The Price of Achievement: Coming Out in Reagan Days

by W. Scott Thompson

John F. Kennedy predicted that Scotty Thompson would be President some day. Before he was 30 he had won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, published several books, begun a promising academic and public career, and married the handsome and wealthy daughter of an elder statesman. At 40, from a tenured university professorship he got his first sub-cabinet job in Washington. Between the cup and the lip of fulfillment his world of power and riches fell he could no longer hold back his gay secret. So he came out, joining what is still the most despised minority. Against the most formidable odds - powerful people opposing him to protect their own deeply guarded similar secret, defeating him for position on grounds of his homosexuality - he put his life back with his children, with his lovers, and finally as the first openly gay presidential appointee.

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995