Why Gore Vidal Refed to Intify as Gay

Contents:

• GORE VIDAL’S SPAT WH CHARLTON HTON OVER GAY ‘BEN-HUR’ SUBTEXT
• HOW ONE SEXY GAY NOVEL RAILED GORE VIDAL'S LERARY REER
• GORE VIDAL'S DEFENSE OF BEN-HUR'S GAY SUBTEXT

GORE VIDAL’S SPAT WH CHARLTON HTON OVER GAY ‘BEN-HUR’ SUBTEXT

It wasn’t as bad as “faggot, ” but rried a dose of ntempt as strong or stronger than most of the other risive ephets for those whom, back then, only gay people lled gay.

The ldly clil term “homosexual, ” which some now fd to be as dub as “Negro, ” was seldom seen as herently rogatory. “Gay” is too male, “gay and lbian” sufficiently clive, L. )Though Vidal never “intified” as gay—he never “me out”— was hardly a secret that the thor of “The Cy and the Pillar” was, to e his own favored term, a homosexualist.

Buckley was a reactnary, arguably a racist, and arguably a homophobe. ’Vidal boasted that he’d had 1, 000 sexual partners by the time he was private - surround by his terie of celebry iends such as Prcs Margaret, Pl Newman, Audrey Hepburn and his step-sister, Jacquele Kennedy - he loved nothg better than to brag about his rapac homosexualy. The startlg accatns are ntaed a new book about the wrer’s private life that also reveals - the c language that the outspoken Vidal loved to e - how he worked his way through the gay aterny of Fifti Hollywood, sleepg wh the lik of Rock Hudson, Fred Astaire and Noel Coward.

HOW ONE SEXY GAY NOVEL RAILED GORE VIDAL'S LERARY REER

Rrponnt for The Tim, believ that where Vidal’s gay affairs are ncerned, Bowers’ acunt is credible.

Vidal was a Hollywood screenwrer the Fifti, boastg that he once serted a gay-love subplot to the film ed his Hollywood nnectns to troduce him to many of his famo clients and Astaire may have married twice and had children, but Vidal told his nephew he sced the famo dancer and actor Hollywood. Perhaps this vlence was bee, the words of a close iend, Vidal was a ‘self-hatg gay’ who always claimed he was pable of beg attracted to both sex. Vidal also claimed that he didn't believe gay people, jt gay sexual acts.

Vidal first enuntered Aten at one of New York's gayt lotns of s time. ”And Vidal had some unorthodox ias about the reasons why Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Hton, and the Roman tribune Msala (Stephen Boyd) had gone om boyhood pals to adly enemi, culmatg their chart-race triggered the smackdown between Hton and Vidal was the release of the 1995 documentary film “The Celluloid Closet, ” which outed the d gay subtexts -- and closeted gay performers -- a number of Hollywood films.

GORE VIDAL'S DEFENSE OF BEN-HUR'S GAY SUBTEXT

Directed and wrten by Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman, the documentary’s most talked-about sequence was an terview wh Vidal which the wrer scribed how he’d nvced Boyd and director William Wyler that there had to be a eper motive to expla Msala’s lethal hatred of his old iend Ben-Hur -- namely, that the two men once had a homosexual relatnship that Msala wanted to rume but Ben-Hur did not. ”“Vidal’s claim that he slipped a scene implyg a homosexual relatnship between the two men sults Willy Wyler and, I have to say, irrat the hell out of me, ” Hton, never one to back down om a verbal brawl, rpond to Hton’s terse letter wh a much longer elaboratn of his role “Ben-Hur, ” and tntg Hton as “the spokperson for the Natnal Rifle Assn. Gore Vidal's nephew and half-sister claim the celebrated wrer was a pedophile who rried out 'Jerry Sandky acts' on unrage boys as they challenge his $37 ln will Vidal's half-sister, Na Straight, and nephew, Burr Steers, claim Vidal 'had unrage sex'The alleged circumstanc were scribed as 'Jerry Sandky acts', referrg to the former Penn State football ach nvicted of child moltatnVidal's long-time rival, polil mentator William Buckley, is said to have had a 'file' of crimatg evince agast him, which Vidal was 'terrified' ofVidal left his entire $37 ln tate to Harvard Universy followg his ath last year, but his fay are nttg the will, sayg he was not mentally petent when he filed Published: 02:16 BST, 10 November 2013 | Updated: 03:03 BST, 10 November 2013 Allegatns have surfaced suggtg that eccentric late wrer Gore Vidal was a claims have been ma by his half-sister, thor Na Straight, and his nephew, Hollywood actor and director Burr Steers, who are the procs of nttg the sayist's died last year, aged 86, om pnmonia and left his entire tate, timated at $37 ln, to Harvard a feature that appeared the New York Tim, Ms Straight - who had a 'turbulent though close relatnship' wh Vidal - said the openly-gay thor had had sex wh unrage scribed the alleged circumstanc as 'Jerry Sandky acts', referrg to the former Penn State assistant football ach nvicted of child Steers - who directed the Zac Eon film Charlie St Cloud - said that nservative lumnist William F.

He claimed there was no such thg as beg "gay, " only gay sexual acts.