This brief overview of gay, lesbian and queer issues might begin with the "invention" of

the "Homosexual" and the "Heterosexual" a little over 100 years ago by medical and

early psychological researchers. This is not to say that all sorts of sexual behaviors

(including homosexuality and heterosexuality) had not existed before that time, but rather

that with that act of classification, Western medical science now proclaimed homosexuals

and heterosexuals as definite (and potentially opposing) types of people. Once labeled, it

is easier to identify and oppress any social group, and the 20'-century history of

homosexuality has demonstrated a great deal of persecution at the hands of the legal and

medical establishments, various religious groups, and all sorts of other social bodies and

individuals. Conversely, it has also been possible for gay men and lesbians to fight for

rights and recognition based upon those same identity labels.

Members of the medical establishment argued back and forth for decades about what

"caused" homosexuality, and some still do. In do doing, researchers assumed that

heterosexuality was the norm, and that homosexuality was thus a disease of the norm that

could be cured. This assumption that heterosexuality is the only normal sexual

orientation , and that it should be celebrated and privileged above all others, is called

beterosexism. Heterosexism is pervasive and usually un-remarked upon in our culture,

and is somewhat different from the more extreme practice or prejudice of homophobia

(see below),

There are two main models of homosexual identity formation that have held sway

throughout much of the 20th century. The first is that homosexuals are born that way.

This model is also known as an essentialist or biological or congenital model of

sexuality-that people's sexuality is hardwired from birth like left-handedness or having

blue eyes. Magnus Hirschfeld, an early 2CP-century sexologist (who had also founded

one of the world's first homosexual rights group in Weimar Germany), believed that

homosexuals were bom as a "third sex" and that they should not be persecuted on the

grounds that they were genetically hardwired towards homosexuality. Recent work on

the "gay brain" by Simon Le Vay or attempts to find a "gay gene" are more

contemporary versions of this essentialist, biological model of sexuality. While this

model "legitimizes" homosexuality in its own way-literally "naturalizing" it as a

regularly occurring phenomenon of human sexuality, some people fear it also might also

legitimize a "disease and cure" model: if the "cause" of homosexuality can indeed be

found, then some people may work to see it eradicated or medically "corrected."

The other major model of homosexual identity formation is known as a social

constructionist model, which says homosexuals are not born that way but are rather

made into homosexuals through various social conditions. Some psychiatrists have

argued through the recent century that too much mother love, or not enough, or

incomplete Oedipalization leads to homosexual behavior and identity formation. Despite

their inability to identify and isolate the causative mechanisms of homosexuality,

psychiatry and psychology obviously had a vested economic interest in this

model - curing homosexuals can be big business in a culture that heaps such opprobrium

upon gay and lesbian people. In World War Two, psychiatrists were used to weed out

and potentially cure homosexuals within the Armed Services; for decades after that

people were often institutionalized and subjected to highly questionable medical practices

such as lobotomies, hormone treatments, and electroshock in misguided attempts to cure

people of their sexual orientation. Homosexuality was eventually declassified as a

pathology by the medical establishment in 1973, but it was not until the 1990s that the

American Medical Association formally declared that any and all Preparative therapies"

designed to turn homosexual people into heterosexuals were the equivalent of consumer

fraud. Some so-called "ex-gay ministries" and like-minded therapists can still guilt

people (both heterosexual and homosexual) into not having sex, but science or religion

has rarely been able to change sexual orientation itself.

These two models are not necessarily contradictory. Many researchers now argue that

while some potential for sexuality is probably hardwired into the species, what an

individual's sexuality will be and how it will express itself is also determined by the

social factors and conditions that the individual experiences during his or her lifetime.

