Victor Navasky, the New York Tim and a key moment gay history | Books | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE LBIAN WRER AND HER FLAMBOYANT GAY HBAND
• GAY LERATURE IS OUT OF THE CLOSET. SO WHY IS DECEPTN A BIG THEME?
• MICHAEL DENNENY, 80, DI; EDOR CREATED OUTLETS FOR GAY LERATURE
• VICTOR NAVASKY, THE NEW YORK TIM AND A KEY MOMENT GAY HISTORY
• ROXANE GAY
• HOW THE TIM GAVE ‘GAY’ ITS OWN VOICE (AGA)

THE LBIAN WRER AND HER FLAMBOYANT GAY HBAND

Once, the middle of wter Washgton Square Park, I watched him unbutton his at and drape across the shoulrs of a dnk who had jt lled him a homophobic slur. I was an ex-Christian and newly out lbian fleeg the vlent homophobia of the late 1990s Jamai, still wearg the fury of beg attacked by a dozen boys and sexually asslted Kgston. We often lled each other to remisce about Peter, to reunt the sorcery of him, to bask the shared memory of his, when I beme antic wh the sire to start a fay — chasg gay men at hoe parti, beggg sperm om strangers on plan — I broke down and wept for what felt like the too-early ath of my hband.

I wanted to be the badass lbian wrer, wh the flamboyant gay hband, raisg four children a ramblg old hoe that ed to be a church, two blocks om the beach Far one nversatn wh CJ, he terpted to ask if there was a way he uld stand for Peter, by givg me his sperm. His brothers, their wiv, Peter’s grandmother, his father, me, my non-monogamo partner and a betiful hort of ordary folks, misfs, artists, preachers, wrers, activists, gay, straight, nonbary. Tatjana PrenzelApril 26, 2020Near the begng of Jam Baldw’s 1956 novel “Gvanni’s Room, ” the narrator, David, rells the moment at which he beme nsc of his homosexualy.

“Li are the natural food of boyhood, and he had eaten greedily, ” Forster wr of Mrice, who pledg no longer to feign an attractn to women, regnizg honty as his only chance for much of the 19th and 20th centuri, om Dorian Gray to Tom Ripley, the lie of the closet was the hge upon which queer lerature would pivot, reflectg what were then the often judicial or mortal sts of beg openly gay. Inscery, “merely a method by which we n multiply our personali, ” as Dorian Gray put , was the mo of ngrs gay men had been tght to adopt for the sake of self-prervatn; manifted self as a kd of characterologil tradn, a means by which the psychologil theater of the closet uld be dramatized, om Dorian Gray’s rhetoril fabritns to Tom Ripley’s serialized the most part, the closet now is not the potentially termal fate once was, but rather a layover the long journey to the self, an enclosure om which tth emerg.

GAY LERATURE IS OUT OF THE CLOSET. SO WHY IS DECEPTN A BIG THEME?

In much recent queer fictn are morn, mostly openly gay characters for whom self-nial and even outright ceptn have bee a way of is the guidg prciple of Peter Kispert’s new story llectn, “I Know You Know Who I Am, ” which gay men twist the tth by force of hab, often pursu of a mascule ial that feels otherwise out of reach. And when ’s eventually rebuffed, his self-loathg be an enge for the novel’s up grâce, an act of treachery that leraliz the notn of the closet as a place perpetually at risk of “Apartment, ” Jam Gregor’s 2019 novel “Gog Dutch” volv a graduate stunt wh an aversn to honty: Richard is openly gay, but when an unassumg classmate, Anne, helps him wre his dissertatn, eventually takg over the project entirely, he enjoys the plagiaristic nvenience of her pany too much to tell her he’s attracted to men.

MICHAEL DENNENY, 80, DI; EDOR CREATED OUTLETS FOR GAY LERATURE

Consir Brandon Taylor’s but novel, “Real Life, ” about Wallace, a black, gay graduate stunt adrift among his sensive, all-whe hort of fellow doctoral ndidat.

Instead, Taylor illtrat the psychic burns of racism, homophobia and abe wh extraordary nuance, craftg a portra of a plited and whholdg narrator who regards the sympathy of others as “a kd of ventriloquism” and speaks to his iends wh glib ambivalence. In “Mentor, ” the openg story, Greenwell’s unnamed narrator — the same gay, expat English profsor Bulgaria we met his prev novel, “What Belongs to You” — has ffee wh a stunt, G., at a fe Sofia. Brg on the a certa class of extremely onle gay man, explic photos are the go-to gift for iends and David MackMorn LoveOut of the Closet and Into the GarnMy Jamain mother’s hop for life Ameri did not clu my beg gay.

