HomeAuthor: Bill Burton

Author: Bill Burton

Bill Burton

Current Issue:
The Perils of Place
Special 25th Anniversary Book
Features From Current Issue

Essays

Call Me by No Name

Much has happened between Rod McKuen’s era and the present, but when Steve Lacy … answered on Tumblr the question of whether he was gay or straight, it was with a demurral that brings to mind McKuen: “I’m human.” Or, as Lacy put it on Twitter: “Let’s delete the whole closet concept and just let kids be themselves without having to announce what/who they’re into sexually.”

Essays

The Great Cover-Up

For millennia in European societies, men have never hesitated to strip in front of other men to wash, bathe, or swim. It was only in the 19th century that the bathing costume was invented to allow men and women to swim together—which itself marked a significant socio-sexual revolution.

Essays

Prison Sex: The Case for Tolerance

While the prevalence of rape may be exaggerated, the threatening and coercive nature of prison itself creates gray areas of consent.

Essays

What’s ‘Un-African’ Is Homophobia

Homosexuals are like poetry. They are hated because they are not understood. Anyone should be able to love and be loved by a member of whichever sex, as long as they are two consenting adults. It should be a fundamental right, a civil right. In this modern era, homophobia in Kenya and other parts of Africa is reminiscent of racism in Jim Crow America and Apartheid in South Africa.
Blog
1. December 9, 2019 The Science of Silencing Hate
2. December 6, 2019 A Riot in Name Only
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