VITO: The Life of Gay Activist Vo Rso | The New York Public Library

Contents:

• LATT CSVO RSO2020 / 40 STORIAIDS QUILTVO RSO WAS A GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST, A FILM HISTORIAN AND AN THOR BT KNOWN FOR HIS BOOK, “THE CELLULOID CLOSET,” A GROUNDBREAKG CHRONICLE OF GAYS AND LBIANS FILM.A NEW YORK CY NATIVE, RSO GREW UP EAST HARLEM. AS A YOUNG BOY, HE WOULD SNEAK TO MANHATTAN TO GO TO THE MOVI. FROM AN EARLY AGE, RSO KNEW HE WAS “DIFFERENT.” A REMEMBERS HIM ALWAYS TALKG ABOUT ROCK HUDSON RATHER THAN AVA GARDNER. AFTER GRADUATG OM NEW YORK UNIVERSY, RSO JOED THE GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE. IN THE EARLY 1970S, HE STARTED REARCH FOR “THE CELLULOID CLOSET” (1981), WHICH ENTAILED WATCHG HUNDREDS OF FILMS THAT CLUD GAY NTENT AND STEREOTYP. WHAT ORIGATED AS A LECTURE WH FILM CLIPS BEME ONE OF THE MOST RMATIVE BOOKS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE AND POP CULTURE. DIAGNOSED WH HIV 1985, RSO WAS A EQUENT PROTTOR WH ACT UP. IN 1986, RSO LOST HIS LONGTIME PARTNER, JEFEY SEVCIK, TO AIDS. OUTRAGED BY THE MEDIA’S AQUATE AND ACCURATE VERAGE OF THE PANMIC, RSO FOUND GLAAD, AN ANIZATN THAT MONORS LGBT REPRENTATN THE MEDIA. IN HIS MEMORY, GLAAD CREATED THE VO RSO MEDIA AWARD TO REGNIZE OUT LGBT MEDIA PROFSNALS WHO HAVE MA A SIGNIFINT DIFFERENCE PROMOTG EQUALY.RSO APPEARED THE 1989 AMY AWARD-WNG DOCUMENTARY, “COMMON THREADS: STORI OM THE QUILT,” ABOUT THE LIFE AND ATH OF SEVCIK AND THE QUILT RSO MA FOR HIM. A YEAR LATER, RSO DIED OM AIDS-RELATED PLITNS.  IN 1996, “THE CELLULOID CLOSET” WAS MA TO A DOCUMENTARY THAT WAS -PRODUCED AND NARRATED BY LILY TOML. IN 2012, “VO,” A FILM ABOUT RSO’S LIFE, PREMIERED ON HBO.“YOU N’T PLEAD TOLERANCE FOR GAYS BY SAYG THAT THEY’RE JT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. TOLERANCE IS SOMETHG WE SHOULD EXTEND TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.” – VO RSORELATED LKS• MAKG HISTORY GAY• WHY WE FIGHT• REMEMBERG VO, 25 YEARS LATER• POZ - VO RSO‍40 YEARS OF STORIWE SHARE THE IMPORTANT STORY OF AIDS --THE FEAR, STIGMA AND DISCRIMATN. WE SHARE THE STORI OF HOPE, URAGE, PASSN, AND LOVE.  AND, WE BRG TO LIGHT THE HARSH REALY THAT FOUR S LATER, THERE IS NO CURE AND THE RAT OF FECTN ARE ON THE RISE, PARTICULARLY MUNI OF LOR.VIEW STORIESLATT PROJECTS
• “VO’’ ON HBO: PORTRA OF A GAY ACTIVIST
• REMEMBERG GAY ACTIVIST VO RSO
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

