GLR May-June 2024

May–June 2024 The Celluloid Fishbowl GLR k A NDReW W HiTe

Q uee r Ghosts on Oscar N i ght JohnWat e rsW e nt Th e r e Th e Ma ki ngof Longtime Companion D i r k Bogard e ?Yo u R e m e mb e rH i masAsch e nbach Th e Strang e n e ss of All of Us Strangers

P eTeR M uiSe F RANk R izzO e Rik L eWiS A NDReW H OLLeRAN

$6.95 US, $7.95 Canada

On the Road to Hobohemia BY W ILLIAM B ENEMANN

The Silence of The Bell Jar BY D ENISE N OE

The Gay & Lesbian Review May–June 2024 • VOLUME XXXI, NUMBER 3 WORLDWIDE

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

C ONTENTS

The Celluloid Fishbowl

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

F EATURES

John Waters Went There 10 P ETER M UISE

... and the rest of us looked on in horror and hilarity

Queer Ghosts on Oscar Night 13 A NDREW W HITE

The Academy still clings to the narrative of homosexual doom

The Making of Longtime Companion 16 F RANK R IZZO

How a gay-made film about AIDS broke through all the ceilings

Spoiler Alert (Not Really) 20 A NDREW H OLLERAN

All of Us Strangers ’ meaning is never less clear than when it ends

On the Road to Hobohemia 24 W ILLIAM B ENEMANN

Hobos riding the rails formed a variety of intimate bonds

The Silence of The Bell Jar 28 D ENISE N OE

Sylvia Plath’s anti-lesbian asides belie a deep attraction to women

R EVIEWS

P OEMS & D EPARTMENTS G UEST O PINION — The Anti-LGBT Tide Is Turning in Florida 5 E RIN R EED C ORRESPONDENCE 6 BTW A RT M EMO — The Curious Arc of Dirk Bogarde’s Star 19 E RIK L EWIS A RT M EMO — Why Lord Byron Still Matters 22 W ILLIAM K UHN P OEM — “Canned Goods” 27 N EAL K ENT A RTIST ’ S P ROFILE — Gavin Geoffrey Dillard’s Beat Goes On 32 T REBOR H EALEY A RTIST ’ S P ROFILE — Horrigan Leaves Matthiessen Behind 38 C HARLES G REEN P OEM — “Lagos Lagoon” 43 A MEEN A NIMASHAUN C ULTURAL C ALENDAR 46 P OEM — “Cereal Dating” 48 M ICHAEL A PPELL A RT M EMO — Monaca Majoli’s Homage to Blueboy 49 N ICK S NIDER Brad Gooch — Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring 31 J OHN R. K ILLACKY Raymond-Jean Frontain, ed. — Conversations with Terrence McNally 34 T HOMAS K EITH Patrick Nathan — The Future Was Color: A Novel 35 D ANIEL A. B URR Anne Eekhout — Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein: A Novel 36 R OBERT A LLEN P APINCHAK Edward Cahill — Disorderly Men 37 H ANK T ROUT Judith Butler — Who’s Afraid of Gender? 40 R EGINALD H ARRIS Soula Emmanuel — WildGeese 41 A NNE C HARLES Stephen McCauley — You Only Call When You’re in Trouble: A Novel 42 B RIAN B ROMBERGER Debanuj Dasgupta, et al., eds. — Queer Then and Now 42 A NNE C HARLES B RIEFS 44 Three Films: Fellow Travelers ; LiewithMe ; Nyad 47 A LLEN E LLENZWEIG Emerald Fennell, director — Saltburn 50 J ONATHAN A LEXANDER 8 R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R .

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

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

R ICHARD S CHNEIDER , J R . ( PRESIDENT ) T HOMAS Y OUNGREN ( TREASURER ) S TEWART C LIFFORD (C HAIR 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 © 2024 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

May–June 2024

3

Pride Issue: ‘The Celluloid Fishbowl’ FROM THE EDITOR

T HIS ISSUE’S THEME is of course a reference to Vito Russo’s 1981 book, The Celluloid Closet , which docu mented the many films in pre-Stonewall America that hinted at an LGBT message or possibility, whether through subtle gestures or ambiguous language. Everything changed after the 1960s. Suddenly there were out gay people whose lives could be portrayed or documented on film, and often the aim was to proclaim the existence of LGBT people, and their struggle, to anyone who would listen. One way to track this transformation could be by tallying the mainstream awards received by movies with explicitly gay characters or themes. In this issue, Andrew White analyzes the history of Oscar nominations since William Hurt became the first person to win Best Actor for playing a gay role, in 1986, in Kiss of the Spider Woman . White argues that this was the first in a string of Oscar nominees that depicted an LGBT char acter who died or otherwise came to a bad end. Even films with an ostensibly “pro-gay” message, from Philadelphia (1993) to Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), ended up killing off their main gay character (from AIDS in both of these cases). The “fishbowl” metaphor seems apt to describe the early films of John Waters, which were expressly exhibitionistic in their desire to bring a campy sensibility to a mainstream, albeit a midnight, audience. While Pink Flamingos and Female Trou ble earned Waters the sobriquet the “Pope of Trash” in the

1970s, Peter Muise tracks the full trajectory of his career and shows how he slowly moved toward mainstream respectabil ity, even as the American public grew ever harder to shock— thanks, in part, to Waters’ own influence. The 1980s marked the arrival of films with openly gay characters, who were typically engaged in a death dance with AIDS. However, there had yet to be made a film told from a gay person’s point of view, a lacuna that was recognized by a group of gay theater people led by playwright Craig Lucas. As documented here by Frank Rizzo, who was a journalist covering the story, Longtime Companion (1989) was a labor of love that began with Lucas’ screenplay and called upon the talents of countless investors, actors, technicians, editors, and the horde of people needed to make a major movie on a minor budget. Decades passed; a bona fide LGBT film industry arose for the home market, while movies with gay themes pitched to a mainstream audience continued to dribble out at a few per decade. In 2023, a British film was released that brings us back to this issue’s theme. All of Us Strangers is about two gay men who live in an otherwise empty glass-and-steel high-rise; often we observe them through the windows of their flats. Andrew Holleran finds in this film a portrait of gay loneliness untethered to the social order or to reality itself. Was it all just a dream? R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R .

new from the university of new mexico press

“This book will become an indispensable touchstone for anyone studying Julio Galán.” — raphael rubinstein ,

In this stunning debut story collec tion, everyone’s got the blues but nobody is willing to sing it.

author of Polychrome Profusion: Selected Art Criticism 1990–2002

The first English-language mono graph on the artist’s life and work, featuring full-color reproductions of Galán’s artwork and photographic material.

