GLR November-December 2025

segregationist days, men like George Wal lace, who battled Nazism in WWII, were the stubborn segregationists. That Nazism represents “white” pride, nationalism, or anything is sheer insanity. The Nazis were at war with white countries, packed white people into their death camps, and were al lied with Japan! However, like everyone else, transgender people can be expected to look at issues and come to their own conclusions, which will be varied and sometimes downright bigoted and twisted. There should be no surprise that trans people are Republicans, Democ rats, socialists, racists, and neo-Nazis. Denise Noe, Bolivar, MO A Survivor of the “Lavender Scare” To the Editor: Ronaldo O. Valdiserri’s essay on the Mc Carthy-led persecution of gay men in U.S. government service in the 1950s [July-Aug. 2025 issue] reminds me of someone I knew from that era. In the early 1970s, as a young British diplomat (heavily closeted because being gay was a sackable offence in the British Foreign Office), part of my job in the British Embassy in Paris was to liaise with the Private Secretary to the Duke of Wind sor (then living in semi-exile with the Duchess in the Bois de Boulogne). The Duke’s Private Secretary was a charming, clever, and cultured American, then in his sixties, named John Utter. He had been forced to resign from the State Department because of his homosexuality. It was clear from my conversations with John that his employers were not the easi est. “He [the Duke] lives for her, and she

lives for parties,” was one of his pithier observations. After the death of the Duke of Windsor, John accompanied the Duchess to London for her husband’s fu neral, telling me on his return how the Duchess and the Queen Mother (allegedly sworn enemies) had sat “like two old grannies” on a sofa at Windsor Castle, watching TV together. In recognition of his selfless service, Queen Elizabeth II made John a Compan ion of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), one of the few honors that are within the personal gift of the monarch rather than the government. I doubt if the Queen knew that John was gay. Nor do I imagine she would have cared. But I like to think McCarthy might have been turning in his grave. Stephen Wall, London, UK A New York Monument’s Louisiana Roots To the Editor: In 2019, TheG&LR devoted an entire issue to the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. One of the articles contained an oblique reference to George Segal’s Gay Liberation sculpture [in Greenwich Village] having been funded by the Mildred Andrews Fund, a New Orleans-based foundation. Having fund-raised for the New Orleans gay com munity for many decades, this made my ears perk up, as I had never heard of the Mildred Andrews Fund. After a bit of a deep dive, I learned that the Mildred Andrews Fund is actually Cleveland-based, but was administered by the physicist, philosopher, and philanthro pist Dr. Peter Putnam, who resided in the small Louisiana city of Houma, about sixty miles from New Orleans.

After all these years, Dr. Putnam is finally having something of a moment of his own with the publication of Amanda Gefter’s Finding Peter Putnam . In addition, the state of Louisiana, in what is believed to be a first in this reddest of red states, has placed a historic marker near where he lived acknowledging his contributions [shown above]. Perhaps fittingly, the marker was installed by the state highway department. At the time of his death, Dr. Putnam was employed there as the night janitor. Attached is a photograph of the historic marker. What started as a semi-correct allu sion in a G&LR article now stands as the first monument to an out gay man in Louisiana history. Jack Sullivan, New Orleans, LA Correc ti on Due to a typo in the July-August 2025 issue’s BTW column, competitive swimmer Lia Thomas was incorrectly identified as “Tia” Thomas. A Note from the Editor As the author of the bimonthly BTW col umn that has appeared almost without in terruption since 2001, let me acknowledge its absence from this issue. It’s not that the material has dried up—”ex-gay” therapists are still getting busted, along with corrupt homophobes, et al. It’s just that it’s gotten so much harder to find the ironic twist or even the moral lesson in the these lapses in this age of impunity. That said, I do intend to resume the column going forward. —RS

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