The New York Times Book Review (May 20) introduces two books with gay themes. The first, Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon, is a novel about the Lavender Menace during the McCarthyite Red Scare; that is, it’s full of homosexual folks both pro- and con-McCarthy. Check it out to see if we’re the good guys or the villains. The second, The Clarks of Cooperstown by Nicolas Fox Weber, is a family history of those made rich by Singer sewing machines. Edward Clark invested in Singer, made zillions of dollars and left it to son Alfred Clark, who made even more. Alfred knew how to spend it: have a wife and lots of kids—and a male lover, one Lorentz Severin Skougaard, a Norwegian tenor. The author emphasizes that much of the ‘splendor and refinement’ of 19th-century Europe ‘… was created by gay men seeking warm communities of free expression.’
From the ‘This-Is-Wrong-In-So-Many-Ways’ file, the Chicago Sun-Times (May 21) tells us of a marital problem in Pakistan: A married couple was arrested for lying about the gender of the husband (who had been a woman but years before had had transformational operations). The wife knew this. They got married because the woman’s uncle threatened to sell her in marriage to pay off his gambling debts. One can imagine the conundrums of any religious types who attempt to interfere. (But wait: If she becomes a he, isn’t that a good thing since women are …)
In a file, perhaps called ‘A-Plague-On-Both-Your-Houses’ The New York Times (5/23) says the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in sending out invitations for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference in which all of the Anglican Communion gets together, has invited neither the gay bishop of New Hampshire, V. Gene Robinson, nor the anti-gay bishop in Virginia, Martyn Mims. Mims’ own archbishop, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has ‘hijacked’ a number of homophobic parishes from the American bishop Katharine Jeffers Schori, is throwing a hissy fit, saying if Mims can’t come none of the Nigerians will come. Robinson, disappointed at his exclusion, said ‘… when the Anglican Communion is calling for a ‘listening process’ on …homosexuality, how does it make sense to exclude gay and lesbian people from the discussion?’
From the ‘Don’t-Care-About-Don’t-Ask’ file, the Brits’ armed forces have noticed, according to The New York Times (May 21), that since they’ve allowed homosexuals to serve that ‘… none of its fears … harassment, discord, blackmail, bullying or an erosion of unit cohesion or military effectiveness … have come to pass.’ Twenty-four countries allow gay soldiers to serve openly. The British military ‘… has allowed gay sailors to hold civil partnership ceremonies on board ships’ and sailors can march in gay pride parades in full naval uniform.
From the ‘Well-She-Placed’ file, The New York Times (5/22) in its usual all the news that’s fit to print moxie reports that Verka Serduchka, a Ukrainian drag queen looking ‘… like a silver-foil version of Mrs. Doubtfire’ won second place in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.