Connecting discussion on articles in the current Gay & Lesbian Review to events/issue in our community today

Dear Richard Schneider:

It may not be what editors seek, but I usually find articles in publications not just interesting on their own, but relevant to issues in the real world now.  But first I admit I thought, as I read the articles on homosexuality in other nations  in your publication, of reading such articles in the 1950s in ONE magazine.

I do wonder if anyone else will think of the issue of Manning and the San Francisco Pride fiasco when they read the article on Spain, as it connects Lorca (Federico Garcia) with the war; fascist and communist, and where he fit, etc.

The same theme is in the coverage of Cuba and Jamaica, and how politics affected/affects life of homosexual citizens.  By the way, I gather our government did finally let the Cuban come to the Equality Forum event.

I had mixed thoughts on John Lauritsen's interview with the Cuban visiting the U. S.  It is strange to hear that trans people are thought of as leading the effort to change things sexually in Cuba. I personally did not find drag queens here ahead of the middle class people like those in ONE and Mattachine and DOB. They were “out” in a sense but did not work for their civil rights in a way that would change society. In the 1950s transsexuals were non-existent and transvestites were protesting they were not homosexual and were not out enough to be working for change. AND while I do not say he was claiming it, I do not believe that the visitor could have any valid view of this nation based on his first, short, visit. I am not sure who he visited with, and what places he went to, but it would take a lot of contact, and perhaps reading a lot of our publications and study of our history to really know how good life is for us today.  Perhaps if he judged us by seeing a Pride parade, that might be a clue, but like in Cuba, there is still harassment of bars and people are still being attacked on the street.  There is less government persecution, but how would he know that?

The whole issue of life for women in India is current, because they are not men and  because they are lesbian and thus it is they who suffer when they are raped, not the men, no matter which religion dominates

Religion is our worst enemy, and for women and it seems still for blacks. There is, for example,  a church, in Texas, that preaches (from the Bible) that there should be separation of races, by law. So it is not surprising that such churches send missionaries to Africa and we have the organization representing “Christian” churches telling the government of Malawi to keep anti-gay laws. It is referred to by MCC, which is strange, considering our MCC. Apparently ignorant people can not see the hypocrisy in the use of the Bible here to justify slavery and separation of race—thus making black citizens second-class citizens, and then black preachers using that same Bible to preach hatred for homosexual citizens.

I am not sure that as we have to worry about Islam, and the attempt to impose sharia law on everyone, we can ignore what is covered in the article on Israel. I had not known of the hypocrisy there shown by the marriage issue. Living in LA )(the state), I am well aware of hypocrisy, both religiously and politically—shown by the fact that we have a law against gambling, but by using the term “gaming,” we now have six riverboat casinos in my area. (A “double” case of hypocrisy because those in the northern part of the state—WASPs—always spoke badly of those in the south—mainly French Catholics—for their gambling, drinking, all-night dancing, Mardi Gras. and today we have more of it than they do.) But I had not known that, again, sort of like Islam, the ONLY marriage there is religious, and so only Orthodox can marry, and yet they let other citizens go to another country and marry and then that marriage will be recognized.  Religion makes us hypocrites.

And I sure was surprised to learn that Plato thought the same way as rightwingers on marriage—that it was only for having baby.

Finally there is the question not of how Beye thought of himself but how we should. He used the word gay he said as it was the word society used. But if I understand him, he denied he was bisexual (in theory) yet had been married (heterosexually) twice and had four children. He tells us most had no problem with his living with men, and this is truly what many in our community say is the way to change society—just to BE.  Let your children and others learn to deal with you. I did not understand how he dealt with himself—if he had thought about homosexuality, had been active in helping himself and others understand it and work for civil rights.

Like those who work for our cause today, the book on letters we got at ONE magazine were what made us happy to go to work each day, knowing that we were helping people who had not known there were resources to help them and that there were people working for change: to make the nation gay-friendly (or as Don and Dorr preferred, homosexual-friendly).  I of course believe that the world is better today not just because some celebrity recently came out, but because since 1950 there have been homosexual men and women who devoted their lives, at great cost in some cases, to educating people about homosexuality, using classrooms, courts, and even the streets.

