This triumphant memoir chronicles the author's teenage suicide attempt and the real beginning of the Gay Liberation movement, pre-Stonewall, in 1969 San Francisco, where Mr. Whittington was fired for being gay. It's creative non-fiction, written like a novel, with a conservative alter-ego's thoughts inserted to keep it lively. His groundbreaking openly gay philosophy-coming out en masse as a way to enlighten and change the world-leads his comrades to crown him "Gale the Liberator."