Playing It Straight

Book excerpt: Playing It Straight: Gay Men and Heterosexual Marriage Milton E. Ford The words “gay men and straight marriage” raise many questions. Why would a man who knows he’s gay marry a woman? Can a man discover he’s gay after he marries? What is life like for a gay man in a marriage to a woman? Why, having married, would he get divorced? Why might he remain married? And what is the role of society, particularly religion, in this experience? Playing It Straight answers these and many other questions by examining common themes that emerge from interviews with men from many areas of the United States who are gay, or predominantly gay, and who married women. In face-to-face taped interviews, the men talk about the way they see themselves now, what their childhood and teen years were like, their experiences leading up to marriage, what the marriages were like, and how those marriages are continuing or how they ended. The book looks at where the men are now and the meaning they now make of their marriages to women. The topical arrangement of the book makes it a valuable resource for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the realities that often emerge for a gay man when he marries a woman.