By Mark HarrisReport on Anti-Gay Slur Could Put Lol News Se Out of BsWhen a north-central Wisns news se reported that a bsman had uttered a homophobic slur, he sued, claimg famatn.

VICTOR NAVASKY, THE NEW YORK TIM AND A KEY MOMENT GAY HISTORY

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn a largely closeted era, he was a founr of a magaze voted to gay and lbian wrg and an imprt voted to L. Michael Denneny was the rare openly gay edor a publishg dtry which many gay and lbian edors were still ManMichael Denneny, an openly gay edor at a major New York publisher who started a pneerg imprt that was voted to L.

Denneny and Chuck Ortleb started Christopher Street, a monthly magaze that would publish fictn and nonfictn by gay wrers for the next 19 years. Denneny, the rare openly gay edor a publishg dtry which many gay and lbian edors were still before the first issue was published, several top gay men publishg, who were not out, “took me out for lunch and subtly threatened to end my reer if my name appeared the magaze, ” he told the New York newspaper Gay Cy News 2004. Denneny was fired when Maclan’s chief executive disvered that he had acquired “The Homosexuals, ” by Alan Ebert, which featured terviews wh 17 gay men.

Wrers, that he had rmed each prospective employer: “Look I’m gay and publicly volved wh this gay lerary magaze, so if that giv you a problem, we should jt fet about the job and enjoy lunch, sce this is a very good rtrant and you’re payg for . Mart’s was the gay wrer Edmund Whe’s send novel, “Nocturn for the Kg of Napl” (1978), an unnamed narrator’s elegiac evotn of a lost love. Mart’s — a first for a major publishg hoe — that republished many of the gay and lbian books that he had prevly released hardver.

ROXANE GAY

“Stonewall created a fn for gay books and gave a visibily that gay books had never had the past, which were prevly published by obscure ho or self-published, ” Robert Weil, executive edor and vice print of the Liveright imprt at W.

Shilts’s “The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Tim of Harvey Milk” (1988), about the openly gay member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors who was assassated 1978 by Dan Whe, a former supervisor. “No one had the fluence and visn, who, spe of everythg, to say that was OK to be gay, and he ma that mark through publishg, ” add Mr. “In 1971, as a rult of Stonewall, I moved to New York Cy, maly to be gay, ” he said the Lambda Lerary Foundatn terview, referrg to the Lower Manhattan uprisg 1969 that helped igne the gay rights movement.

” More about Richard SandomirA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn B, Page 10 of the New York edn wh the headle: Michael Denneny, Visnary Promoter of Gay Lerature, Di at 80.

HOW THE TIM GAVE ‘GAY’ ITS OWN VOICE (AGA)

Victor Navasky, who died this week aged 90, was famo for his books about the McCarthy perd the 1950s and Robert Kennedy’s jtice partment the 1960s, his longtime edorship of the Natn magaze, and posns at Columbia Universy cludg chairg the Columbia Journalism almost no one remembers is how his homophobic reactn to a famoly homophobic article Harper’s magaze led him to missn the most pro-gay piece the New York Tim had published up to that time – a foundatnal document which appeared 1971, at the dawn of the movement for gay September 1970, Harper’s, a famoly liberal magaze, published a notor article by Joseph Epste: Homo/hetero: the stggle for sexual earlit long-form reactn to the buddg gay movement a liberal magaze, the article appeared 14 months after police raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar New York’s Greenwich Village, sparkg famo rts. Epste wrote that homosexuals were “cursed … que lerally, the medieval sense of havg been stck by an unexplaed jury, an extreme piece of evil luck”.

He had never told another straight person about his week after Epste’s article appeared, Miller lunched at Chambert, a French rtrant that was a favore Tim hangout, wh his two edors at the Tim’ magaze: Gerald Walker and Victor years later, the Columbia Journalism Review (not then eded by Navasky) reported what was an era when the Harris poll reported that 63% of Amerins nsired homosexuals “harmful” to society, and the official manual of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn stated that all homosexuals were mentally asked Navasky and Walker what they thought about Epste’s diatribe.