HRC Discriminates at SCOTUS Hearing to End Discrimination

Regarding the article on Back2Stonewall, by Tim Franco, on how HRC discriminates at SCOTUS Hearing to End Discrimination:

I question the motive of Get Equal or the man with the flag. They are out for publicity. They had nothing to do with the marriage issue and it is NOT a trans issue.  I’m not even sure a flag about adoption would be relevant—this is a specific issue and to bring in other issues is wrong.

JC Penney, RFD Magazine, and the theory and practice of assimilation versus ghetto

Many people, LGBT or non-LGBT, do not think much about theory and just practice living their lives.  Even though from the very start of the movement to gain equal/civil rights for homosexual Americans there were two views on who we are and what to do to make life better for us.  Harry Hay, as is covered once again in the current issue of RFD Magazine, thought we, in a sense as outsiders, had special insight.  Those who took the movement public, as ONE, took the view that while that may be true it did not mean we were so special we needed to be a “separate” people, as had been the experience of some Jews, etc.  While early immigrants to the United States first lived among those who spoke their language and knew their “history,” they soon moved into the mainstream.

The issue of assimilation is relevant as one part of it was the fear of the founders of ONE, Inc. that it would lead into or keep us in a ghetto, to be exploited. In a sense this happened in some cities with gay bars, where we were overcharged and often used in the battle between owners and Vice. Many thought lawyers used us in our sodomy arrests, overcharging us and not giving us real defense.

Today the opposite opportunity is here in the form, perhaps, of JC Penney and its problems. It may be that the use by that firm of Ellen in commercials, and thus reaching out to the LGBT community and our friends and families, has caused it to lose customers. It may be bad management. BUT here may be an opportunity to show society that supporting our community does NOT hurt a business, a church, a politician, etc. If we do not support those who are friendly, they will not support us in the future, as they lose the bigots support and did not gain our support.  

It doesn’t matter what theory we want to support, in the real world our practice will decide our future.  But for those who want to think about the issue, there are several thoughts in articles in the current issue of RFD Magazine.  While I will take, as many do when dealing with the Bible, etc, a few of these words/thoughts, it may be worthwhile for others to read the whole articles.

The issue leads with the conference in New york in September at CLAGS celebrating the 100th anniversary of Harry Hay’s birth. The event is discussed by one of its leaders, Joey Cain, giving us details of what discussions were held, and including some papers on the issue of Harry, the Radical Faeries, etc.

As an aside, the “issue” of helping older people in our community is covered by Cain and others who took care of Harry and John Burnside till their deaths. That is the example others are now following, such as buildings in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc.  The “group” also wanted to honor Harry’s memory and legacy, another example that some want to do with other founders and early leaders.

The differing view of the “movement” is shown in several places, and just a quote or two will show the differences even among those who honor Harry and share their memories of knowing him. Jason Baumann says, about the group (RF), “they searched through history, and across cultures, before there was even the luxury of something that could be called gay history, looking for evidence of men who loved men… It’s both too easy and very strange to dismiss their turn to the past for inspiration given that this historical turn is so fundamental for gay culture.”

“Husk” says something that is contradictory to what seems to be the mainstream of the community today.  “Who are we?  Where do we come from? and Why are we here?” In Hay wrote (see “A Separate People Whose Time has Come” on the Tangents Web site) that answering these questions is key to both the acceptance of gay men into US culture and tapping queer potential…(He looked for answers to medieval Europe and came up with Mattachines and yet the definition is male and “a queer person was ‘the fool’ or the Mattachine; this person did not marry or raise a family, but instead denounced unjust laws and oppressive taxation.”  Thus many today in practice reject this idea of who we are. The issue of same-sex marriage and the right to have and/or adopt children is the opposite of that definition.

And to complete the disagreement, Endora says, quoting a book discussion on women and seeking and inventing mythic historical claims says, “She (Cynthia Eller) argues that in trying to legitimize women’s power by rooting it in ahistorical claims about an ancient period of matriarchy, when, as Merlin Stone put, ‘God Was a Woman,’ women are shooting themselves in the foot.”  It doesn’t matter, Eller argues, whether women ever held power in the past; they deserve to hold it now, and it is dangerous to legitimate a movement by rooting it in questionable claims about history.

