Why Gore Vidal Refed to Intify as Gay

Contents:

• GORE VIDAL’S SPAT WH CHARLTON HTON OVER GAY ‘BEN-HUR’ SUBTEXT
• GORE VIDAL'S DEFENSE OF BEN-HUR'S GAY SUBTEXT
• HOW ONE SEXY GAY NOVEL RAILED GORE VIDAL'S LERARY REER
• GORE VIDAL'S ITALIAN FILMS: ROMA, CALIGULA AND A GAY BEN-HUR

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.

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

)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. ”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.

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. He claimed there was no such thg as beg "gay, " only gay sexual acts. Vidal also claimed that he didn't believe gay people, jt gay sexual acts.

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

Vidal first enuntered Aten at one of New York's gayt lotns of s time. His first novel, The Cy and the Pillar, is very graphic s scriptn of a gay relatnship and ed a sensatn when was first published, 1948.

would promently feature gay male characters, and Gore found soon. The acerbic wrer Gore Vidal once said that there was, his opn, “no such thg as a homosexual or a heterosexual person”.

“There are only homo or heterosexual acts. For the release of the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, which revealed the gay subtexts a number of famo Hollywood movi, the celebrated playwright, sayist and thor of ntroversial 1948 novel The Cy and the Pillar revealed he rewrote scen the early part of the 1959 biblil epic Ben-Hur to ht heavily at a prr sexual relatnship between Charlton Hton’s tle character and his childhood iend (and later betrayer) Msala (Stephen Boyd) revelatn ed a storm the letters pag of the Los Angel Tim 1996, wh Hton accg Vidal of exaggeratg his part wrg the screenplay and nigratg the good name of the film’s director, William Wyler.

GORE VIDAL'S ITALIAN FILMS: ROMA, CALIGULA AND A GAY BEN-HUR

In his reply to the Tim, Vidal revealed there was good reason for the film’s star to have been unaware of the Ben-Hur/Msala relatnship’s gay subtext, as no one had dared tell him about before the shoot. Asked if the new versn would addrs Vidal’s readg of the relatnship between Ben-Hur and Msala, Kebbell told the UK Prs Associatn: “It wasn’t somethg we avoid but wasn’t somethg we had, ” then add: “In 1959, the gay ntext was very important. ”So here we have one key st member suggtg there is no need for a gay readg bee the battle for equaly has been won 2016.