'Grandfather of the gay rights movement' gets his due 'The Deviant's War'

Contents:

• PATRICK GALE: ‘I TURNED MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER GAY’
• THE HIDN GAY LIV OF 'THE WALTONS' GRANDPARENTS ELLEN CORBY & WILL GEER SPE THEIR MARRIAG
• WHEN GRANDPA FOUND OUT I WAS GAY
• HAPPILY EVER AFTER?; GAY GRANDPA, ALHOL ABE AND A PLAYBOY CENTREFOLD ... WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED ON WALTON'S MOUNTA. BUT THE PERFECT FAY ACTED OUT THE DRAMAS REAL LIFE ...
• GAY GRANDFATHERS: INTERGENERATNAL RELATNSHIPS AND MENTAL HEALTH
• ‘THE WALTONS’: MARRIED TV COUPLE GRANDMA & GRANDPA WERE BOTH ACTUALLY GAY
• 90-YEAR-OLD GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY, SEARCH FOR LONG-LOST LOVE
• 95-YEAR-OLD GREAT GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY
• A GRANDSON SHARED DISVERG HIS GRANDFATHER'S SECRET GAY LOVE STORY AND IT’S SO PURE
• MY MAD GAY GRANDFATHER AND ME
• PETER ROME: GRANDFATHER OF GAY PORN
• 'GRANDFATHER OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT' GETS HIS DUE 'THE DEVIANT'S WAR'
• 90-YEAR-OLD GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY, SEARCH FOR LONG-LOST LOVE

PATRICK GALE: ‘I TURNED MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER GAY’

And wonrg how I would have ped wh beg obliged to marry and have children or wh beg propelled to a harsh, isolated and almost exclively mascule environment, was perhaps evable that I should have turned my great-grandfather of urse he uldn’t be gay. I now repeatedly tch myself lookg at Harry’s photograph and drawg spur fort om the thought of havg a gay anctor who found te, if secret, love at last on a prairie farmstead. However, they were gay real life and were volved homosexual relatnships.

| Source: Getty ImagWILL GEER'S GAY LIFE, ACTIVISM, AND MARRIAGE Meanwhile, she lived a siar life to her long-time -star Geer, "Will Geer, who got blacklisted durg the anti-munist wch hunts, had a male lover.

" His partner was Harry Hay, a gay rights activist, but their relatnship later end. Geer opted to marry 1938 after beg both a Party activist and actively gay for at least four years.

THE HIDN GAY LIV OF 'THE WALTONS' GRANDPARENTS ELLEN CORBY & WILL GEER SPE THEIR MARRIAG

It remas unclear whether his marriage to Ware signaled an end to his same-sex sexual activy or if the mician married bee he believed the Communist Party strictly prohibed homosexuals om jog. Hay was the founr of gay liberatn and created the first morn gay-rights anizatn 1950. At first, no one wanted to jo him formg a polil anizatn for homosexuals.

He spent two years searchg among the gay men he knew Los Angel. One day, my mom received a phone ll om her sister Karen who said, “Dad jt lled me to ask if Stty was gay. “I am gay, ” I said.

WHEN GRANDPA FOUND OUT I WAS GAY

“The Bible is clear that homosexualy is a s. Many Christian thkers, cludg entire nomatns, don’t thk scripture nmns homosexualy.

“Pappoo, I don’t believe beg gay is s. “Are there other gay people your church? “Our membership is mostly gays and lbians.

knew that Grandpa (Will Geer) was gay, Pa (Ralph Wae) was a reverg. lover of one of Ameri's most famo gay activists Harry Hay. Hay formed the group the Radil Faeri to liven up the gay scene.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER?; GAY GRANDPA, ALHOL ABE AND A PLAYBOY CENTREFOLD ... WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED ON WALTON'S MOUNTA. BUT THE PERFECT FAY ACTED OUT THE DRAMAS REAL LIFE ...

But he kept quiet that he was homosexual and was the lover of the. gay activist Harry Hay.

later won a Tony award for playg a gay Vietnam veteran on Broadway. Gay grandfathers: Intergeneratnal relatnships and mental health.

This study explored the experienc of 79 gay grandfathers wh their adult children and grandchildren. Consistent wh fdgs of earlier rearch on heterosexual grandparents, gay grandfathers reported closer relatnships wh grandchildren who lived near them and wh whom they had equent ntact. In addn, gay grandfathers who reported that they had disclosed their sexual orientatn to grandchildren reported closer relatnships wh them.

GAY GRANDFATHERS: INTERGENERATNAL RELATNSHIPS AND MENTAL HEALTH

Consistent wh fdgs for heterosexual grandparents, greater perceived social support was associated wh better mental health among gay grandfathers. Th, over and above factors known to affect tergeneratnal relatnships and mental health among olr people, we found that some variabl specific to gay grandfathers were also important predictors of their relatnship qualy wh their grandchildren and of their mental health.

However, their private liv, each was actually gay and homosexual relatnships of sorts.

As lovers, the two spired and fluenced one another to gay rights activism. Today, Harry Hay is celebrated as a sort of foundg father gay rights activism.

