How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization - Cathy Crimmins [71]
The success of Kushner’s play on Broadway and its enormously popular cable television production were signs as sure as the signs of the coughing angel in his script: America is looking to groups that once were considered fringe or “evil”—i.e., homosexuals—to explain the stressful turn of current events. Harper, the lonely Mormon wife in Angels in America who discovers that her husband is a homosexual and that her faith is waning, speaks about loss and love at the end of the second part of the play, “Perestroika.” She seems to be describing all of American history: “Nothing’s lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead.”
Epilogue
Living in a Gay Time: Homos “” Us
I don’t want to look to the past and romanticize it . . . but
gay men used to be a bastion of culture and refinement.
Not that you have to dress up in little scarves or even go to
the opera necessarily, but I feel we’re losing that culture.
—singer Rufus Wainwright
I should like to know why nearly every man that approaches greatness tends towards homosexuality, whether he admits it or not.
—D. H. Lawrence
I’m a girly man. There’s a whole group of us, the Girly
Man’s Club—Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, Geoffrey
Rush—all enthusiastically heterosexual men who are bored
by sports and would much rather go shopping.
—actor Alfred Molina
[Q]ueerdom was a country in which there was more fun. There was something about homosexuality that seemed too much, too gorgeous, too ripe. I later came to realize that there was something marvelous about it because it seemed to be pushing everything to its fullest point.
—artist Larry Rivers, praising the gay art world of the 1950s
There was a much-used adage during the feminist movement of the 1970s: “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.” When I look at what gay men have accomplished in our world, I think: Homosexuals did everything with great style and panache, and they did a lot of it in tiny closets with no lights, and sometimes while fearing for their lives.
The amazing richness gay men have contributed to our culture can’t be denied—yet hardly anyone in straight America has acknowledged it on the grand scale it demands. And gay men should also get points for extra effort. They’ve given of themselves while always living within a largely homophobic culture and while coping with a devastating disease that continues to make horrible inroads into their communities.
I know it will take a long time for America to become a truly homophilic society, but the signs are here. Queer television is expanding. Gay marriages are now acknowledged in two states, and the stuffy New York Times finally prints homosexual marriage announcements. We see more gay elected officials every year, and more “out” businesspeople. The brave mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, recently went out on a limb to perform thousands of same-sex marriages not sanctioned by California’s existing laws.
Gays are gradually being assimilated into mainstream culture, and therefore are at the point where their uniqueness as a people will inevitably become threatened. If they’re not careful, they could become boring, just like straight people.
I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope that with more widespread acceptance, gay men will continue to bring their verve and flamboyance to the mainstream. After all, it’s hip to be gay. Heterosexuals envy the gay lifestyle, with its disposable income, innate stylishness, frequent travel, and stimulating nightlife.
“The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name” has always whispered on the fringes of our straight world, making quiet suggestions for a more civilized way of life. Now that voice is singing and talking at normal volume. Straight people can hear that steady hum of change and recognize