Gay and Lesbian Review Jan.-Feb. 2018
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MILESTONES The Gay& Lesbian Review WORLDWIDE January–February 2018 $5.95 USA and Canada JAMES O’KEEFE The Evolutionary Origins of Homosexuality TIMOTHY HOBSON Last Surviving Eyewitness to The Alger Hiss Case Tells All MARTHA E. STONE Remembering Those Who Left Us in 2017 MARTIN DUBERMAN Why Auden & Kallman Endured Alison Bechdel Tennessee Williams’ Woes BY ANDREW HOLLERAN ‘The Odyssey is all about father and son.’ AN INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL MENDELSOHN Fun Home, the Musical, Hits the Road BY ROSEMARY BOOTH The Gay & Lesbian Re view January–February 2018 • VOLUME XXV, NUMBER 1 WORLDWIDE The Gay & Lesbian Review ® WORLDWIDE CONTENTS PO Box 180300, Boston, MA 02118 Editor-in-Chief and Founder Milestones RICHARD SCHNEIDER JR. ____________________________________ EATURES Literary Editor F MARTHA E. STONE Honoring Those Who Left Us in ’17 10 M ARTHA E. S TONE Poetry Editor A few words in memory of some people who made a difference DAVID BERGMAN Evolutionary Origins of Homosexuality 14 J AMES O’KEEFE,EVAN Associate Editors Epigenetic switches are activated when a gay son is needed most O’KEEFE,&JOHN HODES JIM FARLEY JEREMY FOX Eyewitness to the Alger Hiss Case 19 T IMOTHY HOBSON CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY The accused Communist’s stepson tells the homo side of the story MICHAEL SCHWARTZ “The Odyssey is Contributing Writers all about father and son.” 22 D ANIEL MENDELSOHN ROSEMARY BOOTH Frank Pizzoli talks with a classicist in the footsteps of Homer DANIEL BURR The Unreliable Tenderness o NDREW RICHARD CANNING f the World 25 A HOLLERAN COLIN CARMAN Tennessee Williams’ woes are all there in letters to James Laughlin ALFRED CORN ALLEN ELLENZWEIG Why Auden and Kallman Endured 28 M ARTIN DUBERMAN CHRIS FREEMAN A new look at Chester Kallman explains why they stayed together PHILIP GAMBONE MATTHEW HAYS ANDREW HOLLERAN REVIEWS CASSANDRA LANGER ANDREW LEAR Alexander Howard — Charles Henri Ford 32 FELICE PICANO DAVID MASELLO Karin Roffman — The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery’s Early Life 33 ALAN CONTRERAS JIM NAWROCKI Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni – After Andy; Thomas Morgan Evans – 3D Warhol 34 MARTHA E. STONE JAMES POLCHIN Stephen Bourne — Fighting Proud 35 PHILIP GAMBONE JEAN ROBERTA VERNON ROSARIO Ian Schrager — Studio 54 37 J. KEN STUCKEY HEATHER SEGGEL Armistead Maupin — Logical Family: A Memoir 38 JIM NAWROCKI YOAV SIVAN John Boyne — The Heart’s Invisible Furies 39 DALE BOYER Contributing Artist BRIEFS 41 CHARLES HEFLING Sean F. Edgecomb — Charles Ludlam Lives! 42 RICHARD CANNING Advertising Manager John Lauritsen — The Shelley-Byron Men 43 DANIEL A. BURR STEPHEN HEMRICK Michael Ausiello — Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies 43 TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Parvez Sharma — A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance 44 CHARLES GREEN Webmaster OLIN ARMAN WWW.STRATEGYBEACH.COM Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, directors — Battle of the Sexes 48 C C ____________________________________ Alison Bechdel, writer; Sam Gold, director — Fun Home 50 ROSEMARY BOOTH Board of Directors STEWART CLIFFORD (CHAIRMAN) ART COHEN POEMS & DEPARTMENTS EDUARDO FEBLES DRIAN ITCHIE DONALD GORTON (CLERK) Guest Opinion — On “Passing” in the Transgender Community 5 A R DIANE HAMER CORRESPONDENCE 6 TED HIGGINSON IN MEMORIAM — Charles Shively, Pioneer Activist and Author 7 MICHAEL BRONSKI ROBERT HARDMAN BTW 8RICHARD SCHNEIDER JR. DAV ID LAFONTAINE ROBERT NICOSON POEM — “Life Study” 27 MARIAN MERIAM RICHARD SCHNEIDER,JR.(PRESIDENT) POEM — “April 27, 1932, Gulf of Mexico” 36 PAUL ALEXANDER MARTHA E. STONE POEM — “Let Me Count the Ways” 40 DAVID CURRY THOMAS YOUNGREN (TREASURER) CULTURAL CALENDAR 45 WARREN GOLDFARB (SR. ADVISOR EMER.) ARTIST’S PROFILE — Juan Bastos, Portrait Painter, on Exhibit in LA 46 CHRIS FREEMAN The Gay & Lesbian Review/WORLDWIDE® (formerly The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 1994-1999) is published bimonthly (six times per year) by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational corporation located in Boston, Mass. Subscriptions: Call 844-752-7829. Rates: U.S.: $35.70 per year (6 issues). Canada and Mexico: $45.70(US). All other countries: $55.70(US). All non-U.S. copies are sent via air mail. Back issues available for$12each. All correspondence is sent in a plain envelope marked “G&LR.” © 2018 by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. All rights reserved. WEBSITE: www.GLReview.org • SUBSCRIPTIONS: 844-752-7829 • ADVERTISING: 617-421-0082 • SUBMISSIONS: [email protected] January–F!bruary 2018 3 FROM THE EDITOR The G&LR’s 25th Year Begins: ‘Milestones’ HUS BEGINS our 25th year of publication, which is it- sity to survive and reproduce than do families not similarly self a “milestone” of sorts, one that’s hard to absorb on blessed, so