Two Images Capture the “Counter” Boys
To the Editor:
I enjoyed William Benemann’s “The Ascension of the Retail Queen” [Sept.-Oct. 2025], but was surprised that the essay wasn’t illustrated with this sheet music cover [shown below]from the period. Seems like it would have been perfect for Benemann’s piece. What would it be like to hear it sung by Emerson, Allen, & Manning’s Minstrels?
Allan Weinreb, Rochester, NY
To the Editor:
Apropos of your article on the “Counter Jumpers,” I have a postcard [below]that makes fun of their kind. Unfortunately, it was never used, so there’s no postmark, and we don’t know to whom it was sent or when. My guess is that it’s from late-ish in the 19th century.
George Glastris, Chicago
Face It: There Are LGBT Conservatives
To the Editor:
In Eli Erlick’s “Making Sense of the Trans Right” [July-Aug. 2025 issue], the author seems amazed that some transgender individuals have conservative politics. I’m friends with a gay man who was not at all surprised when I told him that there was a right-wing extremist group made up of gay men, who pointed out that gay men can be found across the political spectrum. Nor was he surprised when I told him there was an anti-feminist group formed by gay men.
There is a tendency for persecuted groups to be politically liberal, but all groups are formed by individuals, and individuals do not think identically. Also, each individual is a member of varied demographic groups involving gender, class, race/ethnicity, religion, marital status, etc. Some gay males might identify mainly as Native Americans, some women might identify mainly with the poor, some Blacks might identify mainly with other Christians, and some lesbians might identify mainly with other single people. These crosscutting identities and the varied values attached to them are bound to influence political opinions.
Regarding that trans woman neo-Nazi, she cannot be crazier than white racism’s entire Nazification since it ceased being mainstream. Back in the old segregationist days, men like George Wallace, who battled Nazism in WWII, were the stubborn segregationists. That Nazism represents “white” pride, nationalism, or anything is sheer insanity. The Nazis were at war with white countries, packed white people into their death camps, and were allied with Japan!
However, like everyone else, transgender people can be expected to look at issues and come to their own conclusions, which will be varied and sometimes downright bigoted and twisted. There should be no surprise that trans people are Republicans, Democrats, socialists, racists, and neo-Nazis.
Denise Noe, Bolivar, MO
A Survivor of the “Lavender Scare”
To the Editor:
Ronaldo O. Valdiserri’s essay on the McCarthy-led persecution of gay men in U.S. government service in the 1950s [July-Aug. 2025 issue] reminds me of someone I knew from that era.
In the early 1970s, as a young British diplomat (heavily closeted because being gay was a sackable offence in the British Foreign Office), part of my job in the British Embassy in Paris was to liaise with the Private Secretary to the Duke of Windsor (then living in semi-exile with the Duchess in the Bois de Boulogne). The Duke’s Private Secretary was a charming, clever, and cultured American, then in his sixties, named John Utter. He had been forced to resign from the State Department because of his homosexuality.
It was clear from my conversations with John that his employers were not the easiest. “He [the Duke]lives for her, and she lives for parties,” was one of his pithier observations. After the death of the Duke of Windsor, John accompanied the Duchess to London for her husband’s funeral, telling me on his return how the Duchess and the Queen Mother (allegedly sworn enemies) had sat “like two old grannies” on a sofa at Windsor Castle, watching TV together.
In recognition of his selfless service, Queen Elizabeth II made John a Companion of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO), one of the few honors that are within the personal gift of the monarch rather than the government. I doubt if the Queen knew that John was gay. Nor do I imagine she would have cared. But I like to think McCarthy might have been turning in his grave.
Stephen Wall, London, UK
A New York Monument’s Louisiana Roots
To the Editor:
In 2019, The G&LR devoted an entire issue to the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. One of the articles contained an oblique reference to George Segal’s Gay Liberation sculpture [in Greenwich Village]having been funded by the Mildred Andrews Fund, a New Orleans-based foundation. Having fund-raised for the New Orleans gay community for many decades, this made my ears perk up, as I had never heard of the Mildred Andrews Fund.
After a bit of a deep dive, I learned that the Mildred Andrews Fund is actually Cleveland-based, but was administered by the physicist, philosopher, and philanthropist Dr. Peter Putnam, who resided in the small Louisiana city of Houma, about sixty miles from New Orleans.
After all these years, Dr. Putnam is
finally having something of a moment of his own with the publication of Amanda Gefter’s Finding Peter Putnam. In addition, the state of Louisiana, in what is believed to be a first in this reddest of red states, has placed a historic marker near where he lived acknowledging his contributions [shown above]. Perhaps fittingly, the marker was installed by the state highway department. At the time of his death, Dr. Putnam was employed there as the night janitor.
Attached is a photograph of the historic marker. What started as a semi-correct allusion in a G&LR article now stands as the first monument to an out gay man in Louisiana history.
Jack Sullivan, New Orleans, LA
Correction
Due to a typo in the July-August 2025 issue’s BTW column, competitive swimmer Lia Thomas was incorrectly identified as “Tia” Thomas.
A Note from the Editor
As the author of the bimonthly BTW column that has appeared almost without interruption since 2001, let me acknowledge its absence from this issue. It’s not that the material has dried up—”ex-gay” therapists are still getting busted, along with corrupt homophobes, et al. It’s just that it’s gotten so much harder to find the ironic twist or even the moral lesson in the these lapses in this age of impunity. That said, I do intend to resume the column going forward. —RS