“One can make a very similar argument about Radical Faeries and the myth of ancestors.” And indeed—the whole movement.

Gay rights pioneers revel in progress of gay marriage...

Thanks, Ed White, for forwarding this article from USA Today.

It is surprisingly good and balanced, saying the obvious, that the first step sought by the movement was just to be left alone—no laws giving us special rights but getting rid of laws depriving us of rights, such as the sodomy laws.

It also shows the issue of not wanting to copy heterosexuals but also wanting the privileges that marriage gives—until those rights are given to all Americans.

The Truth about Intersex...

This interview on Gay Star News with filmaker Grant Lehood is what honestly ignorant people need to learn about is this and other aspects of sexuality, including a sexuality. You can see the trailer for the film here:

Intersexion: A Feature Documentary

We thank the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, again.

Their picketing the high school shows the world that no longer will even young people, of all sexualities, fear their foolish version of religion.

Santa Monica High welcomes Westboro Baptist Church

Gay Press, Gay Power: Great History

While there have been several books and efforts to discuss the history of publications in the GLBT movement / community, at last there is one that contains the basic research and expertise needed to pull into one place the basic facts, names, and information of the magazines, newspapers, newsletters that recorded that history which they helped to make. This book, Gay Press, Gay Power, edited by Tracy Baim, covers many of our movement’s publications from the start in the early 1950s to 2012. It contains new information, corrects some misinformation, and provides us with rich biographical information on the pioneering journalists who worked on these publications.

To put the history in context, there is a discussion, with examples, of the horrible coverage the media gave homosexuality until about the late 1960s, when coverage exploded after Stonewall. The publications started with the movement to gain equal rights for homosexual Americans, and thus this civil rights movement is documented by the very people who were active in the effort. A historian or researcher trying to see how coverage changed from the 1950s on could see the evidence by looking through editions of the Readers Guide to Periodicals Index.  Baim has done this for the reader.

The first publications are discussed in full in an early chapter by C. Todd White. They started during the worst of times, the McCarthy era when homosexuals and Communists were considered to be allies and were labeled as threats to the nation’s security. The first publicly available publication (1953), ONE magazine,  suffered from the same problems all early ones did: little income, people afraid to have their names as subscribers to a homosexual publication, businesses afraid to place ads, and few authors or journalists of note willing to let their names appear in the publication. There was also a problem few other causes had: there were homosexual people in hiding who tried to keep their sexuality from being questioned or discovered by loudly protesting the existence of a publication discussing homosexuality. Many such people later were arrested for homosexual acts and still refused to support the effort to educate the public and change laws.

Issue #1, Jan. 1953

But ONE was successful, and was joined by the Mattachine Review and then The Ladder, aimed toward women. The editors of ONE, led by Don Slater and attorney Eric Julber, fought a legal battle with the Post Office to protect its right to publish and mail a magazine subtitled “The Homosexual Viewpoint” and won only at the U. S. Supreme Court level in 1958. These three magazines were slowly joined by others each few years, and together they planted the seeds that are the major media the lgbt movement/community has today. The early publications were supported by an organization. Today most are independent.

The book is loaded with pictures of most of the publications covered—a great help as it shows the progression from early publications to those of today. As White says, they are “time capsules of their era.”  One clue to how things have changed is in observing the terms used in the three eras. First they were called homophile publications, then homosexual, then gay and, now gay and lesbian or lgbt.

Gay Press / Gay Power includes short biographies of some LGBT journalists who helped make the publications successful.  The index catalogs the large number of people covered and names hundreds of current LGBT publications.

Many readers will gain a sense of pride knowing the history of the GLBT media’s growth from ONE to the hundreds of publications that exist today, currently giving the community news and views, entertainment and education, continuously revitalizing those who seek to make life better for everyone and to make this a more perfect nation, for all citizens.

No historian or journalist can write on the subject without knowing the contents of this book because the history of a movement is told through the history of its publications.