Lesbian Epiphanies: Women Coming Out in Later Life

Exploring identity development and gender orientation, Lesbian Epiphanies: Women Coming Out in Later Life contains firsthand information about the experiences and difficulties of women who discover and reveal their newfound lesbian sexuality in later life.

Lesbian Epiphanies is unique because it quotes extensively from the interviews of 24 lesbians and bisexuals who had entered into heterosexual marriages. This book conveys the importance of early sexual awareness in terms of human lives instead of cold statistics. From the analysis of these 24 interviews, readers will learn about the psychological, erotic, and social processes of women who come out as lesbians or bisexuals after a heterosexual marriage.

These women tell about realizing their same gender attractions and the barriers they faced, including negative attitudes toward lesbian women and the lack of strong role models. This insightful book knocks down the sociological and psychological barriers that keep women from knowledge of their own real sexual orientation and offers invaluable advice.

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Redefining the Self: Coming Out As Lesbian

What experiences do women have when they come to identify themselves as lesbian? What happens when they consider telling family and friends about their sexual identity? This book examines these questions on the basis of interviews with individuals and other source materials. Coming out can only be understood, the author stresses, against the backdrop of a firmly heterosexist society.

The dominant heterosexual culture tends to freeze gender divisions in such a way as to polarize sexual identities. The author focuses more upon the isolated lesbian, rather than upon political lesbianism. Coming out is seen to be a complex and emotional process, but one that is potentially highly rewarding. Lesbians, Markowe shows, have to struggle with both their 'invisibility' in the predominantly heterosexual culture, but also with perceptions of threat and abnormality. Coming out to family and heterosexual friends involves risks and benefits. Case studies of lesbian women are discussed in the context of the threat to, and reconstruction of, identity which the coming-out process presumes.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is in the process of coming out, or to second year undergraduates and above working in the fields of women's studies, social psychology and the psychology or sociology of gender.

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Coming Out : More Lesbian Fun 'N' Games

Puzzles, games and dyke paper dolls - great fun for parties or to spice up a boring evening at home.

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Living Two Lives: Married to a Man and In Love with a Woman

Living Two Lives, a guide for women grappling with the difficult process of coming out while being married to a man. Fleisher brings her wealth of insight to this guide to help married women navigate the stages of coming out: initial feelings of same-sex attraction, telling husbands and children, managing a roller coaster of emotions (grief at the end of a marriage, confusion and anger at the loss of heterosexual privilege, guilt, anxiety, depression), developing a support system, executing the awkward phases of dating, and, finally, moving into a new chapter of life. In addition, Living Two Lives provides resources on organizations for married women, suggested reading, and helpful websites. Married women are a huge but invisible part of the lesbian population, often falling between the cracks of available resources.

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A Woman Like That:
Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories

The act of "coming out" has the power to transform every aspect of a woman's life: family, friendships, career, sexuality, spirituality. An essential element of self-realization, it is the unabashed acceptance of one's "outlaw" standing in a predominantly heterosexual world.

These accounts -- sometimes heart-wrenching, often exhilarating -- encompass a wide breadth of backgrounds and experiences. From a teenager institutionalized for her passion for women to the mother who must come out to her young sons at the risk of losing them -- from the cautious academic to the raucous liberated femme -- each woman represented here tells of forging a unique path toward the difficult but emancipating recognition of herself. Extending from the 1940s to the present day, these intensely personal stories in turn reflect a unique history of the changing social mores that affected each woman's ability to determine the shape of her own life. Together they form an ornate tapestry of lesbian and bisexual experience in the United States over the past half-century.

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Testimonies: Lesbian Coming-Out Stories

Nearly two dozen women from widely varying backgrounds and age groups give accounts of their journeys toward self-discovery. The stories dramatically give voice to each woman's efforts to develop a lesbian identity, explore her sexuality, and build a community with other lesbians.

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Coming Home to America: A Roadmap to Gay & Lesbian Empowerment

In this inspirational call-to-involvement for gays, lesbians, and their families and friends, Torie Osborn "gives every reader ways to create justice for all Americans, and to liberate our true selves" (Gloria Steinem). Whether it is by coming out, standing up for one's beliefs, or battling the specter of AIDS, Osborn shows how gays and lesbians are transforming the social landscape of America just by living their lives.

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Coming Out of Shame: Transforming Gay and Lesbian Lives

Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael expose the role shame has come to play in the lives of gay men and lesbians. The authors break the silence surrounding gay and lesbian experience so that individuals can "come out" of shame and begin a path toward personal growth and acceptance.

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Coming Out of the Classroom Closet:
Gay and Lesbian Students, Teachers, and Curricula

This groundbreaking book is a superb collection of essays geared for individuals concerned with improving the climate for lesbian and gay persons in our schools, colleges, and universities. This is a critical book for all educators who are trying to understand and confront homophobia and heterosexism in education.

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