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Scholars across disciplines have recognised the symbolic and practical importance of information infrastructures in queer lives – from archives to the contemporary Internet. This essay builds on this work to argue that crucial to understanding this fact is what it says about the place of structure and order in queer history and theory. While these ideas have tended to be maligned in queer thought, and imagined primarily as manifestations of Foucauldian power, the approach taken here is to highlight their specifically queer affordances. The essay focuses on a range of high-profile lesbian memoirs from the U.S. that prominently thematise the place of libraries and information access in lesbian lives: anthologies of coming out stories, Audre Lorde's Zami and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. Libraries in these texts are lifelines, workplaces and romantic scenes: they become imbued with lesbian meaning. But they are also complexes of standardisation, order and classification. The texts' attachments to ordered information systems and to specifically lesbian identities are at odds with queer thought's long-standing aversions to both classification and identity. But this essay takes this tension as the occasion to interrogate core assumptions of queer studies that place queer lives only in opposition to all structure and order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telling transgender and gender-diverse stories is an increasingly common process. The stories that are told are situated reflections of individual lives. Nonetheless, these stories tell us something about the world we live in, since they are, simultaneously, conditioned by and an expression of the social, cultural and historical contexts that surrounds them. Drawing upon 58 transcribed in-depth interviews with transgender and gender-diverse people in Portugal and the UK, in this paper, I focus on the dynamics and complexity of coming out stories and their relation with specific spaces such as the 'private' spaces of the family, the 'virtual' and 'face-to-face' spaces of transgender and gender-diverse communities and the 'institutional' spaces of work and school within these individuals' lifecourse. I will consider these transgender and gender-diverse people's social positionings, specifically in terms of age and national contexts in order to understand how their stories are shaped by several interconnected and mutually inter-influencing factors that condition their experiences and fields of possibilities. I will argue that coming out processes are strongly interrelated with located social times and spaces and the significant, symbolic and generalized others that occupy them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented that discusses the experiences of a lesbian woman in relation to her mother. Topics include the book "And the Band Played On," by Randy Shilts, the smoking habit of the author's mother, and the author's coming out as a lesbian. The Asperger's syndrome diagnosis of the author's sister is noted.

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The author shares her journey from closeted United Methodist Church pastor-to-be through the assumptions of the United Methodist Church and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches about homosexuality and bisexuality to an out bisexual pastor with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. She examines how the similar assumptions of modern Christians about God (male, White, heterosexual) distort images of God and the ways in which bisexual theologians, clergy and laity can offer other images and different ways to think about God, reflective of a more inclusive vision of God and of humankind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has shown that those struggling with their same-sex desire often rely on print materials to help them understand their sexuality, the language use in these resources has rarely been studied. Exploring the relationship among genre, social change and socialization, this article examines coming-out narratives published in print and electronic media. It argues that these narratives are more like public testimonies than personal stories. Through metanarration, the COMING OUT AS A JOURNEY metaphor and the grammatical structuring of events, writers recount their own experiences to illustrate messages regarding the processual nature of coming out, the transformation of the self through coming out, and the transformation of relationships with others through coming out. The stories which convey these messages serve as an instrument of social change, in that they give those in the closet a language to talk about their experience and socialize them into the gay imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the complexities of queer identities among queer youth intersect with other differences, such as race, homophobia and heterosexism in the U.S. A case study involving Fred Martinez Jr., a Navajo Two Spirit youth who was identified as gay and was murdered by local White youth for dressing like a woman, is presented. The case reportedly shows how the queer youth are willing to live out their identity despite the dangers it fosters.