their genes are preserved. Ta few levels both personal and professional. But I think Another kind of breakthrough is offered here by Timothy the word “milestone” can also describe a number of the articles Hobson, who is the 91-year-old stepson of Alger Hiss. For that follow. This issue, in other words, does not have a strong readers not old enough to remember Richard Nixon, Hiss was conceptual theme, but several of these pieces make important a rising star in the U.S. State Department in the late 1940s until and original contributions to the LGBT knowledge base. an old associate, Whitaker Chambers, went before the House To start with the sense of “milestone” as used in periodicals Un-American Activities Committee and testified that Hiss was to announce births, deaths, and marriages, it is the second cat- a member of the Communist Party. Nixon joined in the smear egory that concerns us here, as Martha E. Stone offers her an- campaign. Hobson had an insider’s view of these events and nual roundup of LGBT activists, artists, writers, and others offers a theory as to why Chambers, an admitted homosexual, who passed away last year. It seems an unusually long roster chose to go after Hiss with such mendacious fury. this time for whatever reason. It occurs to me, only half face- More firsthand research is on display as Martin Duberman tiously, that the political apocalypse of 2016 has acted as a opens the vault on the lives of W. H. Auden and Chester Kall- major stressor on many people in the interim, and perhaps this man, who stayed together despite vast differences in lifestyle has taken a toll. and level of commitment. This re-appraisal of Kallman’s mo- A more upbeat sense of “milestone” applies to a number of tives and character dispels the image of him as a user and ne’er- other pieces that I think represent important breakthroughs or do-well and helps explain why Auden stayed in the relationship revelations in our understanding of LGBT issues. The article until his death in 1973. by James O’Keefe, et al., offers an elegant synthesis of scien- Another kind of milestone is suggested by an Artist’s Pro- tific findings on homosexuality in a way that resolves the fun- file of portrait painter Juan Bastos, who recently had a one- damental paradox it presents to evolutionary theory. Given that man retrospective of his work in Los Angeles. Juan produced same-sex-oriented people tend to have few children, why does- the artwork for twelve covers of this magazine from 2004 to n’t homosexuality die out? Not to give too much away, but it 2012, and we are heartened by his continued success. turns out that families with gay members have a higher propen- RICHARD SCHNEIDER JR. By the author of the memoir August Farewell and the novel Searching for Gilead. “Atmospheric style and intimate characterizations... explores literature and sexuality as dual forces in the construction of a person’s experience and identity. Often explicitly erotic and always well-written.” — Clarion Review (4 stars out of 5) Available at www.amazon.com & www.DavidGHallman.com 4Th! Gay & L!sban R!v!w / oRLdide GUEST OPINION On ‘Passing’ in the Transgender Community bastion of male exclusion. ADRIAN RITCHIE As of 2016, Canada has a law that protects people against CAN REMEMBER every time I have used a men’s rest- these forms of discrimination—a legal change brought about room since coming out as a man. The first time, I was walk- by adding the words “gender identity and gender expression” Iing through my university with a friend, and I hesitated at to a list of categories protected from discrimination. Needless the door as the outline of a male stick figure drilled into my to say, legal protection cannot shield people from all private gaze, my hesitation prompting my friend to shove me inside. It acts of hostility. But it’s worth noting that Canada accom- wasn’t a busy restroom stop—there was actually no one else in plished this expansion of rights through a simple addition of there at the time—but still I was terrified. What if someone protected categories, a measure that the U.S. could easily enact else came in? How would I escape? Would there be enough through a simple tweak to the Civil Rights Act—if the politi- time to wash my hands? All these thoughts ran through my cal will to do so were there. head. In the end, no one came in, and with subsequent visits to Fortunately, there are resources for people who share my other, busier men’s rooms, I’ve come to realize that it’s not so experiences. Refuge Restrooms is a service that “seeks to pro- different from being in the women’s room. For the most part, vide safe restroom access for transgender, intersex, and gender no one really cares. nonconforming individuals” (see www.RefugeRestrooms.org). Still, those first few visits terrified me, and I didn’t really They also have an app that allows users to find where nearby start to use the men’s room until I truly felt that I could “pass.” gender neutral restrooms are located.