“Like Alice Munro and Andrea Barrett, Meischen conveys the significance of the present moment by laying bare what has come before.” — bret anthony , author of Remember Me Like This: A Novel

unmpress.com

TheG & LR

4

GUEST OPINION

The Anti-LGBT Tide Is Turning in Florida E RIN R EED F LORIDA’S LEGISLATURE adjourned its session in March with 21 out of 22 anti-LGBT bills effectively killed, handing Governor Ron DeSantis a humiliating de feat and leading the Human Rights Campaign to conclude that “the tide has turned” on such legislation in Florida.

In a press release from the Human Rights Campaign, Geoff Wetrosky stated: “We are shifting the momentum. People across the state showed up by the thousands to speak out and push back against anti- LGBTQ + bills; and they are to thank for pushing back the tide of hateful and discriminatory policy.” Not every bill was defeated in Florida, which still has some of the harshest anti-transgender laws in the nation. The one bill that did pass, H1291, prohibits educating teachers on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics and bars “teaching identity politics.” Transgender drivers still face the potential revoca tion of their driver’s licenses, and many transgender adults have lost access to gender-affirming care. Florida also enforces a restroom ban that could incarcerate transgender individuals for up to a year. However, this is the first time in three years that bills tar geting LGBT people, and trans people in particular, seem to be losing steam. Stated Nadine Smith of Equality Florida in a press release: “Extremist groups are collapsing amidst multiple scandals. Parents are mobilizing on behalf of their kids and to stop the dismantling of public education. We will build on this momentum and redouble our commitment to the fight. To gether, we can put power back in the hands of the people.” Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her) who writes a widely read blog, Erin in the Morning , from which this piece has been excerpted.

Among the bills that failed was H599, which would have expanded “Don’t Say Gay” policies to the workplace, barring government employees and government contractors from shar ing pronouns and prohibiting all nonprofits from requiring ed ucation and training on LGBT issues. Another bill that died was H1639, which would have mandated transgender individ uals to have driver’s license sex markers matching their sex as signed at birth. It also aimed to penalize insurance providers for • A ban on Pride flags in schools and government buildings; • A “bill of rights” allowing student organizations to exclude transgender people; • A bill that would end legal recognition of trans people; • A bill that would exempt rejection of transgender youth from child abuse provisions; and • A bill that would allow calling someone racist, sexist, ho mophobic, or transphobic to be treated as defamation. offering gender-affirming care coverage. Other bills that died on the vine include:

New from

Distributed by the University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu “Just as fabulously queer as you’d imagine, faithful reader.”—Matt Hills, author of Triumph of a Time Lord Cloth $25.00

May–June 2024

5

Correspondence

gender. Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and Republican politicians such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Marjorie Taylor Greene quickly seized on a false narrative that the female shooter “lived as a man” and was just another in an “epidemic” of trans shoot ings. When Fox realized the trans identity of the shooter was false, they changed the headline, and reported, buried deep in the original piece, that “some news outlets had mistakenly reported that the shooter was trans.” Although the war against LGBT Ameri cans being waged at Fox and smaller right-wing media outlets is not currently supported by our federal government, that might change if the anti-LGBT bigots at Fox are buoyed by national Republican victories in November. Should this happen, Fox News’ dream of the Christian national ist Russification of America will be well underway. Marc Paige, Fairhaven, MA Rainbow Flags in the Market St. March To the Editor: I have a quibble with Emily L. Quint Freeman’s essay on Harvey Milk in the March-April 2024 issue titled “November 1978: The Agony and the Irony.” I attended the 1978 Pride event, walking from my apartment in the Castro down Mar ket Street to Powell Street. I saw no rainbow flags until I encountered the two astonish ingly enormous banners at the Civic Center on Market Street. I was overwhelmed by the symbolism and took photos of the flags with

my Instamatic camera. I don’t remember seeing any other rainbow flags on light stan dards or carried in the parade as described in the article. I found a YouTube video of the 1978 pa rade and it only shows the two giant flags I mentioned above. There were no other rain bow flags in the clip, not even an “acciden tal” rainbow costume in the massive crowd. In fact the whole event looked drab without the now common rainbow display. Jon Cloudfield Merkle, Oakland, CA One Figure Missing from SF Roundup To the Editor: Thanks for your San Francisco issue [March-April 2024]. I found it odd that Jim Van Buskirk, in “One Hundred Years of Togetherness,” would omit any mention of a towering figure of that century, who brought so many oppressed gay men to gether and, more importantly, was the first gay man to run for public office in the United States: José Julio Sarria, who usu ally went simply by José, otherwise known as Empress Norton I. José was the first to publicly file and run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in 1961—a seat won by Harvey Milk almost two decades later. Van Buskirk does include a mention of the Black Cat on Montgomery Street, where the determined drag queen and activist José would perform his distinct versions of famous operas (often Carmen ) sometimes leading the patrons into the street to hold hands and sing “God Save Us Nelly Queens.” It was dangerous and thrilling and none of us who were there will ever forget the courage and empowerment—not to mention the sheer fun—delivered by this saint among us. José, the Empress Norton, deserves at least a mention in any history of gay San Francisco. Dave Campbell, Dayton, WA Correc ti ons Outer Appearances , the thirtieth-anniver sary book that replaced our January-Febru ary 2024 issue, contained an editorial mistake on page 18. The actual year of pub lication of Alan Cumming’s book Baggage was 2021 (not 1921!). In the March-April 2024 issue’s In Memo riam column (page 7), Charles Silverstein was listed as a psychiatrist. He held a doc torate in social psychology and was a psy chotherapist in a private practice, but was not an MD or a psychiatrist.

