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Queer in America: Sex, The Media, and the Closets of Power
What's it like to be queer in America? Ask Michelangelo Signorile. Called a "sissy" and a "faggot" while growing up in the working-class Italian-Catholic neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Staten Island, he is one of the new breed of lesbians and gay men who decided to bash back. Signorile's signature upper-case invective expressed the anger of a generation in his columns in OutWeek magazine. Queer in America is his story--and the story of a new gay generation that is taking on the American institution known as the "closet."
Signorile first came to the media's attention in march 1990, when Time magazine coined the term outing--revealing the homosexuality of public figures. Queer in America is about the enormous controversy that ensued when Signorile reported on the life of deceased multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes. It is about how, as the author sees it, the media has covered up, and continues to cover up, the truth about lesbian and gay public figures. it is about what Signorile contends is an unconscious conspiracy to keep all homosexuals locked in the closet.
Here too is the story behind the exposé Signorile wrote for The Advocate in 1991 in which he revealed that then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Pete Williams is gay. The story was the Fort Sumter of the gays-in-the-military debate: It drew the battle lines, defining the issue fsrom then on as one of governmental hypocrisy. The story also forever changed the way outing was viewed by straights and gays alike.
But Queer in America is not so much about outing as it is about the closet--the men and women who are forced into it and those who are forced out of it, those who hide within it and those who escape from its destructive clutches. here are the actors, the casting agents, the studio moguls, the legislators, the editors, the columnists, the government officials, the lobbyists, the congressional staffers, and their painful, often anger-provoking, and occasionally triumphant stories.
Through hundreds of interviews with those in and out of the closet, Signorile shows how forces within three American power centers--New York, Washington, D.C., and Hollywood--keep in place what amounts to the conspiracy of the closet, allowing homophobia to continue unabated in the halls of Congress, the studios of Hollywood, and the newspapers and magazines that chronicle our culture. Signorile focuses on the insidious combination of the closet and power: how closeted gays in power, he argues, effectively oppress not only themselves but all those lesbians and agay men who work for them as well as the millions over whom they wield influence.
Queer in America is also about the future, about a time when queer activism will be implemented with the touch of a computer key. Signorile takes a look at the companies of Silicon Valley--Apple, Microsoft, Quark--dominated by out-of-the-closet gays and touting enlightened anti-discrimination policies and domestic partnership benefits, and he shows how high technology will be put toward breaking down the institution of the closet in the coming years. Finally, Signorile offers a no-nonsense Queer Manifesto for the nineties for all of those who are determined to dismantle the closet forever.
Queer in America takes us on a journey inside the American closet, throws it open, and fixes it so that it will never shut again.
About the Author
MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE writes regularly for The Advocate and Out magazine. He has also written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, USA Today, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, People, and The Face. A graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, he lives in New York City.
Jacket design: Andy Carpenter
Jacket art: Chip Kidd
Description from inside jacket sleeve
Signorile first came to the media's attention in march 1990, when Time magazine coined the term outing--revealing the homosexuality of public figures. Queer in America is about the enormous controversy that ensued when Signorile reported on the life of deceased multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes. It is about how, as the author sees it, the media has covered up, and continues to cover up, the truth about lesbian and gay public figures. it is about what Signorile contends is an unconscious conspiracy to keep all homosexuals locked in the closet.
Here too is the story behind the exposé Signorile wrote for The Advocate in 1991 in which he revealed that then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Pete Williams is gay. The story was the Fort Sumter of the gays-in-the-military debate: It drew the battle lines, defining the issue fsrom then on as one of governmental hypocrisy. The story also forever changed the way outing was viewed by straights and gays alike.
But Queer in America is not so much about outing as it is about the closet--the men and women who are forced into it and those who are forced out of it, those who hide within it and those who escape from its destructive clutches. here are the actors, the casting agents, the studio moguls, the legislators, the editors, the columnists, the government officials, the lobbyists, the congressional staffers, and their painful, often anger-provoking, and occasionally triumphant stories.
Through hundreds of interviews with those in and out of the closet, Signorile shows how forces within three American power centers--New York, Washington, D.C., and Hollywood--keep in place what amounts to the conspiracy of the closet, allowing homophobia to continue unabated in the halls of Congress, the studios of Hollywood, and the newspapers and magazines that chronicle our culture. Signorile focuses on the insidious combination of the closet and power: how closeted gays in power, he argues, effectively oppress not only themselves but all those lesbians and agay men who work for them as well as the millions over whom they wield influence.
