Coming Out within

Individuals of the same-gender orientation shatter society's heterosexual life image, and they can be shattered in the process. Loss - feeling unacceptable to family, church or workplace, losing loved ones to AIDS, being despised by segments of society - is universal among lesbians and gay men. This book explores loss as a catalyst for growth, using an eight-phase model illustrated with real case histories, for moving from loss to personal and spiritual transformations. Stressing the inter-relatedness of loss and gain, crisis and opportunity, and death and resurrection, they open the way to an authentic spirituality, one that integrates the lived experience of gay men and lesbians.