Since physiological research has moved away from trying to figure out what "causes"

homosexuality, it has begun to explore why some people exhibit such fear and hatred and

passionate bigotry towards homosexuals. This fear and hatred is often termed

homophobia. Sigmund Freud and some of his early followers theorized that

homophobia is a defense mechanism against one's own homosexual tendencies. This

theory is dependent upon the assumption that every one is potentially bisexual before

social forces shape us into either heterosexuals or homosexuals, and that latent

homosexual feelings in heterosexual people may become disconcerting; this is called

ego-dystonic homosexuality. Thus the compulsive expression of hatred towards

homosexuals that these individuals display is an attempt to displace and deny their own

internal homosexual feelings-they try to eradicate homosexuality from society as a way

of attempting to quell it within themselves, all the while proving to everyone around them

how "not gay" they really are. Recent behaviorist researchers have claimed to have

proven this theory by putting it to the test. They divided a group of men into highly

homophobic or non-homophobic groups based upon interviews and questionnaires. They

then exposed each group to homosexual erotica and measured the sexual response. The

highly homophobic group showed more sexual response to the homosexual erotica than

did the non-homophobic group, leading the researchers to conclude that Freud was

right-homophobic people are themselves homoerotically inclined, but their conscious

mind is unable to deal with it.

Our society is still so heterosexist and homophobic that it should not be surprising that it

is often very difficult for individuals to come forward and self-identity themselves as

homosexual (this is called coming out of the closet.) Homophobia and heterosexism are

also tied to the patriarchal culture in which we live, and sometimes homophobia

functions as a way to control traditional gender roles. If a boy exhibits sensitivity he is

often called a faggot, and a girl who doesn't want to wear makeup might be called a dyke

by her peers. In this way, the ideology of homophobia works to enforce the binary of

traditional gender roles (i.e. Men are From Mars and Women are From Venus) and keep

patriarchal power structures firmly in place.

Although the understanding of homosexuality has been overshadowed throughout most

of the 2& century by medicine and psychiatry, all that was changed when gay and

lesbian people started claiming their own identifies and fighting for their civil rights.

There were many such attempts in post-World War H America to start gay and lesbian

civil rights groups. The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis were two of

the most famous and longlasting, while magazines such as Vice Versa, One, The

Mattachine Review, and The Ladder helped the fledgling gay and lesbian civil rights

network speak to its members. Sporadic protests and civil actions occurred through out

the 1960s, but it was the Stonewall Riots of June 1969 that are usually understood to

have sparked the modem gay liberation movement. The Stonewall Inn was a Mafia-

controlled gay bar in Greenwich Village, NYC, and when the police decided to raid it, the

patrons (most of whom were Latino and African American drag queens and butch

lesbians) fought back, and three days of rioting in the streets ensued. Perhaps most

importantly, these riots were covered in national news magazines and newspapers and a

new liberation movement (similar to those being created by women, African Americans,

Native Americans, and hispanics), suddenly came into mainstream America's view.

In the few years after the Stonewall Riots, all sorts of gay and lesbian groups-both

political and social-began forming and declaring the existence of all sorts of lesbians

and gay men. Political action groups such as the Gay Activists Alliance and the Gay

Liberation Front were formed, as were church groups, sports groups, campus groups,

professional groups, and all kinds of lesbian groups within and without the larger

feminist movement of the 1970s. By the 1990s, it was a truism that out and proud gay

and lesbian people were everywhere, in every segment of society, within every racial and

ethnic group, class, profession, religion, and political party.

Yet, even as gay and lesbian people have become more visible in American culture, as

the medical and legal establishments gave up their claim to homosexuality as disease or

crime, some religious groups began to frame the growing gay rights movement as a moral

issue. By the late 1970s, many right-wing conservative Christian groups began attacking

the idea of gay and lesbian visibility and basic civil rights protection. This opposition

became even more intense with the election to the American Presidency in 1980 of

Ronald Reagan, a man who had aligned himself with conservative religious groups such

as the Moral Majority. When the AIDS crisis began to effect gay men in the early

1980s, many right wing politicos used this tragic epidemic as "proof 'of God's

vengeance against gays (the fact that lesbians rarely got the disease seems to have

escaped their notice, but did lead some people to quip that lesbians must then be God's

chosen people!).

The history of AIDS in the 1980s has been amply documented by Randy Shuts and

others. Until 1985, when the highly publicized death of Rock Hudson from AIDS made

mainstream America confront the epidemic, the government and much of American

society had remained unconcerned about the disease as it was only "social undesirables'

such as homosexuals and IV drug users who were contracting the syndrome. Much panic

and hysteria overwhelmed the nation until it was discovered that AIDS could only be

transmitted through sexual intercourse or the sharing of needles. Even then Congress

repeatedly blocked attempts to fund educational campaigns about AIDS prevention and

even refused funding that could have supported research surveys desperately needed by

the Center for Disease Control in its fight against AIDS.