Russian State Media Is on Our Shores To the Editor: Diana Sadretdinova’s op-ed piece, “How Russian Media Demonizes LGBT People” [March-April 2024], is shocking and frightening, not only for its descrip tion of the hellhole Putin has created for LGBT Russians, but also because the “Russian Media” in the title can easily be replaced by “Fox News” to describe what is being broadcast day and night at Amer ica’s most-watched cable network. Fox News routinely reports that our Pride flags promote pedophilia and the “grooming” of children, that boycotts are the appropriate reaction to businesses that market to gay and trans consumers, and that the mere mention of our existence in schools “sexu alizes children.” The hate promoted in Putin’s Russia and on Fox News is not new, but it is newly dangerous. Rwandan Hutus used media to relentlessly attack the Tutsi minority prior to the 1994 genocide, and Nazis used media to demonize Jews in the early 1930’s, isolat ing German Jews from the rest of society and desensitizing non-Jewish Germans to the increasing persecution of their Jewish neighbors. Fox routinely uses its vast broadcast and digital empire to promote stories that reflect negatively on LGBT people, jumping on them even when later they prove to be inac curate. After a recent shooting at a church in Houston, the Fox News digital headline tri umphantly reported the shooter to be trans

OWT Trips in 2024 U PCOMING T OUR D ATES Gay Italy: September 28 – October 7 Gay Germany: October 9 – 19 Gay Japan: October 27 – November 5

Seine River Cruise: April 30 – May 10, 2025

$200D ISCOUNT FOR G&LRR EADERS !

All trips designed and led by Prof. Andrew Lear, founder of Oscar Wilde Tours.

Kabuki Theater drag artist

F OR ITINERARIES , DATES , & PRICES Visit: OscarWildeTours.com Look for site on Facebook / Instagram

TheG & LR

6

F R I E N D S O F T HE R EVIEW F RIENDS OF T HE R EVIEW are readers who donated $150+ to The Gay & Lesbian Review , a 501(c)(3) educational corporation, in 2023. All gifts are fully tax-deductible.

L EADERSHIP C IRCLE ($5,000+)

Eric Anderson & Roger Beck In memory of Wade S. Bentson

Ken Borelli Kevin Ceckowski & Robert Christie

Thomas B. Depriest Robert Hardman

In memory of Charles S. Longcope Jr. Michael Manganiello

James & William Harrison James Hess & Robert Herald David. E. Hopmann & James W. Taul Jr. Mike Jarvis & Craig Larson John C. Knepper Harold Koda Carroll Edward Lahniers William Lauch Charles W. Leslie

Michael Barrett Allen W. Bernard Thomas Bower Bill Brinnon & Ron Dhein Ron Steigerwalt, PhD Art Cohen Stanley Ellis Cushing & Daniel W. Lyons Eric Allman & Kirk McKusick Richard Alter & Eric D. Johnson Harry Anderson Rodney Boren Kevin Burns Ulla Dydo Charitable Fund Dennis Christofi Donald J. Cimilluca Stewart Clifford RayCoe Harold F. Cottman III Michael Craft Michael Beek Terry Belanger Steven B. Berlin Charles Bjorklund & Sted Mays Matthew Black William R. Bonsal Steven Bourne JerryBoyd Dale Boyer & Scot O’Hara Ronald Neil Campbell Vic Carlson Linton Carney & Jay Welch Stephen Carney Jim Cassaro Patrick Cather William J. Cavanaugh Samuel D. Brown Michael Carson & Randall Arndt Gary Arthur TomBaker Kenneth C. Beachler

Edward J. Donahue III James J Dowd Jr. Heyward Drummond Sacramento Community Fndn. In memory of Jacob Trumbower Clifford L. Gregory Seth Grosshandler & Kim Wainwright John Hager & Ron Gaetz Brock A. Harring

Steven McCollom Bryan Mershon Al Monetta & Bruce Voss Mark Mullin Robert Nicoson Trent Norris & Jack Calhoun Michael G. O’Connell III Brian Oleksak & Gonzalo Avila Jack Padovano & Phillip Baker SueReamer

Curtis Scribner Wm. H. Jackson-Wayne Skala Trust Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer Jim Thomas & Fred Provencher Douglas J. Warn Robin Weingart & Claire Zeppieri Louis Wiley Jr. Thomas A. Zanoni

B ENEFACTORS

($1,200–4,999)

Rolf Danner Robert Dockendorff Jack Dodson Carl Duyck Bradley Paul Edin FredFejes Kenneth Fulton David Garrity Thomas Gerber Robert Giron & Thomas J. Gormly Bill Gorodner Grant Crichfield PhD David Crocker David Curry Laurie Cushing Gary Domann G. Dryvynsyde & M. Porta Nicholas Edsall Irv Englander John Finley & Stan McGee Mark Friedman Robert Funk David Furlano Ken Furtado Michael William Galligan John A. Gibson Blackbaud Giving Fund Robert Gordon DanGrace Stephen Grahan Harlan Greene Frederick Griffiths Dennis Groenenboom Robert Gross & Eloy Garcia Paul Grzella James W. Haas Dennis Hall Ken Schellenberg

James Gother Wm J. Gracie Jr. Mikel Gray Leland Hall M Brian Hartz Robert Heylmun John Hudson Michael P. Hughes & Mark A. Plants Charles L. Ihlenfeld Alice Jay Jeffrey Johnson Daniel Jones