Research about children of LGBTQ parent(s) tends to be politically interested and evaluative, assessing the degree to which children with LGBTQ parent(s) are being raised well. As a consequence, much of that research glosses over the distinct experiences of children with LGBTQ parent(s) and how they tell their own stories. This article attends to that shortcoming by detailing how some children with LGBTQ parent(s) construct their identities. We draw upon data from interviews with 26 adult-children, specifically young, white women who were born to, or adopted by, heterosexual parent(s) who later divorced and began living as LGBTQ. We analyze the children’s interviews as coming out narratives, detailing how many tell a story of coming out as a process of growing up and negotiating specific family closets. We then discuss how these are gendered and racialized narratives of coming out, reflecting the way racism and sexism intersect with homophobia and the stories told about experiencing it. We also suggest that these are stories of a particular generation of adult-children, reflecting specific families and the homophobia of the times. We end by suggesting how future generations of adult-children with LGBTQ parent(s) will likely narrate their identities differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a conceptual framework for thinking about the development of anti-homophobia education in teacher education and schooling contexts. We bring the safe, positive, and queering moments framework to bear on three distinct anti-homophobia education practices: coming out stories, homophobic name-calling analysis, and Pride Week activities. Our analysis of these education practices through the lens of our conceptual framework illuminates its usefulness for thinking through both the intent and impact of anti-homophobia education within classrooms. Importantly, our analysis also reveals that within a classroom of students who are taking up anti-homophobia education in different ways any one moment can be all three- safe, positive, and queering. We advocate an approach to anti-homophobia education that seeks change through the creation of all three moments, and that locates anti-homophobia strategies on points in a constellation of "safe moments", "positive moments", and "queering moments". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author investigates the history of negative representations of male bisexuality in Hollywood and foreign films and its impact on his personal development as a bisexual man. Arguing that bisexuality is everywhere in modern films but is never called bisexuality, the author asks whether it has become the sexuality that cannot speak its own name. Portions of this essay appeared previously under the title "Stereotyping Bisexual Men in Film," published in Journal of Bisexuality 1: 2/3, 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author honors his fluid sexuality with a ritual derived from ancient Celtic traditions. He examines his own personal experience as a seeker of sexual and spiritual enlightenment and integrates them into his ritual practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ambivalent young man explores the potency and tenderness of his own desires for men and women while living as a member of a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch enclave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A married man recounts the difficult process of coming out as a bisexual to himself, his wife and children, and colleagues and friends. The author's self-image as traditionally masculine and his attraction to men and women who fit traditional gender images initially complicate his ability to understand himself as non-heterosexual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bisexual male coming-out manifesto. The author recounts his trial-and-error process, lessons learned from gay men, lesbians, and other bisexuals, and the stages of his coming out. The author ends with a message of hope to aspiring bi men and affirms the role of bisexual men's communities. Reprint from Bi any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, Loraine Hutchins & Lani Ka'ahumanu, editors, 1991. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In online discussions, bisexual and gay men come to terms with various issues surrounding coming out, family and marriage concerns, and bisexual identity. Excerpted from "When Bicurious Husbands Come Out," in Bisexual & Gay Husbands: Their Stories, Their Words, Fritz Klein, MD, & Thomas Schwartz, editors, 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A statistician and sexual adventurer in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, explores the process of coming out to himself and his female partner. He criticizes the limitations placed on male-on-male expressions of desire, even in communities where an open attitude of sexual liberation is presumed the norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longtime bi male activist recounts his coming-out process and thirty years of activism and change in the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities in Boston. Over time, communities of and for bisexual men have grown and strengthened, despite setbacks and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bisexual Sioux/Scottish man explores the commonalities between growing up as a member of two races and having a sexuality that crosses ordinary social boundaries. He confronts the misconception that people with complex identities must feel divided or not whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A closeted married dad of two reveals his confusion over tentative early sexual exploration with men, describes his recent contact online and in person with local gay and bisexual male community, and anticipates liberation from the self-imposed limitations of married life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-term gay-identified man recalls early negative sexual experiences with bi-identified men, only to reexamine decades later during a health crisis his latent desires for women. When he confesses his attraction to a childhood sweetheart, she reacts insightfully, "That opens up a whole new world of possibilities." He discusses his self-discovery as a late-blooming bisexual while entering a primary relationship with another man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two lesbian comings out on prime-time television. The "Ellen" coming out episode, featuring Ellen Degeneres in a sit-com, activated the lesbian and gay movement, as well as the U.S. Christian Right. The "Ellen" episode is compared with the coming out of Helen, a women's prison governor, in the British series "Bad Girls". The author analyzes how the two programs, which are different in genre and national context, show two competing discourses in coming out: the confessional identity claim and the declaration of desire. Research on coming out in popular culture is cited, including Chasin, 2000.

