Motivated by the death of his partner, Adams seeks to redefine the closet as a relational construct between all people and all sexualities. The closet is explored at each stage-entering it, inhabiting it, and coming out of it-and strategies are offered for reframing difficult closet experiences. Adams makes use of interviews, personal narratives, and autoethnography to analyze lived, relational experiences of sexuality. This is a must have for scholars and students of gender studies, qualitative research, and for any reader who has felt the closet's reach.

Tony E. Adams

Chapter One Coming Out Matters; Chapter Two Learning the Closet: The Time of "Coming In"; Chapter Three Living (in) the Closet: The Time of "Being Closeted"; Chapter Four Leaving the Closet: The Time of Coming Out; Chapter Five Paradoxes of the Closet; Chapter Six Making Change, Writing Hope; Chapter 7 Epilogue;