Miceli Book Examines Gay-Straight Alliances

The emergence of gay-straight alliance clubs in U.S. high schools is the subject of a new book by Melinda S. Miceli, assistant professor of sociology at Hillyer College.

Miceli's book, Standing Out, Standing Together: The Social and Political Impact of Gay-Straight Alliances, was released in October. The book, published by Routledge, documents the rise of gay-straight alliance clubs in high schools throughout the U.S., and the controversy and roadblocks faced along the way.

Drawing on more than 10 years of interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and political activists, Miceli exposes both the personal and political sides of this ongoing battle for acceptance and support. In her pioneering study, Miceli shows the evolution of gay and lesbian youth from silent victims to political actors and founders of a new social movement that strives to make schools more accepting places for all students.

”Melinda Miceli’s book is to date the most empirically based and reliable guide to understanding the contradictory status of being young and gay in America,” writes Steven Seidman, the author of Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life.

Janice Irvine, the author of Talk About Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education in the United States, says that Miceli’s book “is filled with perceptive and compassionate insights about adolescent sexualities. Miceli has written an inspiring story about social change.”