Presents a response to an essay by Maughn Rollins Gregory in the October 2004 issue of the journal regarding the coming out stories of Gregory as a gay teacher. Discussion of the role of openness, self-exposure, and vulnerability in creating classroom spaces for discourse and growth; Presentation of four episodes from the author's life that deal with homosexuality in education; Discussion of the unequal power held by teachers and students in the classroom; Question of what it means to be a teacher who has a strong commitment to social justice.

Presents a response from Maughn Rollins Gregory to respondents to his essay regarding his coming out as a gay teacher. Priority of a gay teacher's status as a person above his or her utility as a teacher; Discussion of sexual identity management for gay teachers; Right of individuals to construct identities that seem true to them, so long as the way they do so does not impede the same right for others; Belief that the move from being a closeted gay to being an activist is morally and politically important; Discussion of the permission of bigoted opinions in classroom inquiries.

Through examining four episodes from his teaching, the author reflects on the importance of being out in the classroom, not only about his sexuality, but also about his intellectual, moral, and political commitments and uncertainties. While cautioning that being out in these ways can, in certain circumstances, stifle student voices and preempt open student inquiry, the author concludes that being out is a necessary process of self-corrective ethical inquiry. Four scholars respond to the author's essay, which is followed by a final commentary by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a collection of essays written by young lesbians from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, with comments from educators and scholars. The first essay is about society values and how the author told her parents that she is lesbian. The second essay comments on homophobia in school and what teachers can do to help questioning adolescents and gays. The third essay focuses on seeing the female gender as a symbol of oppression in heterosexism and finding freedom in the celebration of being queer. One educator focuses on the theme of sexual identity and acceptance; another on the resilience of the essayists and GLBT people in general; a third on the journey of social alienation to self-affirmation; and the fourth on generating social change. Remarks from the essayists follow the educators' comments.

This article focuses on contemporary research per-taining to the closet and coming out within and around educational settings in Australia, Britain, and the United States. The research tends to forge a relationship between inclusivity and coming out, a relationship that often situates the closet as a zone of shame and exclusion. Lesbian and gay pol-itics often tend to reinforce this relationship. Many educational researchers are perturbed by "the com-ing out imperative" and point to some of the limi-tations of this discourse in diverse educational contexts. This article considers these limitations as well as the possibilities that may surface when coming out becomes a pedagogical practice in the college classroom. In sum, this article considers how teachers and students might benefit from be-ing mindful of the moral, political, and pedagogi-cal issues that necessarily influence educational discourses of the closet and coming out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an interview with gay psychiatrist Richard C. Pillar, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. Pillar's work studying the incidence of homosexuality in families and twins and reporting the evidence for genetic heritability; Career background; His experience coming out in 1967, after being married and having children; Impact of coming out on Pillar's career; Discussion of changes in psychiatry in the 1960s; People who influenced his coming out as a psychiatrist; Pillar's experience founding the Homophile Community Health Service; Services provided by the Homophile Community Health Service; Involvement in the research of gayness in families; Family background; Gayness in Pillar's family; Influence of his mother; Biographical details; How he got into analysis; Inclusion of gay partners in his professional life; His work at the Boston University Psychiatry Department.

Presents an interview with gay psychologist Charles Silverstein. Silverstein's argument in favor of withdrawing homosexuality from the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"; Overview of Silverstein's activities; Observation that many of these activities have had a lasting impact upon the gay and lesbian community; His experience training as a psychologist and coming out as a gay man in the late 1960s; How he became involved with The Gay Activists Alliance (GAAA); Account of how Silverstein sought the help of therapists; Silverstein's fear of bringing shame on his family; Relationship with his family; Why he believed his parents were at the root of his homophobia; Attitude about gay liberation; Accomplishments as a leader in the gay psychology movement; Influence of his Jewish heritage on his fight against so-called sexual ethnic cleansing; Interests in art; Relationship with his partner, William Bory, who died of AIDS; How Bory's death affected him; Changes in patient relationships during Bory's illness and after his death; Thoughts on what more he would like to accomplish personally and professionally.

