When a man comes out as gay in a straight marriage, many questions demand to be answered. Author Milt Ford investigates this largely unexplored experience and provides insightful answers in his new book through Xlibris, Playing It Straight: Gay Men and Heterosexual Marriage. Here, readers will witness the experiences of men who now identify themselves as gay or bi-sexual and who were, or still are, married to women.
In this book, Ford provides a valuable window on this still largely unexamined population-gay and bisexual men in straight marriages-whose stories have rarely been told. “What I have tried to do in this book is create a framework of topics related to the experience of gay men and straight marriage that makes it possible for the men I interviewed to fill in the details from their different experiences with those common topics,” Ford shares.
Playing It Straight: Gay Men and Heterosexual Marriage provides direct and actual accounts about the nature of life for these men from childhood, adolescence and leading up to marriage-the marriage itself and the meaning these men now make of their marriages as part of their whole life experience.
Highlighting the role of society, particularly religion, in this experience, Playing It Straight: Gay Men and Heterosexual Marriage provides a deeper understanding of the realities that often emerge for a gay man when he marries a woman and the impact it has on families.
Milt Ford is a Professor of Liberal Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, where he teaches courses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics. He is the founding director of Grand Valley’s LGBT Resource Center, long-time faculty advisor to the University’s student gay/straight alliance, Out ‘N’ About, and a trainer for the University’s faculty and staff organization, Allies & Advocates, dedicated to supporting LGBT students. His previous book, Life Journey; Literature and the Search for Meaning in the Stages of Life, grew out of a course Ford created, called “Life Journey,” which is now offered in nearly fifty sections each year.
