GLR January-February 2023

tion picture directorial debut, Pink Narcissus , for which he also designed costumes and sets, was released, and it became an un derground classic. B LACKBERRI , singer-songwriter, died on December 13th, 2021, at age 76. Born in Buffalo, NY, he was raised in Baltimore, and loved all aspects of music from his earliest years. He always knew he was gay and was discharged from the Navy after being outed by another sailor. Later, he lived at a feminist collective inArizona, where he changed his name to Blackberri. His music mainly focused on the LGBT experience and civil rights. In 1975, his performance at the Two Songmakers concert was broadcast on KQED, marking the first time that music about being gay was aired on public TV in San Francisco. He was an AIDS activist and an HIV educator, working with the African American community. Several films have used his music, in cluding Tongues Untied (1989). L ESLIE J ORDAN , actor and writer, died in an auto accident on October 24th at age 67. Raised in a Southern Baptist household in Chattanooga, TN, he is best known for his portrayal of Bev

time living and photographing in India. His work is collected in Out of the Shadows—Marcus Leatherdale: Photographs, New York City, 1980-1992 , published in 2019. He was predeceased by his partner, makeup artist Jorge Serio. T IM L EWIS , jazz pianist and graphic artist, died on September 12th at age 65. Born in Palo Alto and raised in Santa Barbara, he began playing the piano at the age of five. He left home on his eighteenth birthday and moved to San Francisco, where he attended Lone Mountain College and began his graphics career, working for underground papers and becoming art director of Drummer. He also designed posters and covers for books in the Straight to Hell and Meatmen series. He began performing in cabarets in the mid-1980s, playing jazz and show tunes, and was the musical director for a group of Sisters of Perpetual In dulgence, accompanying them at many of their performances. J AMES R ADO , actor and co-creator of the musical Hair , died on June 21st at age 90. Growing up in the Rochester, NY, and Wash ington, DC, areas, he graduated from the University of Mary land and studied drama there and in New York. Hair , written with Gerome Ragni (d. 1991) and Galt MacDermot (d. 2008), was the first rock musical on Broadway and the first Broadway show to feature both full nudity and a same-sex kiss. In 1967, it premiered at the Public Theater, moving to Broadway the fol lowing year, where it ran for more than 1,800 performances. Rado originated the role of Claude, who was about to be drafted and sent to war. In his private life, he identified as omnisexual

erley Leslie on Will & Grace (2001-06 and 2017-20). After working through his gayness, al coholism, his height (4’11”), and a move to L.A., he landed a part on the TV series The Fall Guy in 1986. Roles on numerous series would follow ( Murphy Brown , Lois & Clark , Star Trek: Voyager , Boston Legal , et al.), culminating in his recurring role on W&G as the sexually ambiguous Beverley,

W hat I L earned from J oseph C ampbell Toby Johnson tells how learning the real nature of religion from the famed mythologist allowed him to fi nd the spiritual, even mystical, qualities of gay consciousness.

a foil for Karen to spar with. His later career included numer ous TV and film roles and some theatrical work, including his autobiographical stage show Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far , which ran Off-Broadway for a full season. R OBERT K ALFIN , theater founder, died on September 20th at age 89. Born in the Bronx, he received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama and started working in local television in New York and New Jersey. In 1965 he started the Chelsea Theater Center, which changed locations frequently over its two decades of operation. Some of the plays it premiered were suf ficiently successful to move to Broadway, and it received ac claim as one of the country’s most innovative theaters. Kalfin was predeceased by his partner, George Bari, the original pro duction manager at the Chelsea Theater Center. M ARCUS L EATHERDALE , photographer, died on April 22nd at age 69. Born in Montréal, he traveled the world as a young man, arriving in New York in 1978 to attend the School of Visual Arts. He started his career as Robert Mapplethorpe’s office man ager (and lover) and quickly became a popular member of the downtown club scene, photographing a wide range of individ uals from the not-yet-famous Madonna to Andy Warhol. His work was published in many magazines, including The New Yorker and Art in America . By the 1990s, he spent most of his

By the author of Gay Spirituality: Gay Identity and the Transformation of Consciousness and Gay Perspective: Things our [homo]sexuality tells us about the nature of God and the Universe

Johnson’s adventures in a federally-funded study of teenage hustling in the 1970s Tenderloin District with nicknamesake Toby Marotta forced him to reevaluate traditional religious teaching and to fi nd spiritual meaning

in sex, pleasure, and embodiment in fl esh.

Available in print and digital from amazon.com and tobyjohnson.com

January–February 2023

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