From the ‘Well-I-Never…’ file about things you never thought you’d see in The New York Times (Sept. 2), we find Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, the sociological study of gay sex in washrooms by Laud Humphreys. We owe all of this to Senator Larry Craig. If Humphrey’s book is relied on in any investigation all of Craig’s handlers’ spinmeistering is for naught because the 1970 book has the whole repetoire of pats, brushes, looks, sighs, notes and foot-taps down to the minutest detail, and Mr. Craig used them all in that Minnesota lavatory. He had all the ingredients for a disaster and he cooked up a banquet for his detractors.
The senator from Idaho also reminded his state, says The New York Times (Sept. 2), of the enormous ‘Boys of Boise’ scandal of 1955, in which 16 men were accused of having sex with teen boys. Among the arrested were a lawyer, a teacher and the vice president of the city’s largest bank. If the then 10-year-old Craig paid attention, the only man who got out of the convictions then was a man who denied, denied, denied. By the way, Boise now has a gay community center, a drag court, three gay bars and a monthly newspaper.
The New York Times (Aug. 30) reports that the children’s book And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell—the (true) story of two male penguins who rear a baby penguin—was the most complained-about published piece of literature last year from parents and library patrons. It’s in good company: Toni Morrison’s Bluest Eye and Beloved were also challenged.
Discover magazine (Aug.), in an article ‘Science and Islam,’ quotes liberal (uh-huh) Egyptian scientist, author and newspaper columnist Zaghloul El-Naggar: ‘It sets his teeth on edge how the West has ‘legalized’ homosexuality. ‘You are bringing man far below the level of animals.’ ‘ One wonders if El-Naggar has ever seen a scientific list of the many various animals which have been observed forming same-sex couples.
Perry Moore, a producer of the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ has written a young adult novel about a gay teen age superhero. It is not ‘… a sacharine fairy tale with male superheroes in matching capes flying arm in arm.’ The hero, Thom Creed, ‘struggles with feelings of shame. He’s the target of ugly slurs. And his first kiss has unforeseen repercussions.’ The NY Times (Sept. 3) says Moore based some of the back story of Creed on his own history: Creed’s father is a disgraced superhero and Moore’s father was a Vietnam veteran.Moore believed many vets of that war were badly treated in this country.