Presents an interview with Nanette Gartrell, MD, who is known for her research on the sexual abuse of patients by psychiatrists, done in the 1980s. Her work as one of the pioneering members of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists; Significance of Gartrell's research, which was instrumental in changing ethics codes for medicine and psychiatry; Biographical and career details; How Gartrell was the first lesbian on the Harvard Medical School faculty to come out; Her experience being a feminist in a generally male-dominated environment; Frustration with responses to her feminism; How she became involved as a political activist; Reasons for Gartrell's decision to become a psychiatrist; How her lesbianism became a motivator in her career; Why she has felt more affinity with women psychiatrists or women's groups than with gay psychiatrists; Background on her involvement with the national lesbian family study; Difficulties getting funding for studies having to do with sexuality; How she met her partner, Dee Mosbacher, MD, a psychiatrist and academy-award nominated filmmaker who produces documentary films on homophobia; Challenges.

Abstract This article examines the challenges posed to the western lesbian and gay life writing paradigm of the coming out story by postmodern and global cultures. It reads two memoirs published in the 1990s that 'queer' the coming out plot, one of an American lesbian-turned-heterosexual, the other of a Chinese woman describing her relationships with women and men during the Cultural Revolution. Jan Clausen's Apples and Oranges.' My Journey Through Sexual Identity (1999a) and Anchee Min's Red Azalea (1996) each reject 'coming out' and its 'essentialist' model of sexual identity, showing too its western specificity. However, they equally avoid a fully deconstructive version of queer — Clausen by elegizing her past lesbian self, Min by poeticizing sexuality as the wellspring of individuation and antitotalitarian resistance. While queer's unravelling of homogenous models of sexual narrative has been liberating, it cannot yet rival the power of traditional modernist sexual stories, whether in creating community in the fragmented West, or individual rights in totalitarian societies such as China of the late 1960s-early 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although bisexuals were around long before the 1970s-1980s, this relatively recent period marked the first time that bisexuals came together and proclaimed their identity publicly. In this article, seven panelists who were involved in this shift have a chance to tell their stories. Interestingly, the coming-out story of each individual is interwoven with the coming-out of the bisexual community and movement. During this period, invisibility and self-doubt gave way to visibility and validation. Although AIDS had a devastating impact on both the individual and the movement, bisexuals have rebounded and now enjoy a visibility and acceptance unknown previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a response to an essay by Maughn Rollins Gregory in the October 2004 issue of the journal regarding the coming out stories of Gregory as a gay teacher. Discussion of the disempowerment of a teacher by an administrator responding to student homophobia; Suggestion that teachers who pretend to not have opinions are acting dishonest and disingenuous; Dilemma of how teachers should present their identities and opinions in the classroom without allowing their power as teachers intimidate their students; Dilemmas faced by teachers who are parents of gays or lesbians.

Presents a response to an article by Maughn Gregory in the October 2004 issue of the journal regarding the coming out stories of Gregory as a gay teacher. Statement that it is difficult for teachers to be public about their identity, beliefs, and values; Discussion of the tension between the teacher's need to be open versus the right and need of students to self-expression; Power of students to change the teacher's opinion on an ethical question; Suggestion that a teacher's coming out to a class may stifle the expression of anti-gay opinions as well as supportive positions.

How many ex-lovers does it take to find sanity? Follow the timeline of Dr. Dyke as she moves through her coming-out years to her more enlightened, yet just as pathetic, age of maturity. From the country gal to the sex worker to the minister, the executive, and the physician, our shero finally arrives at some sort of self-discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the poem "Coming Out of My Closet," by Barbara Brown.