"Coming out" is the central event of a gay man's life. It is at once an act of self-acknowledgement, self-acceptance, self-affirmation, and self-revelation intimately linked to how he views himself and how he interacts with the world. It can happen in stages, or be an instance of illumination in which a gay man recognizes who he is. It can be interior, a psychological sorting of facts and feelings, or an external act of identification to another person or persons. For most gay men, coming out involves all of these in one way or another. Because the individual's very identity is involved, and society in general makes such an issue of sexuality..., the event is intimately linked to how the person views himself and how he responds to other people and the world. So much is at stake that the way in which a man comes out can reverberate throughout his entire life, whether the response to his disclosure is positive, negative, or neutral."Coming out" (From Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories, edited by Patrick Merla, p. xvi.)
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