As a result of government apathy and inaction in the face of the AIDS crisis, many gay

and lesbian people became more actively involved in politics, and started to demand that

government respond not only to the AIDS crisis but also to issues of discrimination

against gay and lesbian people. Groups such as Act Up (The AIDS Coalition To Unleash

Power) and Queer Nation were formed, and they demonstrated in the streets for gay and

lesbian issues. Most of these activists held a strong anti-assimilationist stance that

rejected the bourgeois labels of "gay," "lesbian," and "bisexual" and equally bourgeois

(as they saw it) pleas for tolerance and acceptance. Use of the word queer was meant to

be confrontational and reappropriative, to fling back at America an ugly word that the

country had used to oppress non-straight people for decades. Queer activists were angry

and demanded to be recognized as part of American culture and have their concerns

addressed. As one famous queer activist protest chant proclaimed, "We're here, we're

queer, get used to it!"

While queer activists were demonstrating in the streets, something called Queer Theory

began to be discussed in universities across the nation and in Canada and Europe. Queer

Theory grows out of feminist thought, poststructuralist and postmortem theory, and the

fledgling and still struggling discipline of gay and lesbian studies. Unlike the more

essentialist queer activists, queer theorists focus on how sexuality was and is a product of

culture, not some sort of biological given. Through the work of Michel Foucault they

define sexuality as being socially constructed through various discourses of medicine,

law, media, etc.. From the work of feminist philosopher Judith Butler they understand

gender and sexuality as performative acts, not essential identities. And the work of Eve

Kosofsky Sedgwick explores how the hetero-homo binary opposition (and the closet)

shapes so many different aspects of Western culture. Sedgwick's work also focuses on

male homosocial groups (such as Fraternities, sports teams, social clubs) and how they

foster/inculcate/naturalize both sexism and homophobia. 5

Queer Theory seeks to create an "oxymoronic community of difference," inclusive not

only of the variety of gay and lesbian and bisexual identities, (thus acknowledging that

there are many ways to be a gay man or a lesbian) but of other sexually defined

minorities as well: cross dressers, transgendered people, interracial couples whether

homo-or heterosexual, disabled sexualities, sadomasochistic sexualities (whether homo-

or heterosexual, etc. Even heterosexuals can be queer (the so-called "straight queer"),

because Queer can encompasses all human sexual practices while rejecting the opposing

binary hierarchies of gender, race, sexuality, class, etc. that currently govern our culture

and society. Queer theory seeks to overturn those binaries and the labels which go with

them to acknowledge a fuzzy interstitial area where most of us really belong. Following

the work of Alfred Kinsey and Sigmund Freud, queer theorists argue that human

sexuality -or indeed, race, gender, class, etc.-are not either/or propositions, but are

rather fluid and dynamic socially-defined positions. To suggest that there is one norm

(straight white man on top sex for procreation and nothing else) is grossly misleading and

only serves to foster rule by the same and persecution of everything else.

These moves towards, queer activism and queer theory are not without their opponents.

Some gay men and lesbians hate the term "queer" because of the pain and anger

associated with the word as an epithet. Others don't like the idea that there can be

straight queers - according to this critique, straight queers dilute or reappropriate the

struggle for "true" queers. Queer also plays into the fears of the religious right, in that it

does seek to present a challenge to how we think about gender and sexuality. And

despite its focus on diversity, the actual practices of human beings born into racist sexist

cultures still often falls back into those same social hierarchies. Yet, despite the fact that

white males often still tend to be the most seen and heard of queer spokespeople, there is

among most queer theorists and activists the desire for diversity and the continual

foregrounding of it as an issue.

Queer Theory has had an impact on many disciplines within academe, most notably

within the humanities. In film and literature studies, people began to examine the

queerness of texts. A text (book or film) might be considered queer if it was made by

queers. This has led to research into contemporary and historically queer figures. A text

might also be queer if it is read by queers or read from a queer reading position. This

proposition has opened up new areas of thought in reception studies. Queer texts could

be texts that feature queer characters or queer content. Following that idea, it has been

suggested that some literary and cinematic forms themselves are queer-genres like the

horror film and the musical, for example, construct unreal hyperspaces in which

"anything goes." Certainly the horror film is in its very narrative pattern and social effect

about the simultaneous attraction and repulsion so-called "normal" people have towards

monstrous sexualities.