‘THE WALTONS’: MARRIED TV COUPLE GRANDMA & GRANDPA WERE BOTH ACTUALLY GAY

Kenh Felts is a ttament to the age of 90, he’s fally openg up about an sential part of his life that he’s long kept hidn: Felts is gay. “In 1942 when I was 12, I realized I was gay, ” the nonagenarian a child growg up a strictly relig hoehold Kansas, he felt unable to exprs that to anyone else or pursue any such relatnship — at least until he left home. “A lot of them tellg me that they've got more urage now to e out, ” he said wh a se, also addg, "I'm out, I'm gay and I'm ee.

Roman Blank knew he was gay when he was jt five years old, but hid his sexualy for ne —who was married for 60 years and has two children, five grandchildren and one great grandchild—cid to e out last year when he was 95. "I jt told them pla, that I was born, and was all my life, gay.

" Worked to a oth, Banis sat down to give the tablishment a full-throated--and very gay--screw right back. The rult: The Why Not, a first-of-s-kd and very unabashed llectn of ank, often funny vigt about gay men livg Los Angel.

90-YEAR-OLD GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY, SEARCH FOR LONG-LOST LOVE

It didn't take long for Banis to wre -- was based large part on his own life -- but sellg was a different story, one that changed gay culture forever, and one whose legacy I had to learn more about.

"I don't thk any gay man that grew up before the revolutn got through whout srs. "[And that] is probably the bt thg that uld happen to a gay boy growg up there and then.

" No one seemed to re he was gay, and a young Banis tacly acknowledged that openns by movg out Wt wh another man 's fay did, however, tend on him beg upright. " The same ia applied to gay books.

95-YEAR-OLD GREAT GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY

"Why shouldn't a book show homosexualy a favorable light?

Why shouldn't gays be allowed to fall love and live happily ever after? "Banis had wrten for a few of the unrground gay magaz before 1966. Bis, he didn't want to peddle the stereotyp and pathetic gay characters beg floated at the time.

While some small publishers prted gay books, they were mostly tal of woe.

A GRANDSON SHARED DISVERG HIS GRANDFATHER'S SECRET GAY LOVE STORY AND IT’S SO PURE

Banis often c Grove Prs's 1963 publitn John Rechy's sad gay htler tale Cy of Night as an example. The lerary tablishment was too obssed wh homosexual drama. "If you thk about the gay lerary tablishment, even today, AIDS was a godsend to them -- they uld wre books about guys fallg love and still have their tragic endg, " Banis says.

MY MAD GAY GRANDFATHER AND ME

But gettg published was a different story: No one wanted to touch gay fictn, pecially somethg proud and pro-sex, and The Why Not amassed dozens of rejectns before one empathetic edor suggted Banis try Earl Kemp at Greenleaf you ask Banis, the gay rights revolutn isn't "pre-Stonewall" or "post-Stonewall, " 's pre-Greenleaf and post-Greenleaf. And was Kemp--a straight man who wasn't that terted sharg a gay story, or even improvg gay rights--who was the talyst. As Kemp explaed to me, he was terrified of gay men and had never met one until Banis and his then-lover, fellow wrer and sometim llaborator Sam Dodson, took him out on the town.

The thought of beg alone wh a known, active gay person was more than I uld handle, " Kemp wrote an email exchange. "For the first time I saw gays, big numbers, jt beg themselv. His cisn to publish the book changed gay culture forever.

Kemp is, acrdg to Banis, "one of the unsung hero of gay publitns.

PETER ROME: GRANDFATHER OF GAY PORN

As an example, here's a narratn that may rg faiar to many ntemporary gay men: "This prent arrangement had been Walt's ia. "The gay pulp market explod after The Why Not's publitn. But Holm wasn't jt a mpy character, a spoofy and gay Jam Bond.

Effemate (if strong and agile) gay man was a shockg twist on the accepted notns of genr rol at the time. One might have imaged a gay hero who was big and mascule--that might make some sense--but a queen?.. Wh the publitn of the first book the seri, Victor Banis overthrew a century of gay stereotyp and vented somethg shockgly new and culturally powerful.

'GRANDFATHER OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT' GETS HIS DUE 'THE DEVIANT'S WAR'

"And unlike past gay books, wh vague, opaque vers, the Man om CAMP's vers, illtrated by Robert Bonfils, ma clear this queen knew how to live life. He may have been fotten had not been for gay wrers such as Bronski, who celebrat Banis his anthropologil study Pulp Frictn, and, jt as important, Lra Bmbach, a straight female thor who disvered Banis' work at the turn of the 21st century and cid had to be saved.

Dpe their flaws--cludg weak plots or seemgly flippant portrayals of limp-wristed queens--pulps were sential to the creatn of a herent, llective gay inty. "Pulps were the first mass reprentatn available to generatns of (embryo) gay people, " thor and profsor Fab Cleto wr his troductn to Banis's memoir. "They also sparked the advent of gay nsumer culture.

90-YEAR-OLD GRANDFATHER OUT AS GAY, SEARCH FOR LONG-LOST LOVE

In his book Culture Clash: The Makg of Gay Sensibily, Bronski wr, "Gay culture had reached a pot by 1967 where uld be marketed at a prof. Perhaps gay men--even across a wi generatnal divi--do speak a mon language and do have a shared sensibily, one which we have to fd silver lgs the face of childhood tnts and stutnalized discrimatn.