From the Brokeback Mountain watch file: The cartoon strip ‘The Boondocks,’ from the Chicago Tribune (2/23), has its much put-upon grandpa innocently tuning into Willie Nelson’s cowboy song (They’re ‘…frequently, secretly, fond of each other’) and yelling ‘Now cut that out.’. Coincidentally, Grandpa recently accidentally attended that movie.
From the ‘Where’s-The-Lesbian-Angle’ file: There’s an obit of writer Sybille Bedford, who recently died at 94. She was a trial reporter, memoirist and novelist but the New York Times (2/27) fails to mention that she was well-known for being a lesbian. Her memoir, Quicksands, names names of friends and lovers and she wrote at least two lesbian novels: A Compass Error and A Favorite of the Gods.
The Beacon Journal (2/24) offers an item for the ‘Tit-For-Tat’ file: Ohio State Senator Robert Hagen is introducing legislation that would ‘… ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents’. This, though tongue-in-cheek, is in retaliation for a homophobic bill banning adoption by homosexuals, bisexuals or transgendered people.
Time Out Chicago (2/23-3/2), in a file called ‘Dude-Sings-Like-A-Lady,’ profiles countertenor David Daniels. Openly gay Daniels is the first major openly gay opera singer and he is without a doubt, a bear: big, butch and hairy. And he does sing in Chicago’s Lyric Opera production of Orfeo Ed Euridice like a lady. ‘Until the 20th century [this singing] was synonymous with castration,’ according to the magazine. In Baroque opera they needed a lot of these ‘fixed’ guys but later on these parts became ‘pants roles’ for ‘female mezzo-sopranos [who] would essentially gender-bend to play the roles of countertenors’. Daniels, who is a natural, unfixed counter tenor, will celebrate his 40th birthday in Chicago (perhaps at one of the local leather establishments?).
The New Yorker (3/6), in a ‘Lost-But-Found’ file, tells us of Jerry Torre, a now-obscure gay fellow with a tie to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Jackie had an eccentric aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale, who lived with daughter Little Edie in a falling-down East Hampton mansion. Torre, next door’s teenage (and gorgeous) gardener wandered over, was semi-adopted, and was even in a documentary about the Beatles. He once, he says, took Jackie to the Anvil where they watched a fire-eating drag contortionist. He could’ve had a drink in her place but chose to go back to the Anvil. Drives a taxi now.
A pseudo-memo to seminaries from the Vatican to ferret out gay candidates from the New Yorker (3/6) includes this: ‘If you found yourself attracted to another priest, you would: (a) Ask him to pray with you to battle the sinful urge, over drinks. (b) Banish all such thoughts from your mind until you lose 15 pounds. (c) Ask him, ‘What’s black and white and wants your number?’