Contents:
- OLIVER SACKS FILM REVEALS A GREAT GAY DOCTOR'S PASSN FOR THE MD
- AN ‘AWAKENGS’ OPERA THAT SHOWS OLIVER SACKS AS HIS IENDS KNEW HIM — A GAY MAN
- OLIVER SACKS, FAMED GAY NROLOGIST AND AUTHOR, DI AT 82
- NEW DOCUMENTARY FOC ON LATE GAY NROLOGIST OLIVER SACKS
- I THOUGHT I WAS OVER MY CATHOLIC GUILT ABOUT BEG GAY. MAYBE I WAS WRONG?
- 'AWAKENGS' OPERA SHOWS OLIVER SACKS AS HE WAS — A GAY MAN
OLIVER SACKS FILM REVEALS A GREAT GAY DOCTOR'S PASSN FOR THE MD
Homosexual acts were not crimalized England until the 1960s; his mother, he wrote, “had an Orthodox upbrgg.
AN ‘AWAKENGS’ OPERA THAT SHOWS OLIVER SACKS AS HIS IENDS KNEW HIM — A GAY MAN
It seemed like Sacks was gay. “It seems impossible to ignore the obv implitn nveyed by the scriptn of his history (Thom Gunn, motorcycl, leather, San Francis sexual awakeng) that he is gay, if celibate later years.
But few knew of the difficulti the kdly, ede doctor and scientist faced his own stggl clud Homophobia, which was easy for him to ternalize given that his mother lled him an "abomatn" when she found out he was gay. Another source of shame, for Oliver, was beg gay.
When she rumed speakg to him, she never mentned the subject aga, and later she advised him on his wrgs, but the damage was, a straight man, says he didn't know Sacks was gay until he received the phone ll om Edgar.
OLIVER SACKS, FAMED GAY NROLOGIST AND AUTHOR, DI AT 82
"Beg gay England the 1950s was dangero; engagg gay sex uld get a person arrted or even, the se of the great puter scientist Alan Turg, chemilly strated.
There was still plenty of homophobia elsewhere, though, as Sacks found when he me to the U. In fact, Sacks was gay.
But he had grown up at a time when homosexualy was illegal Bra — and a tradnal Jewish muny where homosexuals were regard as abomatns agast God and nature. ” For the first time, an adaptatn of Sacks’ wrg will portray him, accurately, as a gay man. ‘It explas so much about him’The missg piece was Sack’s cisn to e out publicly as a gay man, which he did his 2015 memoir.
NEW DOCUMENTARY FOC ON LATE GAY NROLOGIST OLIVER SACKS
When he was a teenager, his mother disvered that he was gay and beme enraged.
But trmatized by his mother’s rponse those many years before, he lived most of his life unready to live openly as a gay ’s a stggle that burned multiple generatns of men associated wh the opera —cludg s subject, librettist and star.
I THOUGHT I WAS OVER MY CATHOLIC GUILT ABOUT BEG GAY. MAYBE I WAS WRONG?
“As a gay man, I also had a stggle wh how I'm gog to live my life, ” Stollman said. “In my generatn, I felt late to g out as a gay man — I’d jt turned 29. ” As a gay man growg up post-war England, sex was dangero, and so this doma Sacks displayed pnce (except when he didn’t, as when visg Amsterdam).
“What had exced me Thom Gunn’s poetry was s homoerotic lyricism, a romantic perversens. Y, I replied, I am a homosexual. Oliver Sacks, a nrologist who ma his scientific specialy accsible books cludg Awakengs and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, then discsed his gay sexualy the memoir On the Move: A Life, died of ncer Sunday at his home Manhattan.
Sacks's other books clu The Md's Eye, The Language of the Colorbld, Seeg Voic, and On the Move, published this year, Sacks discsed his iendship wh gay poet Thom Gunn and his adventur as a young man California, which clud a motorcycle trip wh the Hell's Angels and settg a state weight-liftg rerd. He also wrote about his realizatn, his youth, that he was gay, along wh his early sexual flgs, which were followed by 35 years of celibacy. While there, Sacks stggled wh the knowledge that he was gay, and one of his rpons was livg recklsly.
'AWAKENGS' OPERA SHOWS OLIVER SACKS AS HE WAS — A GAY MAN
What he never discsed until the end of his life was his homosexualy.
Indre ViskontasOliver Sacks: His Own LifeThe award-wng documentary by Ric Burns explor the life and work of the legendary nrologist and storyteller, as he shar timate tails of his battl wh dg addictn, homophobia, and a medil tablishment that accepted his work only s after the fact. Probg to the them origally explored by Sacks’s groundbreakg book, this sensive operatic adaptatn is the first to accurately portray Oliver Sacks as a shy gay man stgglg wh his sexualy. Later, when she found out he was gay, she told him he was an abomatn, that he should never have been his mid-20s, Sacks ped London, his mother and homophobia for the eedom of California.