Historically, most gay and lesbian filmmakers were forced to work in avant-garde or

independent circles, but there were also several important gay and lesbian filmmakers

who worked within the classical Hollywood cinema: James Whale, George Cukor, and

Dorothy Arzner, to name just a few. Today, most queer people in Hollywood (especially

actors) remain in the closet although that is slowly changing. The first important book

about how homosexuality has been represented in the movies was Vito Russo's The

Celluloid Closet (which was also turned into a recent movie). In the book, Russo

examined the depiction of gay and lesbian characters on screen in Hollywood and

independent film, compiling list of stereotypical stock characters, many of whom are still

with us today. In the late 1970s and 1980s, gay and lesbian independent feature

Filmmaking came into practice. These first feature films focused on positive images,

positive role models, coming out stories, and narratives of self and community

acceptance. They were often love stories and were produced in the realist or classical

style of most Hollywood filmmaking.

In the early 1990s, a new film movement, quickly dubbed The New Queer Cinema,

arose within gay and lesbian independent filmmaking. These films used queer theory as

structuring principles, were more overtly political than what had come before. Some of

the first important films of this movement were POISON, SWOON, PARIS IS

BURNNG, THE LIVING END, THE HOURS AND THE TIMES, GO FISK ZERO

PATIENCE, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, and THE WATERMELON WOMAN.

These films were made by filmmakers like Rose Troche, Christine Vachon, Gus Van

Sant, Gregg Araki, Tom Kalin, Todd Haynes, Jennie Livingston, Matia Maggenti, Cheryl

Dunye, and Marlon Riggs.

New Queer Cinema has also been called "Homo Pomo" because the films embody

postmortem styles and ideas (as does queer theory itself). One of the important traits of

New Queer Cinema is having stories that question models of essentialist identity

formation. In other words, characters are not merely nice gay and lesbian stereotypes,

but rather complex queer characters who may challenge the simple binary "straight

versus gay." Queer Film also tends to challenge master narratives such as history itself

Films like SWOON and EDWARD II examine historical issues of queerness to show

how history itself has been constructed by those in power. Queer Film also tends to focus

on race, gender, and class issues, again representing these as socially constructed

categories, not essential identities. There is a focus on permeable boundaries, the

crossing of styles and genres, and issues such as trans-nationalism. There will be

minimalism and excess, appropriation and pastiche, the mixing of Hollywood and avant-

garde styles, even the possible mix of fiction and documentary tropes. Finally, queer

film tends to be more or less activist and in your face: it is energetic, provocative, unruly,

demanding, and sometimes shocking.

There are potential drawbacks to this cinema however. To begin with, it might be seen as

elitist, since it is frequently engaged with theory and with deconstructing the biases of

Hollywood film form. Queer Film is sometimes less "audience pleasing because it can

be challenging and difficult. Many queer spectators, like straight spectators, want "feel

good" narrative movies, and until the public as a while develops more sophisticated film

viewing habits, difficult film movements will have a hard time making money and

preserving their existence. As one queer filmmaker put it, "I think [deconstruction] is

very useful as an analytic tool, but I don't think it works as a tool for malting an

interesting film. The film medium is about empathy, it is about catharsis, it is about

being drawn in, and identifying with the characters and with the story." (Joy

Chamberlain, Queer Looks, p.43.)

Queer film also seeks to challenge the idea of simplistic "positive" and "negative"

representations, and thus the characters in queer film are not all saintly well-behaved

assimilationist homosexuals. Some, in fact, might be killers. Some people wonder

whether or not queer filmmakers should be depicting what they see as "negative" images.

Finally, queer film also still tends to carry a white male bias, in that white male queers

often getting funding for projects more easily than do women and people of color. This

again reflects the biases of our dominant ideology (white patriarchal capitalism), but

hopefully more and more women and people of color are gaining access to the corridors

of filmic power. As they do so, and as filmmaking both in the independent sphere and in

Hollywood becomes more diverse, film in America will truly begin to reflect our culture

in all its diversity. It will tell new stories in new ways, and old stories from new and

different perspectives, enriching not only the practice of cinema, but the lives of those

with whom it interacts.

