Petrelis Files

Larry Kramer:
Homosexual Sounds Good Again!

(Photo credit: David Shankbone.)

Aardvark Books on Church Street had only one copy left of the March/April issue of the Gay and Lesbian Review on the stands this afternoon, and I grabbed it. Right off the bat, I was stimulated by some of the content, which comes from our beloved and cranky gay godfather of angry activism and rhetoric, Larry Kramer. He writes in the letters column:

Jason Schneiderman’s article [G&LR, Jan.-Feb. 09] about my article [Sept.-Oct. 09] certainly shows a great deal of work. I wish I could understand it as something more than what I have come to name all queer studies: gobbledygook. You people do seem to find unlimited ways to obfuscate the obvious. [...]

I do believe in the “universality of homosexuality,” and from the beginning of history. All this other shit you and others continue to lay on top of this simple definition is wearying, annoying, and retrograde. And it’s the greatest inhibitor to our progress as a people. I too am unhappy with the word “gay.” But it is not as loaded as you guys have made “queer.” In a strange way, “homosexual” is beginning to sound good again!

Oh, to not only reclaim true and glittering fabulous terms like gay and queer and homosexual, and put forward an agenda of liberation and pride in our uniqueness.

Homosexual may be sounding good again to Larry and others, but we are still stuck with the weak and useless gay wing of the Democratic Party, the Human Rights Campaign, running our agenda in Washington, and HRC ain't delivering shit for any of us, no matter what terms we use to identify ourselves.

Support the Gay and Lesbian Review, buy a copy today of the magazine at your local gay bookstore or newsstand.