When the news me last June that the New York State Senate had voted to legalize same-sex marriage, I was at a dner party that felt like New Year’s Eve, only wh genue emotns. Everyone at the table—straight, gay, young, old—was elated. [...]
Contents:
- WHEWASHG GAY HISTORY
- FRANK RICH ON GAY RIGHTS, THE PRINTIAL RACE, AND “CATS”
- THE GAY DES
- FRANK RICH ON THE NATNAL CIRC: GAY MARRIAGE TRIUMPHS, ROBERTS BE DAMNED
- JT HOW GAY IS THE RIGHT?
- YOU’RE LIKABLE ENOUGH, GAY PEOPLE
- GAY BASHG AT THE SMHSONIAN
- FRANK RICH: GAY BASHG AT THE SMHSONIAN
WHEWASHG GAY HISTORY
* frank rich gay *
Fran Lebowz is rrect to remd that not all gay people (any more than all straight people) are beatg down the doors to what she lls “the two most nfg stutns on the pla, marriage and the ary. A Valente’s week New York Tim–CBS News poll, echog others over the past year, found that Amerins now favor marriage over separate-and-unequal civil unns as the legal optn for gay upl; ls than a third of the public believ that gay fai should be nied both.
FRANK RICH ON GAY RIGHTS, THE PRINTIAL RACE, AND “CATS”
The New York lumnist spoke at the Gay and Lbian Cc’s Commencement gatherg. * frank rich gay *
Beg wh the gays, ’s clear, has bee a savvy (if not necsarily selfls) way to attach a halo to almost any troubled brand, om Goldman Sachs to some preccts of the Rupert Murdoch empire (though not the New York Post or Wall Street Journal, the only major daili the state that disdaed large ont-page headl after the Albany victory).
THE GAY DES
As one of the leadg op-ed lumnists for The New York Tim, Frank Rich n be unted on to wre about gay issu wh thory -- ftg, sce he also served as the theater cric for the Tim when theatric... * frank rich gay *
Compared wh the other civil-rights battl Ameri, pecially the epic stggle over race that has staed and hobbled the natn sce s birth, the fight over gay equaly is remarkable for s relative ease, pact chronology, and the happs of s pendg rolutn.
One of Ameri’s two major polil parti is still hell-bent on thwartg and even rollg back gay rights much as Goldwater Republins and Dixie Democrats (on their way to jog the GOP) risted civil-rights legislatn and enforcement the sixti.
While Nielsen tells that gay ncerns and characters are “the new mastream” of televisn—figurg 24 percent of broadst prime-time programmg last season—we do not yet live the Uned Stat of Glee. We—and by we, I mean liberal New Yorkers like me, whether straight or gay, and their fellow travelers throughout Ameri—would like to believe that the sole obstacl to gay civil rights have been the ual spects: hibound relig lears both whe and black, nservative policians (mostly Republin), fundamentalist Christian and Mlim zealots, and unrenstcted bigots. What’s been lost this moraly play is the role that many liberal policians and stutns have also played slowg and at some junctur haltg gay civil rights recent s.
FRANK RICH ON THE NATNAL CIRC: GAY MARRIAGE TRIUMPHS, ROBERTS BE DAMNED
The Gay and Lbian Cc wel the New York Magaze lumnist. * frank rich gay *
It was, after all, the tste of the Smhsonian Instutn, not a Bible Belt cultural outpost, who bowed to prsure om the ant Catholic League jt fifteen months ago to censor the work of a gay Amerin artist who had already been silenced, long ago, by AIDS.
To fet this particular history is to mimize or erase the stggl of gay men and lbians whose liv and fundamental rights were trampled routely for s Ameri, wh cel and sometim adly rults.
JT HOW GAY IS THE RIGHT?
''THE screen's first official gay bar,'' as was labeled by the film historian Vo Rso, appeared the 1962 polil potboiler ''Advise and Consent.'' Its most proment visor was a nservative Uned Stat senator. As sheer cince would have , Otto Premger's adaptatn of Allen Dry's bt seller about a btal nfirmatn fight was released on a sparklg new DVD last week jt as the John Bolton nomatn was g to s mtee vote. Like Hollywood's other rivetg polil movie of 1962, ''The Manchurian Candidate,'' ''Advise and Consent'' is fallout om the McCarthy era: the ntroversial nomee for secretary of state (Henry Fonda, who else?) is a stand- for Alger Hiss. But may be even ls need of a remake: the terveng four s have st this film a highly ntemporary light. * frank rich gay *
The reason for that failure is one that pole people don’t want to talk about anymore: Bee the first nspicuo victims of AIDS were sexually active gay men—a mory lackg civil rights and often regard as morally fective or worse—too many Amerins across the entire polil spectm uld easily jtify lookg away, and did. That mpaign was ditive of the polil climate around homosexualy, even theoretilly enlightened New York Cy, that would allow AIDS to rage out of ntrol once h four years later.
YOU’RE LIKABLE ENOUGH, GAY PEOPLE
It was 1977 that Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francis Board of Supervisors, beg California’s first openly gay official—a victory that would end wh his assassatn the followg year.
It was also 1977 that Ana Bryant, a pop sger and oime Miss Ameri nner-up, mounted her “Save Our Children” mpaign to repeal a Miami ordance protectg homosexuals om discrimatn jobs and hog. Bryant lled gay people “an abomatn, ” but such vective didn’t prevent her e om wng the endorsement of the Da County Democratic Party—or of Florida’s ernor, Rb Askew, a Democrat so progrsive that Gee McGovern had offered him the vice-printial slot on the 1972 ticket. But repeated efforts by New York activists to get their own Cy Council to extend the cy’s Human Rights Law to clu gay cizens had died mtee two years earlier and would not be passed until 1986.
GAY BASHG AT THE SMHSONIAN
It breathlsly reported that “creasgly, the homosexual muny is very much one of lawyers, physicians, teachers, policians, clergymen, and other upper-class profsnal men and women, ” many of whom “tend to live like their heterosexual unterparts. Rosenthal, banished the word gay the paper except quot and radiated a homophobia that timidated gay employe to stay the closet rather than risk beg banished to reer Siberia.
FRANK RICH: GAY BASHG AT THE SMHSONIAN
“There wasn’t a sgle openly gay reporter or edor the newsroom, ” says Charl Kaiser, a former Tim reporter and the thor of The Gay Metropolis, and there wouldn’t be for the rt of the . In 1970, Harper’s had voted eleven pag, replete wh photos of poutg male mannequs, to the sayist Joseph Epste’s tortured explanatn of why he “would wish homosexualy off the face of this earth. What we do know is that Andrew Cuomo serv every b of cred he has received for makg same-sex marriage a top prry of his young ernorship and for movg heaven and earth—ep-pocketed donors, relcrant Albany policians, and sometim-disanized gay activists—to get the job done.
By the time Cuomo uld act as ernor, the issue was a w-w for him Democratic polics, lolly and natnally, the path havg been paved by other fighters before him and by fast-movg polls nfirmg an ever more gay-iendly Ameri.