David J. Klein Steven Kowalik GaryKrivy David LaFontaine Paul Loeffler & Mike Sullivan Vic Marriott Fred Martin Thomas Huish &

Michael Siegel Ross Sloten Stephen B. Thayer & Howard E. Terry Kirk S. Thomas Robert Tinkler Dean Waller John Weingarten David Westmoreland &

Roderick F. O’Connor Roger Parris & Michael Longo Andy Perry & John Sistarenik In memory of Larry Phillips Bruce Pray Rex Roberts Harry Rosenberg G. Louis Rowles RonSeidle Laurence Senelick Doug Serafin John S. Shaffner Nicolas Shumway William R. Powell Charles Popper in honor of Leland Perry Martin D. Quish JerryRehm Stuart L. Rich George Robb Charles Roberts & Craig Combs GaryRod Robert Ross Stephen T. Russell Sam Sanders Kevin Schack Paul Schilling Michael Schwarz Dr. Milton M. Seiler, Jr. Camilla Serrano In memory of Victor Shargai A.V. Shirk, in memory of Bill Costley Harvey Silberman Eric Slater Ray M. Smythe Richard C. Snider Neil Spisak Andrew Stancliffe

S USTAINERS

John Mathewson Raymond Matta M.D. Marshall R. McClintock Joseph Melillo Elliott Mackle Gerald Markovitz / Cameron Jobe Clayton Marsh / George Villanueva Wayne P. Marshall Alberto Martin & Jerry Popolis John W McKenna Robert Melton Virginia Merritt Martha Miller Enrique Moreno Skip Moskey & Kevin Hamilton James A. Mueller

Mike Mushak Chuck Whelan Allan Wing &

($600–1,199)

Frank Barringer

Michael Hammett Robert Hanna Scot Hedrick Kenneth Heger JohnHeist Bob Hellwig & Gordon Whitaker Charles D. Hewett Ted Higginson Steve Hoffmann Josh Howard Ronald Hunt Jeffrey Alan Johnson Kent Johnson PhD Dr. Michael R. Kauth Stephen Kelley Michael Kelly Brian Kieley Clay King & Iain J. King John A. Kosartes William Kupsky William Kux David Lane & Gerald Mager Joel Leander Jim Lipsett & Paul LaRiviere JohnLloyd Robert Lobou

Robert Starshak, MD Dennis P. Stradford Sebastian Stuart DanStuder John Swaner John David Tekian John C. Thomas Morris Thompson

Lyle Timpson Jim Toledano Paul Travis Andrew Turrisi

Dr. R. O. Valdiserri Darlis von Adkins Stephen Wall

S UPPORTERS ($150–299) S PONSORS ($300–599)

David Murdock Anthony Napoli Gordon Nebeker Ken Nimblett John T. Nolan Kurt Ollmann

Martin Webb / Charles Venable Richard Weeks / Robert Shavin Michael Weidemann Marc Weiner Lyndon Wester Dr. Robert C. White Jr. Ed Wittrock George E. Wolf Michael Wood, MD Michael Worley

Joseph Ortiz & Paul Hinkle M.A. Ortiz & N.J. Cassun Michael A. Pargee Daniel A. Pavsek, PhD John J. Pellegrini Allan Phillips Stan J. Pogroszewski

Roberto Ceriani Robert Chaloner

Gary Clinton Robert Cloud Peter Cohen & Jeff Sposato

Mitch Crane John H. Adams James Doig Anderson Michael Anderson James Arthurs James Henry Avila Bruce Selden Babski Michael Bacon Michele Aina Barale William Barnaby M.D. Joseph Bell Jerry Bernhard LarryBest David Bjork Rosemary Booth & Jerry O’Leary Michael Boro Peter Brenner JimBrogan Antonio Calcagno Peter Cameron Andy Ball & Jason Cannon James Carnelia Frank Carson Larry G. Carter, PhD Paul Cawein

Franklin Mosher Thomas Nash Russell Needham Michael Neisen David Noskin Bart O’Brien DonaldOtt Charles Jud Pannaci Dean Papademetriou Homer Payne Lee M. Penyak Ted Pietras Pisgah Press Edward Pollock Timothy Prueser Richard Quintana Thomas Raffin James Ramadei Bruce Ramsdell Luana Rathman Ed Reeves & Bill Fish MarkReina Mark Reisman Alexander Roche Steven Roehling Daniel Ross William Rubenstein

Sherman Clarke Gerald Coon John Corlett/Doug Van Auken Donald Cornelius Lilly Correa Fred Cummins Patrick Curtin Reed Darmon Daniel Davidson MarkDavis Raymond J. DeAngelo George Dearani Rodney Courtney Frederick Cowan

John Ibson / Steve Harrison Charles Edward Jackson Heinz Jacobson Karla Jay Richard T. Johnson Wayne T. Johnson Ricky Kamins Michael Kelly / Robert Hohl Leonard Keyes Henson Keys William Knodel LeeKramer JanKrc DickLand Stewart Landers David Lane / Grayson Sless Mark LaPole Rick Lawrance JamesLebo Arthur Leonard Scott Leonard Maurice Levenbach Richard Levine OwenLevy TageLilja David Wn. Livingston & Charles J. Storey

Michael Ruvo / Steve Lachs Jeffrey A. Ryan Robert Saltzman Steven Sayers Jan Schoenhaus Darrell g.h. Schramm Gyorge Shalvoy Jeffrey Sharlach LynnSipe George Smart Donald Mitton Smith Dennis Sondker Albert Stansell Jodie Staton Marc Stein Arthur Stoeberl Bill Strong Charles Studen Ron Suleski Gerry Sullivan & Bob Benzel Michael Swerdlow Philip Smith Bruce Smith Roy D. Smith Richard Smith

