Frank Bni is a longtime wrer for The New York Tim and the newspaper’s first gay lumnist.
Contents:
- MY GAY RETORT TO ALL THE GRIMNS
- FRANK BNI B, AGE, NEW YORK TIM, CNN, WIFE, HBAND, PARENTS, GAY, LATT COLUMN, EYIGHT AND NET WORTH
- FRANK BNI B, AGE, FAY, GAY, SCHOOL, SALARY, NET WORTH, NEW YORK TIM
MY GAY RETORT TO ALL THE GRIMNS
It mgled an analysis of journalism wh gay history, so the stunts and I looked at the Lavenr Sre, which was ntemporaneo wh the Red Sre and led to the firg or forced rignatn of thoands of gay and lbian people om ernment jobs the late 1940s and the 1950s.
We looked at the AIDS epimic, the first chapter of which st gay men as generat to be gasped at, lepers to be revis all of that was to be schooled anew the advanc sce. And that tn is beg amplified by the book I referred to: “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, ” by Jam Kirchick, an advance py of which I’ve been slowly and raptly makg my way through. But more than that, mak me grateful, for all that has changed sce those days of li and of the ditn wrten by Kirchick, who is gay, says all.
” I graduated om high school 1982 and then llege 1986, I wouldn’t have gused that I’d be livg now a untry where gay and lbian upl n be legally married ast to ast. I didn’t foree this many gay dads, this many lbian moms. The past five years ma that most Amerins are nsc of equi a way that we weren’t before, and that’s te when not only to gay Amerins but also to other margalized groups.
FRANK BNI B, AGE, NEW YORK TIM, CNN, WIFE, HBAND, PARENTS, GAY, LATT COLUMN, EYIGHT AND NET WORTH
Fotote Gilardi/Getty ImagUsually, this recurrg feature of the newsletter is voted to a matter of language that one of you has brought to my attentn, such as the unwarranted judgment herent the phrase “broken fay, ” which I addrsed several months today I want to look at a phrase of my own obssn, one that creasgly bothers me, though I ed equently and whout pse the very recent past: “openly gay. ” It’s a ftg segue om the first em today’s still read “openly gay” newspapers and hear on televisn all the time. He is not nial about beg gay.
That the cln of “openly” nnot somethg noteworthy, optnal and even nfsnal about owng up to beg gay? Or, to trot out another adverb often tethered to gay folks, “flamboyantly straight”?
Or, the se of a certa 75-year-old Floridian, Jackson, who produc plays, televisn shows and movi, forcefully ma the se agast “openly gay” an say published The Advote March, brilliantly llg a “backhand mer badge. He noted, for example, that Pete Buttigieg was scribed as “the first openly gay bet secretary” to be nfirmed by the Senate. In that se, though, “openly” wasn’t really or primarily about Buttigieg; was a way of acknowledgg that there had surely been gay and lbian bet secretari the past but we didn’t know them as such bee they ncealed or downplayed the fact.
FRANK BNI B, AGE, FAY, GAY, SCHOOL, SALARY, NET WORTH, NEW YORK TIM
Jackson suggted replacg wh “out, ” a term that gay people popularized and often e. If a person’s sexual orientatn or inty is specifilly and disputably relevant to a given article or nversatn and isn’t a secret, ll that person simply “gay, ” “lbian, ” “bisexual, ” “trans” or such. There was no playful tolg of hair, so there would be no wrongful stirrg of 1964, I grew up when stereotyp about gay people like me were largely negative and eply graed.
And perhaps the celt of the li about , reflected recurrg bat about who should and shouldn’t be allowed to teach schools, was that many gay men were child molters.