Unseen-Unheard: The Journey of Straight Spouses

Amity Pierce Buxton grew up in Massachusetts and New York. After receiving a BA in English and an MA in the Teaching of English, she earned her PhD at Columbia University in English Literature and Teaching with an emphasis on communication and “audience.” She has taught all grades (except middle school) from preschool to graduate school across the country. Amity trained teachers for desegregating schools in the Sixties and, with a team of colleagues, developed a teachers’ center where teachers at all grade levels could design curriculum and hands-on teaching materials so that all their students could reach their individual potential. Besides creative writing, especially poems and essays, Amity writes articles and book chapters on her research, which ranges from children’s language development to individual and family issues arising when a married person discloses being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Following the publication of The Other Side of the Closet in 1991, she founded and, from 2001 to 2008, was Executive Director of the Straight Spouse Network, an international organization that provides peer support and research information to straight spouses and their families. A board member of the Straight Spouse Network, Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry, and Family Equality Council, Amity is also a member of the American Psychological Association, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social issues. In her spare time, she lectures and conducts workshops on family issues when a spouse comes out and facilitates a support group for straight spouses in the San Francisco Bay Area, where her adult children also live. “All my life, “she says, “I have worked to create ways and means for everyone’s voice to be heard and needs met, starting from her or his earliest years.”