DanTaylor David Teeter Robert Teller Bruce Thompson

RonLong Daniel Lowen Coy L. Ludwig Patricia Lutsky / Sally Jordan Bernard Lynch Wayne MacPherson JohnnyMah James Malatak Tony Mangiafico Joel Martin Michael McAdam George McCarter Kris Rust / Hugh McGough David McKellar James J. McPeak Richard Meiss Jon Cloudfield Merkle Greg Mermel Andrew Miller & Bell Yung Robert S. Miller James Moore Thomas Morbitzer Gerald Morin & Michael Davidson Danny Matherly Kenneth Mayer Bill Mayhan

Rodney Estes Philip Evans Eduardo Febles Steve Fernandez-Brennan Jason Fichtel

DavidTodd Henry Tufts JayTurner

Charles S. Frazier Bradley W. Fritts Phil Funkenbusch James A. Fuqua Sterling Giles Eric Gordon Brad Graber George Griffin Michela Griffo John Guidry Roland C. Hansen John Healy Adams Marilyn & Sharon Hedges-Hiller

Ernest A. Vetelino Jr. Thomas Von Foerster

BryceWard Bill Watson

Allan Weinreb Samuel Welker Diana G. Westbrook Chuck White Lawrence Wolf Paul Wolfson Matthew Wolter & A. J. Galazen Gene Woodling Joseph Young Pete Zakrzewski

John DeMilio John Deneen Samuel Dixon Karen Doherty Jack Drescher Suzanne Dreyfus

James Heitzler David Hensley James Hilderbrandt William Hollings Norman A. Horowitz & Robert Tomasik Richard Hoyt-McDaniels Scott Hunter

Bill Dubay DanEaston David Eidelkind & Len Sanginario Edward E. Eliot Davis Elliott & Tom Jolley J. Yusuf Erskine

Mark Zelinsky George Zuber

Paul Cellupica Burton Clarke

Deborah Taft Kevin Taylor

BTW Wait, There’s More! We ended the last issue’s BTW with a squib about a breaking story involving the head of Moms for Liberty, Bridget Ziegler, and her husband Christian, the former chair of the Florida Republican Party. It would be hard to over state Moms for Liberty’s role, and that of Bridget Z., in the na tional effort to ban books in school libraries. Christian stands accused of rape by a woman who was apparently involved in three-way sex scenes with the Ziegler couple. Now that the deets are coming out, the whole thing is so much more sordid than we dared to imagine. Investigators have found emails showing that the Zieglers were actively looking for female partners with whom to have three-way sex—and it appears Bridget was the ringleader. Finding the rape-accusing gal a lit tle too needy, Bridget despaired that they would need to “hunt for someone new.” Christian, for his part, was keeping a list of potential third parties, classified under the heading “Fuck”—a variant on Mitt Romney’s famous “binder full of women”? In any case, it’s just the kind of language that you’d expect from the people who want to prevent our children from ever en countering an LGBT character in a library book. Download This The cavalcade of prominent anti-LGBT cler gymen and politicians with a secret gay history seems endless; and yet, like unhappy families, each is special in his own way. The case of Michael Voris offers the added bonus that he was an early leader of the “ex-gay” movement who founded and, until recently, headed up the Catholic media company Church Mili tant. Needless to say, the spectacle of “ex-gay” leaders and huck sters getting busted in gay flagrante is a commonplace; usually it involves being spotted in a gay bar or cruising on Grindr. What cost Voris his position at Church Militant were multiple in stances of sending shirtless selfies to his staff. An investigation by Restoring the Faith reported that Voris had “continually

habit of sexually abusing young men to come to light. Appar ently Pressler’s MO was to have a trusted subordinate set up li aisons with teenage staffers, telling them that sex with Pressler was a “God-sanctioned secret.” But the scandal that’s rocking Texas politics is that Pressler’s most recent procurer was an at torney named Jared Woodfill who’s currently running for state senator, with the backing of Texas Attorney General Ken Pax ton. Charges and lawsuits against Pressler go back to 2004, but Woodfill continued to supply him with potential victims. What was in it for Woodfill isn’t entirely clear; perhaps it was purely fiduciary, which returns the spotlight to Pressler, that sad sack who apparently enjoyed talking trash with staffers about hot guys and recent conquests when not at the pulpit denouncing “the LGBTQ lifestyle,” among other sins of the flesh. Reconcile This We may think we have a reasonable grasp of the men who made up the mob on January 6th, 2021—he’s a stereo typical Loser who doesn’t have a girlfriend and can’t hold down a job—but a recently convicted Proud Boy member doesn’t seem to compute. Steven Miles is a gay adult film actor who performs under the name Sergeant Miles, and he’s had a suc cessful career with Lucas Entertainment, Falcon, Hot House, and Raging Stallion. To be sure, as a porn star he plays up the “gay thug” routine, but his sexual positioning could be described as “versatile.” What’s fascinating is that he tows the line com pletely in his Proud Boy role, going on about the “Deep State” and the stolen 2020 election, having sported a T-shirt on Janu ary 6th that read: “Trump 2020 Fuck Your Feelings.” His social media postings ooze with misogynistic comments about “femi nazis and idiot Hillary supporters,” and he slammed the porn studios as “scared little bitches” for shutting down during the pandemic. And here is where he seems to be telling us some thing about the Proud Boys that we should heed. There seems to be little room for women in their movement, much less for the values of love and empathy that women represent. For Steven aka Sergeant Miles at least, the ability to toggle between Proud Boy and Pride Boy (of a sort) makes perfect sense. Problem Solved January 6th was back in the news when con servative Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk discussed a hypothetical situation related to the insurrection: “If the insur rectionists had started a gay orgy instead of vandalizing the Capitol, attempting to kill elected officials, and beating police officers, none of them would have been prosecuted. ... They should have stripped naked and filmed themselves having gay sex. That would have solved all the problems.” We need to un derstand the mindset that could conceivably find its way to this conclusion. He’s not just saying that homosexuality is so widely accepted that no one would have noticed it amid the chaos of the day. He’s suggesting that it’s so positively valued that engaging in it would actually have indemnified these ac tors from criticism and possibly from prosecution. Ah, well, one can imagine one of these Woke politicians sighing: “Surely if they were bad trespassers, they would not have taken the time to engage in such an upstanding activity!” It’s a weird lit tle fantasy that seems apropos of nothing in particular, but if picturing male rioters getting it on in the Senate is what floats your whatever, sure, why not?

