GLR January-February 2025

The Gay & Lesbian Review January–February 2025 • VOLUME XXXII, NUMBER 1 WORLDWIDE

C ONTENTS

Editor-in-Chief and Founder R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . WORLDWIDE The Gay & Lesbian Review ® PO Box 180300, Boston, MA 02118

Strange Fruit

F EATURES

Literary Editor M ARTHA E. S TONE Poetry Editor D AVID B ERGMAN Associate Editors S AM D APANAS P AUL F ALLON J EREMY F OX M ICHAEL S CHWARTZ Contributing Writers R OSEMARY B OOTH D ANIEL A. B URR C OLIN C ARMAN A NNE C HARLES A LFRED C ORN A LLEN E LLENZWEIG C HRIS F REEMAN P HILIP G AMBONE M ATTHEW H AYS H ILARY H OLLADAY A NDREW H OLLERAN I RENE J AVORS J OHN R. K ILLACKY C ASSANDRA L ANGER

Sodomy at the Court of Louis XIV 12 L AURENCE S ENELICK

A secret society of noblemen forswore all sexual contact with women

Bottom-Shamed by Mark Twain 15 W ILLIAM B ENEMANN

That burlesque in HuckFinn was originally much bawdier, and gayer

Rise and Fall of the “Pansy Craze” 19 M ARGARET V ANDENBURG

The Roaring Twenties saw a subculture of drag in major U.S. cities

A Novel from a Darkening Time 22 R ONALD V ALDISERRI

Butterfly Man visited a creepy demimonde that the author knew well

Momentos of Desire 24 G ERVAIS M ARSH

Patric McCoy immortalized Chicago’s gay Black men in the ’80s

Consider the Common Cockchafer 28 A NDREW H OLLERAN

Homosexuality is the least of the animal kingdom’s perversities

R EVIEWS

R. Tripp Evans — The Importance of Being Furnished 31 M ICHAEL Q UINN Mickalene Thomas — Mickalene Thomas: All About Love 32 R EGINALD H ARRIS David Evans Frantz, et al. — Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects 33 V ERNON R OSARIO B RIEFS 34 Cait McKinney — I Know You Are, But What Am I? On Pee-wee Herman 35 M ATTHEW H AYS Will Tosh— Straight Acting 36 C HARLES G REEN Colm Tóibín — On James Baldwin 37 A LAN C ONTRERAS Allen Bratton — Henry Henry 38 J EAN R OBERTA Alan Contreras — The Gay Imagination 38 P HILIP G AMBONE Mikkya Hargrove — Mama 39 A NNE C HARLES JoyLadin— Family: Poems and Once Out of Nature 40 E LI A NDREW R AMER Oliver Radclyffe — Frighten the Horses 41 B RIAN A LESSANDRO James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance (exhibition) 45 C ASSANDRA L ANGER Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody ; To My Friends at Horn (exhibitions) 46 P HILIP C LARK Andrea Arnold, writer-director — Bird 48 A LLEN E LLENZWEIG Brian Jordan Alvarez, creator — English Teacher 50 C OLIN C ARMAN Thomas Grattan — InTongues 42 D ALE B OYER MiloTodd— The Lilac People 42 H ANK T ROUT

A NDREW L EAR F ELICE P ICANO J AMES P OLCHIN J EAN R OBERTA V ERNON R OSARIO Contributing Artist C HARLES H EFLING Publisher S TEPHEN H EMRICK Webmaster B OSTON W EB G ROUP WebEditor A LLISON A RMIJO ______________________________ Board of Directors

P OEMS & D EPARTMENTS

A RT C OHEN ( CHAIR ) E DUARDO F EBLES R OBERT H ARDMAN S TEPHEN H EMRICK H ILARY H OLLADAY D AVID L A F ONTAINE J IM J ACOBS A NDREW L EAR

G UEST O PINION — Election Aftermath: Silver Linings 5 LGBT Media C ORRESPONDENCE 6

I N M EMORIAM — Three Who Made a Difference Remembered 8

BTW 10 R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R .

P OEM — “Closet Space” 18 J AMES G AYNOR H ISTORY M EMO — Alice Morgan Wright: Suffragist, Sculptor 26 W ENDY L. R OUSE P OEM — “I Watch the Porn Stars” 43 C RAIG C OTTER C ULTURAL C ALENDAR 44 P OEM — “Mary Jo and Sappho” 47 M ARY J O B ANG A RT M EMO — Why Did a Classic Novel Disappear? 49 N ILS C LAUSSON

R ICHARD S CHNEIDER , J R . ( PRESIDENT ) T HOMAS Y OUNGREN ( TREASURER ) S TEWART C LIFFORD ( CHAIR EMER .) W ARREN G OLDFARB ( SR . ADVISOR EMER .)

The Gay & Lesbian Review/ WORLDWIDE ® (formerly The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 1994-1999) is published bimonthly (six times per year) by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational corporation located in Boston, Mass. Subscription rates : U.S.: $41.70 per year (6 issues). Canada and Mexico: $51.70(US). All other countries: $61.70(US). All non-U.S. copies are sent via air mail. Back issues available for $12 each. All correspondence is sent in a plain envelope marked “G&LR.” ISSN: 1077: 6591 © 2025 by Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. All rights reserved. W EBSITE : www.GLReview.org • S UBSCRIPTIONS : 847-504-8893 • A DVERTISING : 617-421-0082 • S UBMISSIONS : Editor@GLReview.org

January–February 2025

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