From the ‘Not-a-Polish-Joke’ file, according to the Chicago Tribune (April 27), Poland’s conservative prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczyuski, said in response to a European Union Parliament vote to investigate anti-gay comments by high-ranking Polish pols that ‘ [n] obody is limiting gay rights in Poland…. However, if we’re talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way…. It’s not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals—that’s obvious.’ Wonder who’s making those alleged comments?
The New York Times Book Review (April 29) takes on ‘ a queer Jewish intellectual’ in The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein by Martin Duberman. Kirstein, besides being a critic, art collector and historian, was a prime spotter of new talent, especially regarding dance. He was also obsessed with dangerous gay sex, prowling for rough trade in high places, such as Harvard’s Widener Library. He cruised for sailors with Russian director Sergei Eisenstein; tried to put the make on a young Tommy Lee Jones; signed personal letters ‘Hideola’ or ‘Horrorpants;’ and once described a young dancer as ‘that great hunk of flying butt.’ The book, while 200 pages too long, makes a point of relating his erotic risk-taking to his risk-taking artistic creativity in general.
The Chicago Sun-Times (April 29), in an article on prison rape, points out that many still consider the issue a joking matter but that, in fact, it helps spread AIDS and is a cause of prison suicides. There are numerous myths surrounding the topic, including that most of the sex in prisons is consensual, and that it’s not rape if the victim’s gay. The bottom line seems to be that ‘ [t] here is a widespread lack of sympathy for the victims, who are, after all, convicted criminals—even though rape wasn’t a part of their sentence.’
Charles Busch, drag actor and playwright, has a charming essay in The New York Times (April 27) adapted from the book Paws and Reflect: Exploring the Bond Between Gay Men and Their Dogs by Neil Plakcy and Sharon Sakson. Busch tells of being a sad motherless little boy whom a strange family coalesced around: an enormous white shepard dog, Wolfie, and an African-American cleaning woman, Beulah. Beulah taught the little boy (at his request) to set and style her wig,s and all three watched old movies on TV. Later Busch, in drag and wigs, would perform—imitating the movie divas while Beulah and Wolfie watched him attentively. Sounds like a play to me.