[texted] half-nude selfies to his young, sin gle male employees.” Sure, uploading these photos to the Church Militant Drop box could be chalked up to carelessness (oops!), but sending them to young men under his tutelage seems downright reck less—possibly worth the risk if it resulted in a hookup? And if indeed that was the objective, let the reader be the judge of how realistic these hopes may have been.

The Persistence of Creepiness A possible takeaway from the previous story is that “Hope springs eternal” when it comes to the male ego and its longing for the flower of youth. But the case of the 93-year-old Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler quickly returns us to the serious side of these deeply closeted gay men who go on destructive anti-LGBT rampages to ap pease their demons. Pressler’s age and longevity as a Christian leader make it all the more amazing that it took so long for his 8

TheG & LR

Q ESSENTIAL Ideas, BOLD Q+Reading

Mining inter ibute... detailed tr ly “A nuanced and meticulousl —Mark Hamill ” andwe do. ve him, “To know him was to lov ” e 1970s programming in th w rd more adult-centered transitioned towar eMuppets rly as Th s, par show’s success ticularl e umental to th oved instr irreverent humor pr e, ’s gy rgy the puppeteer’s edgy energy and unique ow v ly captures h family, Stein percepti el s, and s, ’s fr withHunt’ iends, colleagues views ay ave a hell of a lot of fun along the w drivers—and ha a r ff ities to g v ryone from glitzy celebr connect with e er ruf fe’s surpr , g , , foster y passion, f our talents, adapt to lif ises, fol empli fi es ho ry ex y.Hunt’ openness and joy s story e w to f y sense of res extraordinar his own life, he showed an e fe and th ove of Hunt’ , its devastation, claiming the lo s lif AIDS epidemic Even when the iends. community of fr , dispar , fe’ large, savoring lif s delights, amassing a vivid, Hunt national stardom. launch the Muppets into inter ly he ny, where his edg Henson’s company, y humor quickl hen he joined Ji years oldw Richard Hunt was just 18 y We ly —Publishers Weekl . f cab ly genuinel llowyour silience, hreatening wrought rate lived elped im y.

Jessica Max Stein Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography

HIV and Legal Violence Criminalized Lives Alexander McClelland

Robert Suttle orewordby Eric Kostiuk Williams Illustrated by F

a Man Tse - K and Stephanie Hsu dited by E

People of Color Portraits of Nonbinary My Race Is My Gender Q+ Public series Tse Ka-ManT Edited by Stephanie Hsu and

A H C Alexander McClelland HIV and Legal Violence Criminalized Lives

Love, and Community Stories of Resistance, Queer Newark

r ARadical T Queering the AntoloGaia

ansMemoir e Seventies, a

ANovel Syndrome The Caravaggio

Epilogue Editedb

e by Zenzele Isoke y Whitney Strub

oices of Italy series OtherV aters Pascuzzi and Sandra W Translated by Francesco Porpora Marcasciano

oices of Italy series OtherV and Alessandro Giardino Translated by Joyce Myerson Alessandro Giardino

Q+ Public series

30%off U.S. shipping); use discount code RGLR23 on any book on our website (with free ersuniversitypress.org

rutge

ESSAY

John Waters Went There P ETER M UISE

I N THE SUMMER OF 1981, my father took me and my brother to see a double feature of two John Waters movies: Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos . I was fourteen, and my brother was three years older. My family had recently seen Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review Pink Flamingos on their weekly TV show, and when my father learned that two Waters films were playing at the Nickelodeon Theater in Boston, he decided to take me and my brother to see them. My mother was not a fan of art films and declined to join us, perhaps wisely. Female Trouble (1974) was shown first, and this campy tale of juvenile delinquent Dawn Davenport’s journey from teenage runaway to hideously disfigured and murderous performance artist appealed to my budding (but still closeted) gay sensibili ties. As a fourteen-year-old gay boy, I was thrilled to see the ti tanic and terrifying drag queen Divine play a Catholic school

girl, and the eccentric Baltimore actress Edith Massey strut around in a lace-up leather catsuit and Frederick’s of Hollywood heels. But despite its gory ending and freaky sex scenes, Fe male Trouble still didn’t quite prepare me for Pink Flamingos (1972), the second film that day. Technically a comedy, Pink Flamingos is also an onslaught of shocking imagery. Two peo ple kill a live chicken on-screen by crushing it between their bodies during sex. A creepy manservant masturbates into his hand, and then uses a syringe to impregnate women imprisoned in a pit with his semen. The protagonist, played by Divine, fel lates her adult son as he moans “Oh, Mama, I should have known you’d be better than anyone.” And, most famously, after tarring and feathering her enemies and executing them with a gun, Divine eats actual dog excrement, rolling it around on her tongue like a delicious treat. All of these atrocities were per formed by nonprofessional actors in cheap, garish costumes, delivering their lines in loud, declamatory style. I suppose some parents would have grabbed their kids and walked out, but my father didn’t. He had driven us all the way into the city and paid for our tickets. No cinematic atrocities could outweigh those sunk costs. We sat through both movies, back to back, but there was little conversation in the car ride home. I think we were all in shock at what we had seen. I’m grateful that my father took us to see the double feature, both for the experience and for the cultural capital it gave me as a high school freshman. Certainly, I was the first of my friends to see those films. Despite my appreciation, though, I would have laughed if anyone told me John Waters would someday receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which he did in September 2023. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. is also hosting “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” a year-long exhibit honoring Waters and his films. The Museum is affili ated with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the same people who bring us the Oscars every year. Along with the exhibit, the Museum has issued a handsome hardcover cat alogue, also titled John Waters: Pope of Trash , which has essays from scholar B. Ruby Rich (the current editor of FilmQuar terly ) and David Simon (the award-winning producer of The Wire ), among others. The book is large, full of beautiful photos, and suitable for displaying on a coffee table. It is downright tasteful. The Hollywood star, the museum exhibit, and the book are huge honors for John Waters. It’s been a long, strange trip to mainstream acceptance for Waters, an auteur who specializes in what he calls “art-exploitation” films and who was dubbed the “Pope of Trash” by William S. Burroughs in 1986. Waters was born in 1946, in Baltimore, and grew up in that city’s suburbs. The city has remained central to his work and his life. Unlike many queer people who leave their hometown to find freedom, Waters has kept his Baltimore roots and filmed all of his movies

