So you’re reading along in an interview (the Telegraph, 12/03) with Gore Vidal—the gay author who is such a snob he could snub the whole British royal family simultaneously should he wish—when he mentions something about his partner of 53 years, Howard Auster, who is recently deceased. A page later it burrows into your consciousness: WHAT did he say? Backtrack, backtrack: Yup, there it is—they never had sex. What, never? No, never, and they never kissed on the lips until Auster was dying. This is all mentioned in Vidal’s new memoir Point To Point Navigation.
From the ‘Where’s The Gay Angle?’ file: The New Yorker (12/18) gets it right. In a critique of the Report from the Iraq Study Group, the magazine says ‘We are told that, five years after the 9/11 attacks, our 1,000-strong embassy in Baghdad has just six fluent speakers of Arabic… (The report does not mention that 55 Arabic language specialists have been cashiered from the military for being gay.).’
Here’s how the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (12/10) handled a certain delicate topic: A cartoon has the preacher up front intoning, ‘And lo, miraculously, the Virgin Mary was with child.’ In a back pew a woman whispers to her hubby, ‘I wondered how the religious right would handle Mary Cheney’s pregnancy.’
And speaking of the religious (??) right, they just keep getting side-swiped by that little equation: testosterone plus gay leanings equal SCANDAL! Another Evangelical minister, the Rev. Paul Barnes of suburban Denver has resigned (crying and sobbing) because he had sex with … men. The New York Times (12/13) quotes the Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo, an American Baptist minister (and professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University in Pennsylvania) who said that while he was opposed to ‘same-gender eroticism,’ that many Evangelicals have picked up incorrect ideas from Christian radio—such as that homosexuality was an evil choice and that gay people must be exterminated. Furthermore, he says Evangelicals are learning they’ve ‘… been very, very mean to the gay and lesbian community.’ Well, yes. There are even gay and lesbian Evangelical churches scattered here and there. Do you think it possible that something akin to a holy spirit might gobsmack these people upside the head to remind them they haven’t been very Christian?
RIP Van Smith (1945-2006): His obit in the New York Times (12/09) refers to him as ‘both an artist and a terrorist’ for the makeup and costumes he did for John Waters’ films. He did Divine, for example—making her in Pink Flamingos look ‘… equal parts mermaid, Valkyrie and fire truck.’