perspectives. A central point is that modern homosexuality is
sui generis
. In pre-modern cultures, homosexuality was some-
times accepted, even honored, but it was always characterized
by status differences between the partners. For the Greeks the
difference was transgenerational, a relationship between an
adult male and a pubescent one; it was more about mentoring
than about romantic love. In the “two-spirit” model, observed
among some Native American and other aboriginal cultures,
such as the
hijra
model in India, the model was gender-related:
sex took place between a masculine, dominant male and a fem-
inized, submissive one in a basically heterosexual dynamic.
Modern homosexuality, in contrast, involves love and sex be-
tween equals, where sexual versatility is honored and long-term,
loving relationships—not just sexual conquest—are valued. It
can perhaps be traced as far back as Walt Whitman’s poetry but
only comes into its own after World War II.
With the rise of Christianity in the West, any concept of nor-
mal, natural homosexual feelings and behaviors simply disap-
peared. This is the “missing myth” of the book’s title. The story
of Sodom and Gomorrah dominated all discourse on the matter
for centuries, even though the actual biblical story had little to
do with homosexuality.
The section on “the Beautiful” moves from mind to spirit:
from the
logos
to the
mythos
, as it were. Modern homosexual-
ity appears as an oddity and a mystery to be explained because
we have no collective myth, no general concept, of what ho-
46
The Gay & lesbian review
/
worldwide
What’s Wrong with Homosexuality?
by John Corvino
Oxford Univ. Press. 192 pages, $22.95
The word “audience,” philosopher John
Corvino kindly informs us on page four of
this book, comes from the Latin word for
“listeners.” yet it’s unclear who is listening
to this short, well-argued book, which re-
futes philosophical arguments against ho-
mosexuality and equal rights for GLBT
people. Surely everyone knows by now
that the primary arguments used against us
are religious in nature, and that the best
way to refute them is not to engage intel-
lectual discourse but to demonstrate the re-
ality of GLBT experience in a personal,
emotional way. Still, it is helpful to have,
in one slim volume, persuasive refutations
of the nasty claims people make about us.
He dutifully makes the best possible case
for such propositions as that homosexual-
ity is unnatural, or that it is dangerous, or
that it resembles bestiality, then patiently
refutes them. Still, does anyone really be-
lieve them in the first place? Corvino en-
gages with a host of deservedly obscure
conservative philosophers. Surely what’s
really going on is pure animus and occa-
sionally a religious enthusiasm, decorated
with the rhetoric of philosophy. When it
comes to these non-philosophical topics,
Corvino falls short. His treatment of bibli-
cal texts, which rely on a single secondary
source, will be unsatisfying to anyone not
already converted. And he barely scratches
the surface of the leading scholarship on
how non-rational factors like disgust,
shame, and fear lie beneath anti-gay preju-
dice. While acknowledging the value of
personal appeals, he argues that we should
not “dismiss the value of reasoned dis-
course in opening a space for a broader
personal and social transformation.”
Shouldn’t we? When the haters aren’t even
aware that they’re hating, debating them
perpetuates their own self-delusion and
legitimizes their attempt to convince the
rest of us that homophobia is principle in-
stead of prejudice. Corvino strips these
philosophers of their best arguments—but
it might be simpler just to point out that
the emperor has no clothes.
J
Ay
M
ICHAELSON
Jack Be Nimble: The Accidental Educa-
tion of an Unintentional Director
by Jack O’Brien
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 352 pages, $35.
Director Jack O’Brien’s memoir is the
cheerful and often very funny saga of a
young man from the Midwest whose life
was changed when, while he was still a
theater major in Ann Arbor, an acting
troupe came to town. The troupe would
later become one of the great American
repertory companies. The visit changed
O’Brien’s life. It may tell you something
about the book—which is half
Auntie
Mame
, half
Act one
—that the two funniest
scenes are about an audition and a toupee.
It’s also got a great character at the center,
the charismatic, bipolar, and bisexual Ellis
Rabb, whose tragic dimensions become
clear as the book goes on. But mainly it’s
the coming of age of O’Brien himself, the
cheerful assistant who finally gets to direct
something himself and goes on to have a
highly successful career in the theater
(
Porgy and Bess
,
Hairspray
,
The Full
Monty
, and, most recently,
The Nance
).
From Michigan to the West Village, to
Greece and Broadway, the story never
sags, and for serious theater students
there’s a bonus of an appendix: the daily
diary O’Brien kept while attending re-
hearsals of a production of
The Cherry or-
chard
, directed by Eve Le Gallienne.
A
NDREW
H
OLLERAN
B R
I
E
F
S
Blood, Marriage, Wine and Glitter
by S. Bear Bergman
Arsenal Pulp Press. 240 pages, $18.95
This latest collection of essays on family
by S. Bear Bergman read like a queers-only
inside joke on alternative lifestyle parent-
ing. What do you get when you invite a gay
married father, a polyamorous writer, a
queer Jew, and a middle-aged transgender
guy to dinner? What you get is S. Bear
Bergman himself. The outer extensions of
the author’s family are even more fanciful.
Characters include a Fairy Godmother, a
Spuncle, a Big Pup, and a Sparkle, among
others. Bergman, a widely published trans-
gender writer, invites readers to his own
dinner table in this book. The title refers to
the four elements that comprise Bergman’s
family: blood and marriage are obvious;
“wine” refers to close friends; while “glit-
ter” captures the queerness of the family in
question. “Glitter family is my long-time
favorite term for this: ... those of us pushed
into society’s margins (and beyond) make
our cohort. Glitter family is known to be
shiny and unruly, easy to get, and hard to
be rid of.” The collection is thus a series of
family portraits—reminiscences of his
early courtship with his husband, love let-
ters to his son, ruminations over lovers won
and lost, and musings over his pantry,
stocked and ready should anyone drop in
for a meal or a good cry. While some of the
essays border on saccharine, the collection
is a worthy contribution to the growing
body of work on GLBT parenting.
K
ATE
S
OSIN
Thoreau in Love
by John Schuyler Bishop
CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform. 288 pages, $14.
Situated squarely in the “speculative fic-
tion” arena, John Schuyler Bishop’s histori-