TheG & LR

10

there. His parents were supportive of his creative endeavors, de spite occasionally being horrified by them, and some of his ear liest films were shot at their home. His father even helped him create some props, including a narcotics-dispensing vending ma chine for the short film Eat Your Makeup (1968). Waters made his first film, the short Hag in a Black Leather Jacket , in 1964. His last, the feature-length ADirty Shame , was made in 2004. In total, he’s written and directed sixteen films over his forty-year career, twelve of them fea ture-length, and all them have included actors and designers

of fetishists and a sex scene in a church involving Divine, a rosary, and visions of the life of Christ. And, in Desperate Liv ing , a dog eats a dismembered penis and prisoners eat maggots. The film ends with a cannibalistic feast. But beginning with 1981’s Polyester , Waters reduced the shock value and tried another approach. Its plot does include murder, a violent foot fetishist, and teenage abortion, but Poly ester , a parodic homage to Douglas Sirk-style women’s films, is much less graphic than his previous movies. Also unlike his previous movies, which were X-rated or unrated, Polyester re

from Baltimore. His childhood friend Mary Vivian Pearce has appeared in every Waters film, with lead roles in Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble . Waters dressed and styled Pearce to look like 1940s actress Jean Har low, but far more famous than Pearce was Waters’ muse, whom he envisioned as Jayne Mansfield and named after a charac ter in a Jean Genet novel: Divine.

ceived an R rating and wider distribution. Critics took note of this new approach, with Janet Maslin writing in The New York Times that Polyester ’s “comic vision is so con trolled and steady that Mr. Waters need not rely so heavily on the grotesque touches that make his other films such perennial favorites on the weekend Midnight Movie circuit. Here’s one that can just as well be shown in

It’s been a long, strange trip to mainstream acceptance for Waters, who was dubbed the “Pope of Trash” by William S. Burroughs in 1986.

Born Harris Glenn Milstead, Divine befriended Waters dur ing high school and appeared in several of his early shorts. Wa ters soon made Divine his preferred leading lady and gave him starring roles in Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos , Fe male Trouble , Polyester (1981), and Hairspray (1988). Divine became notorious for the shocking things he did in Waters’ early films, like eating that infamous dog poop, being raped by a giant lobster, and bouncing on a trampoline while shoving dead fish in his crotch. (Note that Divine identified as male and used he/him pronouns.) Divine used his notoriety to launch a main stream show business career, but unfortunately it was cut short. The night before he was to start filming a recurring role on the popular sitcom Married with Children , Divine died of a heart at tack at age 42. Divine’s death was a huge emotional shock for Waters, but he continued on and made five more feature films. Much like Divine, Waters used his own notoriety to go mainstream and at tract bigger-name actors to his films. This process began even before Divine’s death, with 1950s heartthrob Tab Hunter star ring in Polyester as Divine’s love interest, and Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, and Jerry Stiller appearing in Hairspray . These performers may not have been the biggest Hollywood stars, but they were still better known than Waters’ usual stable of Balti more actors. After Divine’s death, Waters began to attract and cast even bigger stars in his movies: Johnny Depp in Crybaby (1990), Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom (1994), and Melanie Griffith in Cecil B. Demented (2000). In minor roles, he cast cult figures like rocker Iggy Pop, celebrity hostage Patty Hearst, and Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro. Waters didn’t ask any of these actors to eat dog poop or have sex involving live poultry, but that’s because his style began to change after Desperate Living (1977). His films of the 1960s and ’70s were deliberately made to shock audiences. In addi tion to the disturbing scenes in his well-known movies like Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble , Eat Your Makeup includes a re-creation of the JFK assassination with Divine as Jackie Kennedy, while Multiple Maniacs features a carnival sideshow Peter Muise is author of Legends and Lore of the North Shore (2014) and Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts (2021).

the daytime.” The film did feature Odorama, a scratch-n-sniff promotional gimmick with scents like skunk and flatulence, but Polyester was a big step towards mainstream acceptance. Most of his subsequent films took the same approach by tackling con troversial subjects, but in a relatively acceptable way. As John Waters: Pope of Trash points out, certain themes and topics run through all of Waters’ work, from his first shorts to his more mainstream features. His later films may be less overtly shocking, but they are still easily recognized as “John “Five decades of exuberance, defiance, solidarity, heartbreak and metamorphosis from artists who have reimagined how we think about gender and sexuality.” – The New York Times

SAVE20% WITHCODE QUEER

Featuring 350 artworks by LGBTQIA+ artists, tracking the relationship between trans and queer art Visit phaidon.com/aboutface

Monacelli - A Phaidon Company

May–June 2024

11

Waters movies” because they humorously explore and critique the same aspects of American culture as his earlier ones. Wa ters is gay, but queer characters and culture are not the main focus of his work (with the exception of Desperate Living, which has

rectors, including Fassbinder, Otto Pre minger, and Kenneth Anger. Waters’ deep love of cinema—from the exploitation films of Russ Meyer and Herschell Gordon Lewis to the highbrow art films of Pa solini—is on display in many of his

