Dan Vera, Humor, Marriage Equality, Religion, Right Wingers

Maggie Gallagher Speaks

November 8, 2009 Dan Vera Leave a comment

You can thank Jeff Whitty (of Avenue Q) for this bit o' truth.

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Gay Wisdom – Today in Gay History

Born

1907 -

ROGER PEYREFITTE, French author and novelist, born (d: 2000); For a time, Roger Peyrefitte was very much the enfant terrible of the contemporary French literary world. He has been attacked as a pornographer, and a mischief-maker, all of which are true, but he is essentially a very funny satirist of French manners and hypocrisy, the very epitome of the Gay archetype of the Jester and the Contrary. One of his more recent books Les Juifs (The Jews) caused a sensation because it “proved” that virtually every one of any importance at all – from the Pope, to Winston Churchill to J.F.K – is Jewish.

He was, needless to say, attacked for his “anti-Semitism,” when, in fact, his entire point was to skewer anti-Semitism. Its critics notwithstanding, the book sold 200,000 copies in France alone. A few years before, he caused a minor scandal by accusing Pope Paul VI of being homosexual. Since he was never prosecuted, one can assume either Christian charity or no contest on the part of Rome. His Gay novels, Special Friendships (1945), and The Exile of Capri (1961), the latter a fictionalized biography of Adelsward Fersen, are particularly recommended.

Peyrefitte died in 2000.

1951 -

WESLEY EURE is an American actor, singer, author, producer, director, charity fundraiser, and lecturer born on this date. He is best known for appearing as Michael Horton on the American soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1974 to 1981, during which he also starred on the popular children's television series Land of the Lost. He later hosted the popular children's game show Finders Keepers in 1987 and 1988, and co-created the children's educational television show Dragon Tales in 1999. He subsequently published several books (for children and adults), and has produced plays and raised funds for HIV/AIDS and other causes.

Although Eure had relationships with women, he knew he was gay. He met movie star Richard Chamberlain in the early 1970s, and they entered into a serious relationship in 1975 when Chamberlain was 41 and Eure was 24. According to Eure, the two men lived together until their breakup in 1976, after which Chamberlain met his long-term partner Martin Rabbett. During this time, Eure says, he lived a fairly open life with Chamberlain, with many of his co-stars, producers, and crew aware of their relationship and Eure's homosexuality. Eure says of the relationship, "It broke my heart. I was destroyed. I was a kid, and he was a much older guy. ... I remember we broke up and I was on Days of Our Lives, I couldn’t stop shaking. I was crying so hard. I was a kid, comparatively. I went to the studio that day, and I was sobbing in the dressing room."

During his time on Password, he became friends with host Allen Ludden and his wife, Betty White. His work on Match Game led to friendships with Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers, and Fannie Flagg. While working on Land of the Lost, Eure met actress Deidre Hall, who was working on the Krofft children's superhero show Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Eure learned she was auditioning for Days, and worked with her and coached her on her successful audition for the soap. Also while on Days, Eure supported his mother as she attended law school. After her graduation, he named her his manager and personal attorney.

Eure was fired from Days of Our Lives in 1981. According to Eure, he was given many reasons for the cancellation of his contract after nine years on the show. But Eure says he believes the real reason was his homosexuality, which attracted attention and threatened more deeply closeted producers and actors. He learned of his firing while his mother was in the hospital about to undergo surgery for colon cancer. Years later, Eure says he met Earl Greenburg, the head of NBC's daytime programming division at the time he was fired. Greenburg, who was also gay, confirmed that Eure was fired because of rumours about his homosexuality. Eure also says one of the stars of Days of Our Lives confirmed that Eure's sexuality was the cause of his dismissal.

Eure did not act in film or television for six years after leaving Days of Our Lives, falling back on his musical career, and attributes this difficulty to Hollywood gossip about his sexual orientation. During the 1980s, Eure lost most of his gay friends to AIDS—including one of his closest friends, the director John Allison.

When Chamberlain was outed by a French magazine in 1989, Eure (who had already been named in one book as a closeted homosexual) feared, in those days before the national consciousness changed, that he would be exposed as well. But with the assistance of a friend at the National Enquirer, Eure's name was kept out of the American tabloid press.

Though still in the closet, Eure became a fund-raiser for a number of HIV/AIDS causes. It was during the premiere of the Land of the Lost film in 2009 that Eure decided to come out. He attended the premiere with a friend, Days of Our Lives production assistant Deanne Anders. While on the red carpet, Eure decided he would never again hide his sexuality. Already scheduled to do an interview with the LGBT news and lifestyle Web Site AfterElton.com about his HIV/AIDS charity work, Eure decided to finally come out of the closet in the interview.

He has helped to organize and host the LalaPOOLooza HIV/AIDS fund-raiser in Palm Springs, California, for many years. He has also raised funds for and assisted with Project Angel Food, a nonprofit organization that feeds homebound AIDS patients.

Today's Gay Wisdom

2019 -

The 2019 loss of Nobel Laureate author Toni Morrison reminded us of her comments on racism and fascism, a comparison even more relevant today.

In this address, given at Howard University during its 1995 Charter Day celebrations, Morrison spoke eloquently about the origins and social significance of Howard and other historically Black institutions of higher learning, about the education and mis-education of African Americans (and LGBT folk, we might add), and about the aberrant societal tensions wrought by racism, [sexism], and fascism.

. . . Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another. Something, perhaps, like this:

(1) Construct an internal enemy, as both focus and diversion.

(2) Isolate and demonize that enemy by unleashing and protecting the utterance of overt and coded name-calling and verbal abuse. Employ ad hominem attacks as legitimate charges against that enemy.

(3) Enlist and create sources and distributors of information who are willing to reinforce the demonizing process because it is profitable, because it grants power and because it works.

(4) Palisade all art forms; monitor, discredit or expel those that challenge or destabilize processes of demonization and deification.

(5) Subvert and malign all representatives of and sympathizers with this constructed enemy.

(6) Solicit, from among the enemy, collaborators who agree with and can sanitize the dispossession process.

(7) Pathologize the enemy in scholarly and popular mediums; recycle, for example, scientific racism and the myths of racial superiority in order to naturalize the pathology.

(8) Criminalize the enemy. Then prepare, budget for and rationalize the building of holding arenas for the enemy--especially its males and absolutely its children.

(9) Reward mindlessness and apathy with monumentalized entertainments and with little pleasures, tiny seductions, a few minutes on television, a few lines in the press, a little pseudo-success, the illusion of power and influence, a little fun, a little style, a little consequence.

(10) Maintain, at all costs, silence.

[...] Racism may wear a new dress, buy a new pair of boots, but neither it nor its succubus twin fascism is new or can make anything new. …

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Maggie Gallagher Speaks

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