Logical Family: A Memoir

by Armistead Maupin

For that matter, I would love to be able to slow dance with my husband without feeling the least bit silly. But I’ve never been quite in sync with the times.

The hardest thing about confronting your past is the pinch of the overlapping parts, when you are no longer one thing and not quite the other. It makes you squirm to face yourself in transition, foolish and floundering.

Coming out makes you dangerous to those around you who believe they have to stay in the closet at any cost. Especially if they work with you. Especially if being with you might not look right.

QUEERS WHO EMBOLDEN one another to be honest about themselves can feel real exhilaration in that moment, and it can last them a lifetime. Your tribe, as Isherwood called it, becomes a source of great sustenance. A terrible weight that you have borne for years becomes apparent by its sudden absence.