LATT CSVO RSO2020 / 40 STORIAIDS QUILTVO RSO WAS A GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST, A FILM HISTORIAN AND AN THOR BT KNOWN FOR HIS BOOK, “THE CELLULOID CLOSET,” A GROUNDBREAKG CHRONICLE OF GAYS AND LBIANS FILM.A NEW YORK CY NATIVE, RSO GREW UP EAST HARLEM. AS A YOUNG BOY, HE WOULD SNEAK TO MANHATTAN TO GO TO THE MOVI. FROM AN EARLY AGE, RSO KNEW HE WAS “DIFFERENT.” A REMEMBERS HIM ALWAYS TALKG ABOUT ROCK HUDSON RATHER THAN AVA GARDNER. AFTER GRADUATG OM NEW YORK UNIVERSY, RSO JOED THE GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE. IN THE EARLY 1970S, HE STARTED REARCH FOR “THE CELLULOID CLOSET” (1981), WHICH ENTAILED WATCHG HUNDREDS OF FILMS THAT CLUD GAY NTENT AND STEREOTYP. WHAT ORIGATED AS A LECTURE WH FILM CLIPS BEME ONE OF THE MOST RMATIVE BOOKS ABOUT GAY PEOPLE AND POP CULTURE. DIAGNOSED WH HIV 1985, RSO WAS A EQUENT PROTTOR WH ACT UP. IN 1986, RSO LOST HIS LONGTIME PARTNER, JEFEY SEVCIK, TO AIDS. OUTRAGED BY THE MEDIA’S AQUATE AND ACCURATE VERAGE OF THE PANMIC, RSO FOUND GLAAD, AN ANIZATN THAT MONORS LGBT REPRENTATN THE MEDIA. IN HIS MEMORY, GLAAD CREATED THE VO RSO MEDIA AWARD TO REGNIZE OUT LGBT MEDIA PROFSNALS WHO HAVE MA A SIGNIFINT DIFFERENCE PROMOTG EQUALY.RSO APPEARED THE 1989 AMY AWARD-WNG DOCUMENTARY, “COMMON THREADS: STORI OM THE QUILT,” ABOUT THE LIFE AND ATH OF SEVCIK AND THE QUILT RSO MA FOR HIM. A YEAR LATER, RSO DIED OM AIDS-RELATED PLITNS.  IN 1996, “THE CELLULOID CLOSET” WAS MA TO A DOCUMENTARY THAT WAS -PRODUCED AND NARRATED BY LILY TOML. IN 2012, “VO,” A FILM ABOUT RSO’S LIFE, PREMIERED ON HBO.“YOU N’T PLEAD TOLERANCE FOR GAYS BY SAYG THAT THEY’RE JT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. TOLERANCE IS SOMETHG WE SHOULD EXTEND TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.” – VO RSORELATED LKS• MAKG HISTORY GAY• WHY WE FIGHT• REMEMBERG VO, 25 YEARS LATER• POZ - VO RSO‍40 YEARS OF STORIWE SHARE THE IMPORTANT STORY OF AIDS --THE FEAR, STIGMA AND DISCRIMATN. WE SHARE THE STORI OF HOPE, URAGE, PASSN, AND LOVE.  AND, WE BRG TO LIGHT THE HARSH REALY THAT FOUR S LATER, THERE IS NO CURE AND THE RAT OF FECTN ARE ON THE RISE, PARTICULARLY MUNI OF LOR.VIEW STORIESLATT PROJECTS

Vo Rso was a gay rights activist, a film historian and an thor bt known for his book, “The Celluloid Closet, ” a groundbreakg chronicle of gays and lbians film.

“VO’’ ON HBO: PORTRA OF A GAY ACTIVIST

After graduatg om New York Universy, Rso joed the Gay Activists Alliance. In the early 1970s, he started rearch for “The Celluloid Closet” (1981), which entailed watchg hundreds of films that clud gay ntent and stereotyp. What origated as a lecture wh film clips beme one of the most rmative books about gay people and pop culture.

“You n’t plead tolerance for gays by sayg that they’re jt like everyone else.

REMEMBERG GAY ACTIVIST VO RSO

” But really was a life cut short: Rso, a film scholar and gay-rights activist, was 44 when he died of AIDS 1990. The likable, energetic gadfly who emerg here would have been a great voice to have on hand today, providg an rmed perspective on the sweepg chang Amerin culture has seen the last few wasn’t an stigator at the Stonewall uprisg of 1969, but he immersed himself gay-rights issu soon after, beg a proment voice on the New York scene. In a clip early the film he mak clear what separated him om generatns of gay people before him.

“I don’t know what was different about the way I was raised or the way I reacted, ” he says, “but I never once, not for a send, believed that was wrong to be gay, that was a s, that homosexualy was evil. “He was fully equipped wh ias and arguments, and he was ready to take you on, ” David Ehrenste, a wrer and fellow member of the Gay Activists Alliance, rells the ’s versn of gay liberatn wasn’t one that mastream Ameri uld endorse, then or now, but was of urse a pre-AIDS view. “And Vo was of a generatn when havg sex wh as many men as you possibly uld was a way of exprsg gay pri.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

” His telligence and fearlsns put him at the center of the gay-rights movement, but he was also by tablishg himself as a televisn host and a film scholar, creatg a popular lecture which he showed how surprisgly open movi before Hollywood’s Productn Co were about homosexualy and then how gay people were subtly monized the films that me after. Schwarz’s film is nothg fancy — the ual mix of historil imag and terviews wh acquatanc and experts — and Rso, perhaps, was not so different om other gay activists who were silenced by AIDS. But the smooth tellg of Rso’s story juxtaposed agast the prent day, when gay marriage is sanctned some stat and gay characters are all over prime-time televisn, driv home how different the cultural landspe is om the one Rso knew.

Not wh all the discrimatn and homophobia that rema. Ary for beg gay, she beme an early fighter for gay rights and a proment figure the nascent L.

Rights Vcenz rryg a plard prottg the ary’s ban on gay people while picketg the Pentagon July 1965. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.