The BBC's TV-miseri adaptatn of Armistead Mp's Tal Of The Cy ed a furor when aired on PBS– 1994, two men kissg on televisn, much ls sually discsg gay sex, was unheard of. But Tal treated s gay characters and s straight characters as equals, much to the chagr of right-wg…
Contents:
- THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE BEG AMERI’S BT-LOVED GAY AUTHOR
- ARMISTEAD MP: ‘BEG GAY LIBERATED ME’
- GAY HISTORY – MAY 13: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMISTEAD MP! WH LOVE, 28 BARBARY LANE.
- OLR AND WISER: ARMISTEAD MP, CHRONICLER OF GAY LIFE, FEELS LUCKY TO BE HERE
THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE BEG AMERI’S BT-LOVED GAY AUTHOR
The film, directed by Jennifer M. Kroot, illtrat how the novelist’s gay experience rmed his art. * armistead gay *
” There were a lot of gay characters Tal, that was kd of the pot, but my books were never the 70s, Warner Brothers bought the optns, and I got a T-shirt ma that said: “Soon to be major motn picture. “Burst down those closet doors once and for all, ” said Harvey Milk, Ameri’s first out gay polician, before he was assassated 1978.
The g-out letter his central gay protagonist Michael “Moe” Tulliver sends his Republin parents More Tal of the Cy beme a cut-out-and-keep pattern ed by untls rears for revealg the tth to loved on. He remaed the closet and worked for the anti-gay polician Jsie Helms, later elected as North Carola’s Republin senator.
“I was acced, ” he says, “of ventg a utopian place – Barbary Lane – the notn that a straight woman, a straight man, a gay man, a bi woman, and a transgenr landlady would all be livg unr the same roof, but the tth was I was already begng to see that and feel . In 1993, when PBS and Channel 4 Bra aired the first adaptn of Tal, starrg Lra Lney, featured every cloud of dope smoke, bathhoe steam, and gay sex sweat risg om the book. He had spent s beg someone he was not – an illn that was succsful outsi of the gay grapeve – but that mangled thumb betrayed the pa of his reprsn.
ARMISTEAD MP: ‘BEG GAY LIBERATED ME’
On at least one ocsn, Mp’s persuasn worked, however, by enuragg Ian McKellen to announce 1988 he was gay.
GAY HISTORY – MAY 13: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMISTEAD MP! WH LOVE, 28 BARBARY LANE.
“His ath ma clearer than ever that you’re extremely vulnerable if you’re a visible gay activist. And the South ’s all tied wh anti-gay stuff.
OLR AND WISER: ARMISTEAD MP, CHRONICLER OF GAY LIFE, FEELS LUCKY TO BE HERE
” He nsirs this need for a moment, and why other gay people might feel too. “Livg well is the bt revenge, ” he says, lookg out the wdow to the street parallel to says he enjoys the fame he has amassed, which, even livg here wh the evable onslght of gay fans approachg him the street, is at a manageable level.
As wh beg gay, the subject entw through his life and his work, the former reactg to the latter, ensurg the tth rgs reflects aga on the 40 years he spent wrg Tal, the stori that brought thoands to live his cy – “Half the people on my street said they moved here bee of me! ”This echo somethg om earlier about beg the closet, that beg hidg – silent and visible – forc gay people to observe others more keenly. I grew up believg I was mentally ill bee I was gay.
My father was a racist and a homophobe, and I knew that I’d be given electro-shock therapy if I told my parents. Beg gay liberated me om all sorts of sh. The fact that Tony voted for Tmp is hard enough to al wh, but what’s worse is that he supports anti-gay policians who want the extctn of relatnship wh my hband Christopher is what I wanted all my life.