Goodreads asked Walt Odets:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Walt Odets I have spent thirty years working in psychotherapy with gay men, and I usually understand the problems they present. These problems are not the product of being gay, they are the problems of a frightened and often hostile society that still cannot tolerate and accept natural human diversity. What I want to convey in "Out of the Shadows" is that gay men are not "homosexuals," they are men who feel emotional attachment to other men, and partly and naturally express that sexually. So the idea for the book came from my personal life experience and my therapy work with hundreds of men, and my awareness of the fundamental importance of confident self-identity and authentic self-acceptance. What it means to "be gay" needs to be rethought and reimagined, and the opening chapter of Shadows is titled, "Are Gay Men Homosexuals?" The answer is no.

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