From the “History-Not-Mystery” file, Roger Ebert, movie critic extraordinaire, was a bit astonished in his question-and-answer column in the Chicago Sun-Times (Dec. 5) when a writer criticized him for spoiling the plot of Milk, which he had just reviewed by revealing the “surprise” ending: the assassination. Ebert gently advised him that the story of Harvey Milk, the murdered gay activist, was not a work of fiction but actual history. (This columnist found himself explaining the “Twinkie Defense” to younger friends.) Sean Penn, star of the flick, is racking up awards for Milk, says the Sun-Times (Dec. 11) : best actor from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. An Academy Award nomination is a pretty sure bet.
From the “It’s-Xmas-So-Let’s-Talk-Gifts” file, the New York Times (Dec. 5) reports that the Morgan Library in New York has been given a bound compilation of many of Oscar Wilde’s letters (including the earliest surviving letter from his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas), poems and short-story manuscripts (including “The Selfish Giant”). The Economist (Oct. 25-31) says that gay playwright Alan Bennett is leaving his entire literary estate to Oxford for free. Why? Because he went to Oxford on a scholarship and he’s grateful for it.
From the “Refuge-Not-Segregation” file, Neil Steinberg—the liberal, usually-ga-friendly columnist—in the Chicago Sun-Times (Nov. 14) comes out against the idea of a gay high school in Chicago, calling the idea a “… gay gulag.” He says there are probably 10,000 (at least) gay students in Chicago and they’d overrun ” … one rainbow reserve.” Neil, Neil, Neil, you’re using the wrong geographical metaphor. Instead of gulag, think Israel. There is probably not a Jew in the world, except for a few fringe crazies (even the Jews have them) who is not glad Israel is there. Are all Jews going to move there? No. Do they even all want to move there? No. But they know that if another worldwide wave of anti-Semitism erupts they can go there. Now, what is that gay high school for? Will all the gay kids in Chicago go there? No. Will all the slapped-around, beaten-up, spat-upon gay kids go there? ONLY if it’s there. Neil adds that if there is such a school it should not have a silly name but should be named after a famous gay Chicagoan, only he couldn’t think of any. How about Louis Sullivan, Lorraine Hansberry, Henry Blake Fuller—and 40 more.
From the “There’s-Men-There’s-Women-There’s-Umm-Muxes” file, the New York Times (Dec. 7) says Mexico has all the shades of tolerance/intolerance toward gays that are found in the rest of the world but that something different exists in the southern state of Oaxaca. The local Zapotec people have kept their pre-Spanish-conquest idea of a third sex, the “muxes” who are men who live as women. (Anthropologists use the term “berdache”.) The muxes have a virtual parallel society with large dances/beauty contests where their chosen queen is crowned by the mayor, where muxes have straight boyfriends (who like them just fine as they are) and where parents say of their muxe son that, of course, they accept them because “… [i] t is how God sent him.” Well, old is new.