Signorile, Michelangelo 1960–

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Signorile, Michelangelo 1960–

PERSONAL: Born 1960; partner's name, David (a film studies professor). Education: Brooklyn College, NY; Syracuse University, NY.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Carroll and Graf, 245 W. 17th St., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10011-5300. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Journalist and radio broadcaster. Former publicist for entertainment public relations firm; Outweek, former columnist; Advocate, columnist beginning 1991, then editor-at-large; Gay.com, former editor-at-large; New York Press, New York, NY, syndicated columnist; OutQ, Sirius Satellite Radio, host.

MEMBER: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).

WRITINGS:

Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power, Random House (New York, NY), 1993, published with new afterword, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 1994, revised edition, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2003.

Outing Yourself: How to Come Out as Lesbian or Gay to Your Family, Friends, and Coworkers, Random House (New York, NY), 1995.

Life Outside: The Signorile Report on Gay Men, Sex, Drugs, Muscles, and the Passages of Life, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1997.

Hitting Hard: Michelangelo Signorile on George W. Bush, Mary Cheney, Gay Marriage, Tom Cruise, the Christian Right, and Sexual Hypocrisy in America, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, New York Observer, New York, and Village Voice.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist Michelangelo Signorile is an AIDS activist who is known for notoriously revealing, or "outing," famous people who are homosexual. He began this practice with a 1990 column in the gay newspaper OutWeek announcing that the recently deceased Malcolm Forbes, a noted financier and one of the world's most successful businessmen, was gay. Despite the Forbes family's denial of the claim, and the outrage of other Signorile targets who have objected to his invasion of their privacy, Signorile has continued his revelations about the sexual preferences of celebrities. Alexander Cockburn, writing in the Nation, described the author's techniques as the "slash and-burn approach to outing." The author, however, dislikes the term "outing" and was quoted in Gay & Lesbian Biography as saying, "We don't have a special word for any other action that deals with revelation of truth…. So why should there be a specific term for this?"

Signorile is also the author of several books focusing on the issue of homosexuality and on AIDS. In his book Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power, Signorile advances the belief that both the federal government and the media conspire to keep gays in the closet, that is, their identities secret. The author alleges that many key people working in various government departments are closeted gays. He also profiles several gays who have either revealed or had their homosexuality revealed, including Anne-Imelda Radice, who was then acting head of the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, the author recounts his own experiences growing up in Brooklyn and delves into the painful lives of people in power who have kept their homosexuality a secret.

R.Z. Sheppard, writing in Time, noted that the author is one of the openly gay journalists whose writings will "help replace the campy stereotype with a more direct and challenging approach." Washington Monthly contributor Victor F. Zonana commented that "the most moving part of the book concerns Signorile's own personal struggle to survive in a world that loathed his kind." Zonana also wrote: "Subtlety and nuance are not his strong suits, but Signorile is right on target in his denunciation of the closet and the forces that keep it closed." Calling the book "equal parts autobiography, journalistic history, social commentary and political theory," Richard D. Mohr, writing in the Nation, added that the author "offers a detailed and powerful account of the destructive workings of the closet on the lives of those in it, their associates, gay people in general and the social institutions that structure meaning and power in America."

As a strong proponent of gays being open about their sexuality, Signorile also wrote the self-help book Outing Yourself: How to Come Out as Lesbian or Gay to Your Family, Friends, and Coworkers. In the book, the author presents a fourteen-step program for coming out, beginning with the concept of self-acceptance. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the book "makes a significant contribution to an area of human relations that is rife with misunderstanding."

For his book Life Outside: The Signorile Report on Gay Men, Sex, Drugs, Muscles, and the Passages of Life, the author interviewed hundreds of gays throughout the United States to write about their changing lifestyles and to discuss what he sees as a misguided "cult of masculinity" in the gay community. The book also includes a history of gay society and culture. Writing in the New York Times, Daniel J. Kevles commented: "Many gay males never embraced the bathhouse culture, and Mr. Signorile reports that the increasing number of men on the 'outside' reject both its behaviors and the values that undergird them. They are finding institutions of belonging not in the bathhouses but in community and hobby groups, professional organizations and churches. They are committing themselves to long-term relationships and, where law allows it, some are adopting children." In a review in the Library Journal, Robert W. Melton noted: "Overall, this is a good, readable book."

Hitting Hard: Michelangelo Signorile on George W. Bush, Mary Cheney, Gay Marriage, Tom Cruise, the Christian Right, and Sexual Hypocrisy in America is a collection of the author's columns published between 1996 and 2004. "Some of the author's most successful columns run counter to Signorile's much-hyped type," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, pointing out such columns as "an interview-driven piece on why some gays and lesbians choose to live in rural communities." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "Signorile pursues controversy with verve and pizzazz in this briskly penned collection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gay & Lesbian Biography, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1997.

PERIODICALS

Business Wire, May 9, 2000, "Gay.com Network Names Michelangelo Signorile Editor at Large," p. 1823.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2005, review of Hitting Hard: Michelangelo Signorile on George W. Bush, Mary Cheney, Gay Marriage, Tom Cruise, the Christian Right, and Sexual Hypocrisy in America, p. 725.

Library Journal, July, 1997, Robert W. Melton, review of Life Outside: The Signorile Report on Gay Men, Sex, Drugs, Muscles, and the Passages of Life, p. 110.

Nation, August 26, 1991, Alexander Cockburn, "The Old In/Out," p. 220; August 9, 1993, Richard D. Mohr, review of Queer in America: Sex, the Media, and the Closets of Power, p. 182.

New Republic, December 20, 1993, Paul Berman, review of Queer in America, p. 17.

New York Times, May 25, 1997, Daniel J. Kevles, review of Life Outside.

PR Newswire, October 8, 1999, "Michelangelo Signorile Outs Himself on Gay.com," p. 2937.

Publishers Weekly, May 3, 1993, review of Queer in America, p. 286; May 15, 1995, review of Outing Yourself: How to Come Out as Lesbian or Gay to Your Family, Your Friends, and Coworkers, p. 65; July 18, 2005, review of Hitting Hard, p. 199.

Time, May 24, 1993, R.Z. Sheppard, review of Queer in America, p. 76.

Washington Monthly, June, 1993, Victor F. Zonana, review of Queer in America, p. 58.