Sometimes it hurts to recognize how conventional one was/is and how much we missed out on. Larry Kramer's epic book "The American People" will likely cause a world of pain. It's a history of America told from a platform of gay accomplishments.
In the January 4-11 edition of NEW YORK Magazine, Jesse Green discusses that evolving tome and the equally mutating inner and outer Kramer. Both focuses are neck-snappers, at least for us traditionals who might be edgy but have no access to queer nation.
For example, in "The American People," Kramer creates the perspective that, yeah, everyone was gay, only some gayer than others. George Washington was romantically involved with Alexander Hamiltion, the love of his life. But Washington also had a enduring erotic relationship with Lafayette. Lewis loved Clark and wound up killing himself when the expedition was over and he could no longer be with Clark. Abraham Lincoln had Joshua Speed.
Kramer's personal life has been equally shocking, at least as Green breaks it open. So insecure and needy in his freshman year at Yale that he tried suicide, Kramer blossomed into an iconoclastic, courageous, and effective leader of the AIDS movement. When the movement moved on, Kramer seems to have been left, well, writing a book. Despite his track record for being bold and resourceful, he can't seem to put together a new persona or career path.
As an executive-communications strategist/ghostwriter I have witnessed the tragedy of leaders who went out of fashion or accomplished their mission. Some organization usually provides them with a title, office space, and contract to author a book. Of course, that busyness becomes a sort of Father McKenzie sermon that no one will read.
Green's article opens the door on a part of American hedonism that many of us have been trained to shun. Even the most rebellious among us, including me at least in my literary work, believe in the gospel of hard work and socially acceptable matings. If Kramer's take on history is accurate, that might put us in the duped minority. The majority was having a gay ole time.
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