Queer in America is also about the future, about a time when queer activism will be implemented with the touch of a computer key. Signorile takes a look at the companies of Silicon Valley--Apple, Microsoft, Quark--dominated by out-of-the-closet gays and touting enlightened anti-discrimination policies and domestic partnership benefits, and he shows how high technology will be put toward breaking down the institution of the closet in the coming years. Finally, Signorile offers a no-nonsense Queer Manifesto for the nineties for all of those who are determined to dismantle the closet forever.
Queer in America takes us on a journey inside the American closet, throws it open, and fixes it so that it will never shut again.
About the Author
MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE writes regularly for The Advocate and Out magazine. He has also written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, USA Today, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, People, and The Face. A graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, he lives in New York City.
Jacket design: Andy Carpenter
Jacket art: Chip Kidd
Description from inside jacket sleeve
380 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Michelangelo Signorile
11 books50 followersI'm a long-time journalist, author and activist and have worked for many publications. Currently, I host "The Michelangelo Signorile Show," on SiriusXM Progress 127, focusing on news, politics and culture. I am Editor at Large of Huffington Post Gay Voices, where I write on LGBT political and cultural issues.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 2, 2010
Very interesting account of social activism, outing, ACT UP, and the indictment of prejudice, government, and refusal to act in the wake of the AIDS epidemic.
December 18, 2024
genuinely one of the best books I've read all year.
on the politics of the closet, and how outing of public figures is justified for greater queer visibility; how closeted people in positions of power can warp public opinion about queer people and queer rights; how silly it is to justify closeting through the idea of "privacy" when every other aspect of a public figure's life is stripped bare; how the only way to fight for queer rights is to embolden others to come out and disrupt media depictions of queer people with real, flesh-and-blood people that contribute to communities and are loving, caring neighbours and friends and family members
could not put this book down. 10/10 recommend please read it it's so interesting and still so relevant
(thank you vic book sale I love you)
on the politics of the closet, and how outing of public figures is justified for greater queer visibility; how closeted people in positions of power can warp public opinion about queer people and queer rights; how silly it is to justify closeting through the idea of "privacy" when every other aspect of a public figure's life is stripped bare; how the only way to fight for queer rights is to embolden others to come out and disrupt media depictions of queer people with real, flesh-and-blood people that contribute to communities and are loving, caring neighbours and friends and family members
could not put this book down. 10/10 recommend please read it it's so interesting and still so relevant
(thank you vic book sale I love you)
August 21, 2024
This was recommended to me by a gay friend who knows about my family's gay/closeted history. This book brought back a lot of memories of the late 80's and 90's for me. My favorite passage from this book says: "Apologists have a way of splitting hairs to the point of ridiculousness. They cling to this explanation--the "love the sinner, hate the sin" policy--b/c it comforts them as they blindly go lock, stock, and barrel with a church that promotes hatred against an entire group of people, the kind of hatred that results in violence."
June 29, 2021
Excellent book on how closet gay communities exist within halls of power (Hollywood, Washington, etc) and how they end up supporting the same anti-gay agenda as everyone around them to provide a cover for their sexuality. This author makes a good argument for the unpopular opinion of outing public figures.
May 6, 2019
I read this about 15 years ago. I remember feeling sick at how circumcised gay lives were because of the discrimination. It was eye opening for me and the start of my active support for gay civil rights.
January 10, 2019
Its this kind of a dick munch that makes all Gay people look bad .
September 16, 2012
This is the book that started my understanding of how PR works. I like Signorile better in retrospect. Here's what I wrote when I originally read it:
Understand this: if your children are straight they cannot be made gay, but they can be made into gay-bashers.
this was a fascinating read---not just because of signorile's sensationalist writing style that clearly shows why he's good at reaching the mass audience. it was published in 1993, when i was seven or eight and disconnected from any of the queer world. it's fascinating seeing the change from the more-radical-side-of-the-mainstream then to what i see in that more radical side of the mainstream now. it's particularly interesting to see talks of queer political and social change before the gay-marriage debate really got pulled to the forefront. it's also entertaining to see harry hay and the original mattachine so thoroughly snubbed---signorile names frank kameny the father of the gay rights movement and gives him huge props for starting the washington dc mattachine in response to the original in la, which kameny described as "very passive, very apologetic, very unassertive---they weren't doing anything." hay doesn't even get a mention, and the homophile movement is described in here by morris kight as "largely arch-conservative and…went under assumed names."