Highly Selective Notes on Some Important Queer Filmmakers and Films

Gregg Araki (1959--)(1962--?) - Asian American queer filmmaker, films rarely deal

solely with Asian concerns but rather a queer multicultural milieu - young people. About

queer slackers, if you will. Terminally HIP! Very guerilla style. Style very over the top

- Hyperreal. Closer to the surrealists? Brecht, Godard, and Fassbinder were major

influences. Undergraduate in film at UCSB, NEA at USC. Highly individual and

artisanal films. Some of the original "no budget movies" - First two cost about $5K

each, non-synch features.

THREE BEWILDERED PEOPLE IN THE NIGHT (1987)

THE LONG WEEKEND O' DESPAIR (I 989)

THE LIVING END (1992) - Breakthrough film. Reappropriation of the buddy road

movie. Financial and stock help from Jon Jost. 20 K grant from AFI.

TOTALLY FUCKED UP (1994@ueer youth, angst, Godardian style

THE DOOM GENERATION (1995) - also a road movie of sorts with a queer threesome

instead of buddies, very violent.

NOWHERE (1996) - outer space monster wandering around queer LA.

SPLENDOR (1999) - romantic triangle in classical style

Gus Van Sant

Born in Kentucky but moved around a lot as a child - father was a traveling salesman.

Settled in Oregon. Studies painting a the Rhode Island School of Design, gets a BFA in

film. Starts making shorts - 20 or so, including ads and commercials for Madison

Avenue. Returns to Portland and does rock videos - proto-grunge scene? THE

DISCIPLINE OF D.E., FIVE WAYS TO KILL YOURSELF, FIVE NAKED BOYS

AND A GUN; hero is queer heroin user William S. Burroughs - neo-punk scene. Details

the underworld but without David Lynch's horror and queer-phobia.

1985 - MALA NOCHE, B&W 16mm feature. About a guy who falls in irrational love

with a Hispanic teenage hustler. Deals with race as well as sexuality, life on the street.

1989 - DRUGSTORE COWBOY. Matt Dillon - heroin visuals, William S. Burroughs.

1991 - MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO - Street hustlers River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves

crossed with Shakespeare's Henry IV. 3.6 million. Cut-up ala Burroughs, putting

together different elements in a postmortem melange.

Also--EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, TO DEE FOR, GOOD WILL HUNTING,

PSYCHO, newest project BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN about gay cowboys.

Christine Vachon - "The Godmother of New Queer Cinema" Produced many

important first films of the movement including SWOON, GO FISH, and POISON. Most

recently produced BOYS DON'T CRY (1999).

Rose Troche: GO FISH: Chicago-based film starts out as MAX AND ELY in 1992, a

B&W lesbian romantic comedy with more avant-garde touches and political musings.

Stars G. Turner who would go on to write the screenplay for AMERICAN PSYCHO.

Sold to Goldwyn while still at Sundance. Art house hit. Troche's newest: BEDROOMS

AND HALLWAYS (1999)

Todd Haynes: Raised in Encino, CA, and a BA in semiotics from Brown Univ. ACT

UP and queer theory both on the street and in the academy. Interest in subverting form.

ASSASSINS, A FILM CONCERNING RIMBAUD (I 985) - 16MM

SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY (1987)

DOTTIE GETS SPANKED

POISON (1991) 16mm feature - 3 separate stories interwoven: "Hero," "Horror," and

"Homo." Some NEA money and it gets slammed for being too gay. Draws on Genet and

the idea of homosexual as criminal, as monster, and as freak. Different styles for each

story makes you question not just the stories but the genres to which they belong.

Deviance vs. normality. Abjection vs. apotheosis. What is the POISON?

