Lord, Lord—an article that has it all: The New York Times (4/29) has a story that is: A) a cute animal tale with B) a gay angle and C) a slap upside the head of the homophobic Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola. Akinola is threatening to split the church over the issue of homosexuality, specifically over gay U.S. Bishop V. Gene Robinson. Akinola said such relationships don’t exist in animals (mentioning lions, I believe) but he managed to compare homosexual people to dogs. Yo, Peter, one Sybil Erden has founded the Oasis Sanctuary for parrots, cockatoos, macaws and other tropical birds. The long-lived creatures have outlived their owners and face euthanasia. ‘Many parrots are monogamous, bonding for life with another bird. … Self-chosen companions are not necessarily of the same sex or species,’ says Erden, who, playing Cupid, placed (male) Milo, a big ol’ greenwing macaw with Rah Rah, a (male) military macaw. Milo (really) said ‘Hello’ & Rah Rah (really) fell off his perch. Two days later they were side by side with Milo’s wing over Rah Rah’s shoulder, and Rah Rah was (for the first time) saying ‘Hello’ and ‘How are you?’ in Milo’s accent. Peter—ahem—it was on the front page of the New York Times. If his holiness had checked with any reputable biologist, he might’ve found that same-sex relationships occur in virtually all avian and mammalian species (including, of course, Homo sapiens).
Lit notes: The New York Times Book Review (3/26) looks at ‘The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy,’ translated by Aliki Barnstone. Cavafy, an Egyptian Greek who was gay, wrote poetry that influenced many later poets. Writing at the turn of the last century his poems ‘… obsess over the unattainable,’ usually a pretty but callow young man or even more unattainable, a beautiful man centuries dead. Cavafy may have been reticent but he never hid behind vague pronouns—the object of his desire was always referred to as ‘he.’
Same lit file: Lesbian author Sarah Waters jumps from her Victorian historical novels (such as Tipping the Velvet) to World War II. The Night watch follows a group of women through the Blitz in London. Not as bouncy as her dyke Victorians but a good read. (The Chicago Sun-Times—4/16)
Still the same lit file: Our Oscar is still being successfully revived 100 years after his death. The New Yorker (5/8) greets a new version of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest with enthusiasm. Lynn Redgrave stars in the play as Lady Bracknell. The reviewer does say that Wilde’s distaste for women shows but a different interpreter might say, ‘How much can Oscar dislike women if he gives them the best lines?’ He’s not showing they’re catty; he’s showing they’re smarter.
Did you catch the Chicago Tribune’s story (4/23) on Chicago’s underground ball scene where gay men vogue, strut and dance in full and half drag weekly and monthly? ‘Young gay black men form houses that act as fraternities or families—often named after fashion designers like the House of Escada or House of Balenciaga.’ This tradition dates to the 1930s says the Trib, but gay scholars say it goes back decades before that.