book does a service simply by updated the crucial coming-out issue and analyzing, demystifying, and reframing it in a contemporary way appropriate to these complex times."
--Torie Osborn, LA Times Book Review

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