THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 3

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

SEPTEMBER 3

1745 – CHARLES VICTOR DE BONSTETTEN, Swiss writer, born (d: 1832); As a young man, the handsome Swiss author was one of those consciously unconscious charmers who could entice the birds from the trees, especially if those birds were middle-aged, unmarried men. In maturity, Bonstetten’s best known work was a study of the influence of climate on different nations, the north being exalted at the expense of the south, of course. In his youth, Bonstetten’s most famous work was the job he did on the poet Thomas Gray (refer back to December 26)

1849 – SARAH ORNE JEWETT, American writer born (d: 1909); an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which, in her day, was a declining New England seaport.

She published her first important story in the Atlantic Monthly at age 19, and her reputation grew throughout the 1870s and '80s. Her literary importance arises from her careful, if subdued, vignettes of country life that reflect a contemporary interest in local color rather than plot. Jewett possessed a keen descriptive gift that William Dean Howells called "an uncommon feeling for talk—I hear your people." Jewett's most characteristic works include the novella The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896); A Country Doctor (1884), a novel about a New England girl who rejects marriage to become a doctor; and A White Heron (1886), a collection of short stories. Some of Jewett's poetry was collected in Verses (1916), and she also wrote three children's books. Willa Cather described Jewett as a significant influence on her development as a writer, and feminist critics have since championed her writing for its rich account of women's lives and voices."

Jewett established a close friendship with writer Annie Fields (1834-1915) and her husband, publisher James Thomas Fields, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. After the sudden death of James Fields in 1881, Jewett and Annie Fields lived together for the rest of Jewett's life in what was then termed a "Boston marriage." Modern scholars generally believe that the two were lovers. The two women found friendship, humor, and literary encouragement in one another's company, traveling to Europe together and hosting American and European literati. Jewett never married.

1947 - JAMES NOLAN, American Poet. Nolan’s collections of poetry are "Why I Live in the Forest" and "What Moves Is Not the Wind." He has translated Neruda’s Stones of the Sky and Longing: Selected Poems of Jaime Gil de Biedma. Poet-Chief, his book on Whitman, Neruda, and Native American poetics, is out with the University of New Mexico Press. He has been honored by Fulbright, N.E.A., and Javits fellowships, and currently directs the Loyola Writing Institute at Loyola University in his native New Orleans.

1957 - In 1954 the Conservative government in the United Kingdom set up a Departmental Committee to look into aspects of British sex laws. The resulting report,officially titled, The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (better known as the WOLFENDEN REPORT, after Lord Wolfenden, the chairman of the committee) was published in Britain on September 4, 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu, Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Woldeblood, were convicted of homosexual offenses.

Disregarding the conventional ideas of the day, the committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". All but James Adair were in favor of this and, contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence at that time, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects." The report added, "The law's function is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others ... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behavior." The recommended age of consent was 21 (the age of majority in the UK then).

The report also discussed the rise in street prostitution at the time, which it associated with "community instability" and "weakening of the family". As a result there was a police crackdown on street prostitution following the report.

2001 – PAULINE KAEL, American film critic died on this date (b. 1919) An American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991, Kael was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused" movie reviews. She approached movies emotionally, with a strongly colloquial writing style. She was often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day and made a lasting impression on other major critics including Armond White and Roger Ebert, who said that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades. Kael and gay filmmaker and poet James Broughton had a daughter in 1948 and is featured in the current award-winning documentary on his life, BIG JOY.

In the early 1980s, largely in response to her review of the 1981 drama Rich and Famous, Kael faced notable accusations of homophobia. First remarked on by Stuart Byron in The Village Voice, the accusations eventually "took on a life of their own and did real damage to her reputation." In her review, Kael called the straight-themed Rich and Famous "more like a homosexual fantasy," saying that one female character's affairs "are creepy, because they don't seem like what a woman would get into." Byron, who "hit the ceiling" after reading the review, was joined by The Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo, who argued that Kael equated promiscuity with homosexuality, "as though straight women have never been promiscuous or been given the permission to be promiscuous."

Outrage over her review of Rich and Famous led several critics to reappraise Kael's earlier reviews of the sixties Gay-themed movies Victim and The Children’s Hour, including a wisecrack Kael made about the Lesbian-themed Children's Hour: "I always thought this was why Lesbians needed sympathy — that there isn't much they can do." Gay writer Craig Seligman has defended Kael, saying that her perceived "bigotry" was simply her showing "enough ease with the topic to be able to crack jokes — in a dark period when other reviewers....' felt that if homosexuality were not a crime it would spread.'" Kael herself rejected the accusations as "craziness," adding, "I don't see how anybody who took the trouble to check out what I've actually written about movies with homosexual elements in them could believe that stuff." In her review of Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers", she referred to Tchaikovsky's lover in the film (played by Christopher Gable) as a "prissy faggot".

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