Letters to the Editor
Readers’ thoughts.
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Major UN Vote Recognizes Sexual Minorities
DURING the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Third Committee adopted the resolution “Strengthening the role of the United Nations in the promotion of democratization and enhancing periodic and genuine elections,” which included an explicit reference to sexual orientation and gender identity. This is only the second UNGA resolution that explicitly mentions these two categories.
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Pittsburgh’s Willa Cather
The essays in Willa Cather’s Pittsburgh look at the novelist’s creative incubation from idiosyncratic angles. They describe Cather’s work, connections, and ambitions as a young adult, and several neatly assess characters in her early fiction who disdain heteronormative expectations. The book’s notes are useful, though a brief chronology might make it easier to navigate these essays.
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Femmes Fatales, Queer Rage, and Me
THE “FEMME FATALE” gained a popular foothold in the detective fiction of the 1930s and then, even more visibly, in the great films noir of the 1940s and ’50s. In these narratives, the femme fatale often seizes command of the straight male gaze and harnesses it to her own purposes, her own pursuit of power. …
MoreWinter Dreams: “Sexual Awakenings”
THIS ISSUE’S THEME has a subtitle: “The postwar origins of LGBT sex culture.” The “sexual awakenings” of the title are ones that began to stir after World War II and…More
Men at Sea in the 19th C.: The Case of Fryer
Maritime commerce in general, and whaling in particular, provided a haven for men of all races and creeds in the 19th century.
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LNX’s Acid Trip from Creation to Doom
MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) by Lil Nas X Columbia Records LIL NAS X’s 2021 music video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” challenges traditional categories.…More
Fighting Racism, Skirting Gender Lines
Murray’s list of unheralded accomplishments is a long one. Among many firsts, she was the first African-American to receive a Yale law doctorate (1965) and the first Black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Her signal contribution occurred in the field of jurisprudence.
MoreGutsier, and Ten-Plus Years before ‘The Well’
HUNGERHEART (1915) is a pioneering, semi-autobiographical lesbian novel written by British author Christabel Marshall under the masculine pseudonym Christopher St. John. The novel is a first-person narrative of Joanna “John” Montolivet that follows her on her quest for love.
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Daniel Heath Justice, Indigenous Gay Scholar
An interview with Daniel Heath Justice by Neil Ellis Orts. Justice currently teaches at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) in their First Nations and Indigenous Studies program. He is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He has published extensively in literary theory and history, his best-known book being Why Indigenous Literatures Matter.<.em>
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