From the ‘Toto-We’re-Not-In-Kansas-Anymore’ file The NY Times (10/22) reports that the Kansas Gay Sex law which allowed 18-year-old Matthew Limon to be sentenced to 17 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 14-year-old boy (heterosexuals in a similar situation could only get 15 months) has been tossed out in spite of arguments that this would lead to ‘… 3-party marriages, incestuous marriages, child brides, and other less-than- desirable couplings.’ [Lions & scarecrows?]
Same file, Chicago Sun-Times (10/26): the viciously homophobic Rev. Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kansas has so incensed Indianans for picketing a military funeral (saying that a soldier was killed in Iraq because God hates the USA for harboring gays) that a state senator has proposed making such demonstrations a felony. [Relatives and friends of mine in the sunflower state inform me most Kansans are dreadfully embarrassed by Phelps.]
In a piece telling of Anne Rice’s prescient move from New Orleans to California, The NY Times (10/27) mentions she recently reconciled with the Catholic Church enough to write a new book on Jesus (with no vampires). Rice’s disagreements with the church were mainly over the issue of homosexuality. Rice’s son, novelist Christopher Rice, is gay as are, apparently, many of her literary characters.
Chicago Magazine (11/05) has a major article on gay life, ‘The Gay ’30s.’ Much of the material quoted about the ‘Pansy Craze’ in Chicago after WW I and before the Depression is from the work of sociology prof Ernest W. Burgess of the U of C who sent dozens of his students to check out gay clubs, interview gay men and lesbians, and go to drag balls. Chicago was wide open, not just for prostitution, gambling and liquor but also, to everyone’s surprise, for homosexuality. In fact one Chicago mayor was turned out of office for cracking down on ‘sin’. However in the mid ’30s reformers came back to the fore and all evidence of the Pansy Craze was erased to the last lesbian nightclub. ‘Because many gays and lesbians died alone during periods when homosexuality was vilified…’ the entire era was virtually forgotten until scholars recently began to come across Burgess’ work and private papers of gay people.
OK,OK, another reason besides gay marriage to stop chuckling at Canada. The NY Times (10/25) profiles Andre Boisclair, the front-running candidate to head the political party, Parti Quebecois. The openly gay Boisclair is good-looking, smart and ‘… banters about his sexuality on television talk shows.’ When he admitted he partied and had used cocaine, his approval ratings climbed from 53 percent to 64 percent.
Steve Chapman, in the Chicago Tribune (10/20), in a story about incumbent politicians who are impossible to dislodge, quotes former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who once said, ‘The only way I can lose is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.’