Also: SAFE (1995), VELVET GOLDMINE (1998)

Miscellaneous:

Canadians: John Greyson, Patricia Rozsema, Bruce La Bruce

UK: Sally Potter, Derek Jarman, Pratibha Parinar, Isaac Julien

Germany: Monika Treut, Ulrike Ottinger

Documentary and Autobiography:

Lizzie Borden: BORN IN FLAMES (1983), WORKING GINS (1986)

Sheila McLaughlin: SHE MUST BE SEEING THNGS (1987)

Greta Schiller: @ AND RUBY (1988)

Su Friedrich: GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM (I 98 1), D IF YOU DON'T

(1984) (BLACK NARCISSUS iiff); THE TIES THAT BIND (about her mother), SINK

OR SWIM (about her father), THE LESBIAN AVENGERS EAT FIRE TOO (1993)

Mark Rappaport: ROCK HUDSON'S HOME MOVIES, FROM THE JOURNALS OF

JEAN SEBERG

A few other great documentaries for educating yourself on the issues:

DEAR JESSE, IT'S ELEMENTARY, TONGUES UNTIED, BEFORE STONEWALL,

AFTER STONEWALL, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, BALLOT MEASURE 9,

LICENSED TO KILL, THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK.

HIGHLY SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Queer Theory/Gay and Lesbian Studies/History

Abelove, Barale, and Halperin, eds. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader.

Berube, Allan. Coming Out Under Fire: Ihe History of Gay Men and Women in WW2.

Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.

Case, Sue Ellen. "Tracking the Vampire," differences 3.2 (Summer 1991).

Chauncey, George. Gay New York.

D'Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities.

Duberman, Martin et al., eds. Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian

Past.

. Stonewall.

Faderinan, Lilian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History oflesbian Life in 20'

Century America.

Foucault, Mchel. Ihe History of Sexuality

Harris, Daniel. 7-he Rise andfall ofgay Culture

Katz, Jonathan Ned. Gay American History

Marcus, Eric. Making History: Ae Strugglefor Gay andlesbian Equal Rights.

Marotta, Toby. 7he Politics ofhomosexuality.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature andmale Homosocial

Desire.

Epistemology of the Closet.

Tendencies.

Signorile, Michelangelo. Queer in America.

Smith, Patricia Julianna, ed. Yhe Queer Sixties.

Weeks, Jeffrey. Sexuality and its Discontents.

Gay/Lesbian/Queer Film and Media

Babuscio, Jack. "Camp and the Gay Sensibility," in Gays and Film, Ed. Richard Dyer.

BadObjectChoices. HowdoILook? QueerFilmwzdVideo.

Benshoff,Haffy. MonstersintheClosets: HomosexualityandtheHorrorFilm.

Berenstein, Rhona. Aflack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Speciatorship in

Classic Horror Cinema

Burston and Richardson, eds. A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and Popular

Culture

Doty, Al ex- Making Things Perfectly Queer-

and Corey Creekmur, eds. Out in Culture.

Dyer, Richard. Now You See It. Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film.

. ne Matter of Images: Essays on Representation.

Fuss, Diana, ed. InsidelOut: Lesbian 7heoriesIGay Theories,

Gainson, Joshua. Freaks Talk Back.

Gever, Greyson, and Parmar, eds., Queer Looks.

Griffin, Sean. Tinkerbelles and Evil Queens: Ae Wait Disney Co. ftom the Inside Out.

Meyer, Moe. Ihe Politics andpoetics of Camp

Russo, Vito. Ae Celluloid Closet

Tyler, Parker. Screening the Sexes: Pornography, AIDS, and the Media

Watney, Simon. Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS and the Media

Weiss, Andrea. Vampires and Violets: Lesbians in Film.

Wood, Robin. Hol4wood From Vietnam to Reagan.

A FEW FUN FACTS AND INTERESTING TIDBITS:

"Sweating is good for a boy and will help him avoid homosexual tendencies." -- 1982

Baptist Pamphlet entitled Jesus Had Short Hair.

According to a 1995 Newsweek poll, "21% of all Americans and 43% of evangelical

Christians believe that the gay rights movement is an "Incarnation of Satan."

In the infamous 1986 Bowers vs. Hardwick Supreme Court decision, one Justice referred

to consensual homosexuality as a crime with a "deeper malignity than rape."

In the late 1980s, some US medical schools were still teaching a disease (and cure) model

of homosexuality, despite the 1973 APA decision to remove homosexuality from the

DSM.

Last year, clinical psychologists found statistically significant "proof' of Freud's

contention that the most homophobic people are themselves homoerotically inclined.

" It is better to be hated for what one is than to be loved for what one is not." - Andre

Gide

"If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influences from what is

generally regarded as American culture, you would be pretty much left with Let's Make a

Deal." -Fran Lebowitz