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Michelangelo Signorile has made quite a name for himself over the years at the expense of other people's names. Signorile is a member of the all important media. Rather than make his bones in the industry by covering politics, entertainment, or the usual local reporting, he decided to cover the LGBT community, gay men in particular. While that sounds noble, his specific objective was covering gay men that for one reason or another chose to remain in the closet for one purpose and one purpose alone, to out them.Some say this was justified, other don't agree, but either way there is no arguing the impact it had not just on gay society, but society as a whole.

Signorile had the perfect start for this career as his first job out of college was working for a firm whose job was to "plant columns" which is another way of saying get attention in the daily rags. The firm mainly dealt with movies and Broadway productions so dealing with such things as "Page Six" which lived only to spread rumors was a daily event for him. To do his job it was necessary to trade gossip which often involved the private lives of the rich, famous, and sometimes infamous. As such, Signorile found a treasure trove of sometimes embarrassing information at his disposal.

In the mid 80's something clicked in his head. He had seen enough of the double standard. All these "beautiful" people being covered putting a happy heterosexual lifestyle on display for the public but keeping their true gay life under wraps caused him to reach his boiling point. Add in the turmoil of seeing so many die while AIDS was at its peak and Signorile felt something had to be done. He began to pen his now famous book Queer in America.

Queer in America was everything the LGBT community needed at the time. He was quick to point out that the government and media were sensationalizing the AIDS epidemic and more than happy to lay it all at the feet of the gay community when it was known for a fact IV drug use spread the disease easier, faster, and more often. He made no apologies for pointing out these same organizations that knew the truth often made the conscious decision to not make that information more publicly realized because gay bashing in the media was selling copy. The story of this groundbreaking tome goes back further though.

By 1988 when Signorile was arrested at a protest organized by ACT UP to protest a speech given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Who is currently known as Pope Benedict XVI) who made the Catholic

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