Rather than offering any new info or dirt, Hitting Hard presents a summary of Signorile’s thinking on a variety of topics. As each of its chapters focus on different hot-button, thought-provoking, controversial subjects, the book is poised to become a textbook of sorts, usable for gay-related current events college journalism courses and the like.

Many gays are probably already up on who Signorile is and what his political and ethical opinions are, and many may have already read at least some of the articles in this book. For those not familiar with Signorile, Hitting Hard offers a large enough dose of his views that it can serve as an introduction to this well-known gay journalist. For those who’ve been “out of the loop” for a while, the book will help them catch up on queer beltway gossip and recent political climate shifts of interest to gays.

Even those ambivalent to (or understandably disgusted with) today’s tabloid-infused talking-heads culture may enjoy Hitting Hard for its wide variety of subjects and its colorful tales of far-flung geographic areas and different cultures. This reader found himself eliciting Johnny Carson-esque “I did not know that” acknowledgements at times while reading Signorile’s reportage on such varied topics as homosexuality throughout Mormon history, the career of a transgendered politician in New Zealand, and gay trucker culture in the American West.

What is new about this book might be divined by noticing just which articles Signorile chose to include and the order in which his chosen articles progress. Their topics form a kind of template for an overall editorial architecture that, in addition to providing an assorted sampler of his opinions, appears to be structured for some score settlings, exonerations, “I told you so’s”, reaffirmations, etc. between Signorile and his media adversaries, intellectual sparring partners and/or colleagues in the media world. Certain subject themes are repeated, in articles recounting his more famous feuds with media darlings like celeb Rosie O’Donnell and journalist Andrew Sullivan. Thus throughout the book readers follow Signorile’s own take on the genesis, evolution and closure of such feuds.

Signorile has been a gay media muckraker and public personality for over 20 years now and plays the game well. One may differ with his opinions on things, but to his credit, he is a gay writer who reasons through his issues, perceives the depth of (often hidden) layers and motivations beneath the surface of things, lets his own thought processes be transparent to readers, and who can even admit to changing his mind after thoughtful reconsideration.

He is an intelligent, “thinking gay man’s” gay man, always striving, doggedly at times, to rationalize the ethical importance of his views, and to take what he believes is the moral high road in all his many public confrontations.

Hitting Hard includes articles on the resurgence of AIDS and risky sexual behavior within the gay community. Signorile is to be commended for his continuous watchdog efforts in this area, using whatever media available at his command to post such public health bulletins for our community.

Of all the dishy criticism to be found in Hitting Hard, I particularly enjoyed Signorile’s assessment on those self-deluded people known as Log Cabin Republicans; the reap-what-you-sow New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey’s downfall; the truly deranged right-wing provocateur/hack Ann Coulter; and the jaw-droppingly tragic, inexplicable and exasperating behavior of lesbian Mary Cheney during the last presidential elections.

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