The Other Side of the Closet: The Coming-Out Crisis for Straight Spouses

Buxton, a therapist, provides counseling in this guide for an often neglected group--spouses who learn that their husbands or wives are homosexual or bisexual. She draws upon hundreds of interviews (and her own experience as a straight spouse) to analyze and offer solutions to their problems, which include a sense of sexual inadequacy resulting from rejectionp. 1 , the shattering of trust, identity crisis, and conflicts around how to help children adjust to having a gay parent. Ten straight spouses tell their own emotional and inspirational stories of how they overcame the exigency of coming out. And whether the straight spouses choose divorce (the usual case) or attempt to adapt the marriage into a nontraditional form, Buxton stresses the need for self-dialogue, introspection, interpersonal contact, therapy and other means in order for spouses to heal their wounds, rediscover their identity and attain personal growth. This combination of practical advice and penetrating vignettes will make Buxton's work invaluable to anyone currently undergoing this difficult struggle. (June)