<2 Minute Read + a Long External Article

I bet you didn't envision a post on homosexuality today, did you?   And that's not all:  What I present is as disturbing as anything I've ever published. 

And no, it's not me coming out as gay.

What follows is not mine nor anything about me.  I didn't write it, and as I've read and re-read it, I frankly can't believe anyone wrote it. 

But I am still republishing - all 6,500 words worth - an article entitled Homosexuality in America.  It appeared in a single issue of Life magazine, in 1964.  June 26, 1964, in fact - precisely 60 years ago today.

I hope you'll take the time (and it will take some) to read it.  At a minimum, it's an entertaining, if prurient, time capsule. 

But considered more broadly (and maturely), this article vividly brings to life what some have had to unjustly overcome. 

In other words, if you want to see mindless discrimination in stark relief, this is it.

I learned of the article's existence while perusing the San Francisco sub-Reddit, where someone respectfully asked how SF came to have as large of an LGBT community as it does.   This Life piece was cited as an explanation and reflection of America's progress.  That's what motivated me to dig deeper and put this together.

It's important to note that for much of the 20th century Life magazine was a common thread that bound much of America together.  It was the zeitgeist.

So you might be shocked and even offended by what was being written about gay people by the country's most popular magazine.  

But we should also celebrate - especially during Pride Month, and yes, that's Mr. Anti-Psycho Woke talking - how far we have come as a society.  The moronic and delusional content in the article proves that.

You can see the original content here; it begins on page 66.

(Right before an article on how to make beef bourguignon at home . . .)   

Here is a PDF of the text of the article; reading the original version online can be difficult.

Yes, I feel it's that important and that worth your attention.   

10 Seconds of Seriousness:  I intend no message other than to highlight how fucked-up this shit was and how far we've progressed.  While the way we treat people can always improve, there is no arguing we've come a very long way from the mentality that produced such an "analysis," published in the biggest and most important magazine in America at the time.

If you don't take the time to read the article, please do know this.  In the 6,500+ words of the article, nobody could bring themselves to acknowledge "the cause" of homosexuality: 

People are born the way they are.

It's not life if you have to pretend you're something you're not, and millions had to. 

60 years on, that's worth remembering.  

The wannabe celluloid hero Hunter Deuce went all clever on us in response to my Have a Baby! post.  

Yeah, I had to ask, too.  It's from the 2006 film Children of Men, which Mr. Leisure deems "incredible." 

Thank you for reading this newsletter.  

Speaking of leather . . . here is my collection of Killer Judas Priest songs.   

It couldn't very well be Barry Manilow or Liberace, now could it?  Whoops, is that wrong to say during Pride Month?
 
Fun Fact:  As we rushed the rail at the Judas Priest show at Albany's Palace Theater on July 21, 1981, I don't think any of us had a clue what Rob Halford was signifying with his attire.  But I do know we couldn't have cared less:  They rocked the place to the fucking ground that night.