John F. Kennedy predicted that Scotty Thompson would be President some day. Before he was 30 he had won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, published several books, begun a promising academic and public career, and married the handsome and wealthy daughter of an elder statesman. At 40, from a tenured university professorship he got his first sub-cabinet job in Washington. Between the cup and the lip of fulfillment his world of power and riches fell apart: he could no longer hold back his gay secret. So he came out, joining what is still the most despised minority. Against the most formidable odds - powerful people opposing him to protect their own deeply guarded similar secret, defeating him for position on grounds of his homosexuality - he put his life back together: with his children, with his lovers, and finally as the first openly gay presidential appointee. W. Scott Thompson is a Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he is also the Director of International Development Studies.