JOHN WATERS Pope of Trash

Edited by Jenny He and Dara Ja ff e DelMonico Books. 255 pages, $59.95

lesbian protagonists). Rather, he applies a queer or camp sensi bility to examine and parody heterosexual social norms, partic ularly the nuclear family. It’s an approach that has won him a wide audience. Queer people go to John Waters’ films to see movies made by one of their own, while straight audiences at tend to laugh at how their lives are portrayed onscreen. The American family, particularly in its suburban mode, is subverted, stressed, and stretched to its breaking point in many of his works. For example, in Pink Flamingos Divine’s mother (Edith Massey) spends her days in a playpen eating eggs, and Divine’s character has sex with her son, while in Female Trou ble , teenage schoolgirl Dawn Davenport assaults her parents on Christmas morning for giving her the wrong type of shoes and runs away from home to have a daughter out of wedlock, whom she eventually murders when the daughter grows up to be a surly adolescent. In Polyester , Waters flipped the script, this time casting Divine as Francine Fishpaw, a long-suffering sub urban housewife who’s married to a cheating, abusive spouse while raising violent adolescent children. And, in Desperate Living , Waters’ longtime collaborator Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a wealthy suburban housewife who incites her maid to murder her husband, comes out as a lesbian, and murders the outcast denizens of a small village with a man-made rabies epi demic. Another murderous housewife is the focus of 1994’s Se rialMom , where Beverly Sutphin murders neighbors who don’t meet her high standards of behavior. As you might guess from those brief plot summaries, Waters is also fascinated by crime. The director used to attend court room trials for entertainment and has a large collection of news paper clippings about serial killers. Criminals appear in almost all of his films. He has a particular fondness for juvenile delin quent characters, whether the aforementioned Dawn Davenport, Johnny Depp as Crybaby Walker in Crybaby , the Fishpaw sib lings in Polyester , shoplifting sidekick Matt in Pecker , orTracy Turnblad and her friends in Hairspray . Many of these charac ters are broad caricatures of the dangerous teenagers the media warns us about, but in Hairspray, Tracy Turnblad breaks the law and defies her parents for a good cause: to integrate The Corny Collins Show , a racially segregated TV dance show sim ilar to American Bandstand . She’s a juvenile delinquent with a political agenda. Waters based The Corny Collins Show on The Buddy Deane Show , which aired in Baltimore when he was a teenager. In Hairspray , Tracy’s rebellion successfully integrates the show, but in real life The Buddy Deane Show was canceled, possibly due to protests from both pro- and anti-integration ac tivists. Perhaps because of its feel-good message, Hairspray has become the most popular of Waters’ films, spawning a Broad way musical and, in turn, a film version of the musical. The renegade filmmakers who kidnap actress Honey Whit lock (Melanie Griffith) in 2000’s Cecil B. Demented are per haps too old to be juvenile delinquents, but they’re still young enough to think they can destroy the Hollywood system. They’ve tattooed their arms with the names of their favorite di

movies. Todd Tomorrow, the handsome hunk played by Tab Hunter in Hairspray , owns an artsy drive-in movie theater showing a Marguerite Duras triple bill. Movie posters, includ ing one for Pasolini’s Teorema , decorate the home of the vil lainous Marbles in Pink Flamingos . The title character in 1998’s Pecker ends the film resolving (or threatening?) to become a filmmaker himself, but most of Pecker is about how his amateur photography garners the attention of the New York art scene. Art and the art world are another of Waters’ obsessions. Artists of all kinds appear in his films: painters, singers, dancers, per formance artists, musicians, even fiber artists like Lulu Fish paw in Polyester , a delinquent teen who finds redemption through macramé. Waters has a rich knowledge of cinema history, but where does he fit into that history? B. Ruby Rich’s essay, “From Un derground Movies to the New Queer Cinema,” positions him as an important bridge between America’s early underground gay filmmakers (like Kenneth Anger, the Kuchar Brothers, and Andy Warhol) and the filmmakers of the 1990s who are con sidered part of the New Queer Cinema (a term Rich herself coined), such as Todd Haynes, Cheryl Dunye, and Gregg Araki. Waters has acknowledged the influence of George and Mike Kuchar, the twin Bronx filmmakers who made hundreds of often tawdry shorts starring their friends. In turn, Waters’ own influence can be seen in the work of the New Queer Cinema di rectors, whose films often focused on similar themes: crime, so cial outcasts, the American family, and troubled teenagers. After reading Rich’s essay, I thought of how Gregg Araki’s films, such as The Doom Generation (1995) or Nowhere (1997), with their garish costuming, deliberately stagey dialogue, and troubled young people, take aspects of Waters’ work and use them in a more æsthetic and erotic way. And, much like Waters, Todd Haynes made his own Douglas Sirk-inspired film, Far from Heaven (2002), while Haynes’ most recent film, May December (2023), is focused on a dysfunctional suburban family with a monstrous mother. Julianne Moore’s character in that film, a quietly psychotic cake-baking mom who’s married to the man she seduced when he was only thirteen, is clearly a cousin to the serial moms and abusive mothers Waters featured in so many of his classics. Like Waters, Haynes is a gay man using a camp sensibility to examine straight social norms. The New Queer Cinema directors didn’t shy away from portraying sex, and sex, particularly of the fetishistic variety, is also a subject Waters has returned to repeatedly. Waters has spoken often about his fascination with sexual fetishes, and fetishists of all kinds appear in his movies, including voyeurs, foot fetishists, adult babies, and leathermen. Multiple Mani acs features Lady Divine’s Cavalcade of Perversions, a carni val sideshow of sexual fetishists, including bicycle seat sniffers, puke eaters, and armpit lickers. These fetishes may not be your thing, but that’s okay. Sex scenes in John Waters’ movies are played either for laughs or for shock value, not for erotic impact.

TheG & LR

12