it's also interesting seeing this text as one from before everyone started tagging B and T to the end of every G and L acronym---the word 'bisexual' is printed in this book maybe 5 or 6 times (3 or 4 times because it's part of a group's name, twiceish as an identity someone came out as on the path to coming out as gay/lesbian, and once as an identity in signorile's own words---as an identity along with homosexuality owned by closeted people.) and the closest he comes to mentioning transfolk of any sort is in the form of a few notable transvestite icons---j edgar hoover, the killer in silence of the lambs, you get the idea.
i still think it's a worthwhile read, if only to get a feel for the manipulatability of the media and entertainment industry---although signorile says right from the start that to publicize ACT UP's FDA protest they publicized it as the biggest act of civil disobedience since the storming of the pentagon 20 years prior, knowing that that meant that was what the media would then give the public, which right away---along with the acknowledged high volume of unnamed sources due to the fact that this is about closets---makes it a difficult book to trust.
Understand this: if your children are straight they cannot be made gay, but they can be made into gay-bashers.
this was a fascinating read---not just because of signorile's sensationalist writing style that clearly shows why he's good at reaching the mass audience. it was published in 1993, when i was seven or eight and disconnected from any of the queer world. it's fascinating seeing the change from the more-radical-side-of-the-mainstream then to what i see in that more radical side of the mainstream now. it's particularly interesting to see talks of queer political and social change before the gay-marriage debate really got pulled to the forefront. it's also entertaining to see harry hay and the original mattachine so thoroughly snubbed---signorile names frank kameny the father of the gay rights movement and gives him huge props for starting the washington dc mattachine in response to the original in la, which kameny described as "very passive, very apologetic, very unassertive---they weren't doing anything." hay doesn't even get a mention, and the homophile movement is described in here by morris kight as "largely arch-conservative and…went under assumed names."
it's also interesting seeing this text as one from before everyone started tagging B and T to the end of every G and L acronym---the word 'bisexual' is printed in this book maybe 5 or 6 times (3 or 4 times because it's part of a group's name, twiceish as an identity someone came out as on the path to coming out as gay/lesbian, and once as an identity in signorile's own words---as an identity along with homosexuality owned by closeted people.) and the closest he comes to mentioning transfolk of any sort is in the form of a few notable transvestite icons---j edgar hoover, the killer in silence of the lambs, you get the idea.
i still think it's a worthwhile read, if only to get a feel for the manipulatability of the media and entertainment industry---although signorile says right from the start that to publicize ACT UP's FDA protest they publicized it as the biggest act of civil disobedience since the storming of the pentagon 20 years prior, knowing that that meant that was what the media would then give the public, which right away---along with the acknowledged high volume of unnamed sources due to the fact that this is about closets---makes it a difficult book to trust.
July 19, 2015
This book though published twenty years ago rings through for me and for all those who are in the closet. How the closet was constructed and perpetuated stronger whenever we do not have the pride and strident desire to own ourselves to the world and take one for the community of fags. I have been militant and hot-headed about the people who shrug us off as sexual deviants including my own family whom I have came out to for over twenty years. This book is a reminder maybe not for the Americans about how important it is to be to be yourself and what it means to take steps towards accomplishing the many equality and recognition we are denied without cause. For the rest of those whose governments are not constantly working to provide the justice for LGBT in their community, we must all come out in pride not just to save ourselves but to save all those after when we are long gone.
July 7, 2013
This is a wonderful book about pros and cons of gay outing in the United States (up until 1993 when this book was written) and how the powers that be in New York, Washington D.C, and Hollywood impacted gay life in the USA. Very informative. I wish there was an update out there because strides with gay rights have changed so much since this was written.
July 7, 2013
This is a wonderful book about pros and cons of gay outing in the United States (up until 1993 when this book was written) and how the powers that be in New York, Washington D.C, and Hollywood impacted gay life in the USA. Very informative. I wish there was an update out there because strides with gay rights have changed so much since this was written.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews