Box Turtle Bulletin

Today In History, 1980: Tickets, Tux, and a Court Order — A Male Couple Attends Senior Prom

Aaron Fricke and Paul Guilbert

The year before, Paul Guilbert, a junior at Cumberland (Rhode Island) High School tried to attend the junior prom with another guy. He ran into opposition from both the principal and his father. Guilbert didn’t go to the prom. Instead, he spent what remained of that school enduring taunts, spitting, and one student slapping him. The principal and assistant principal had to escort Guilbert as he went from one class for to the next until school ended for the summer.

A year later, Aaron Fricke came out to friends at school, and he and Guilbert started dating. In April, Fricke decided to ask Guilbert to the prom. Things would be different this time. “For myself,” Fricke later wrote, “it would mean participating in an important social event and doing so with a clear conscience and a sense of wholeness. … We would be just one more happy couple. Our happiness together would be something kids would relate to. I would be showing that my dignity and value as a human being was not affected by my sexual preference.” Also, they knew that with both of them being eighteen years old — both of them were now legally adults — they knew that if the school stood in their way, they could go to court.

The school did stand in their way. Principal Richard B. Lynch refused to allow the couple to attend, complaining that the publicity “upset other students, sent the community abuzz, and rallied out-of-state newspapers to consider the matter newsworthy.” It also got Fricke five stitches under his eye when he was attacked in the hallway between classes. That only gave the Principal another reason to deny the request: he couldn’t guarantee the couple’s safety.

Aaron Fricke (top) and Paul Guilbert

This wasn’t the first time that a gay couple tried to go to the prom. The year before, Randy Rohl, 17, and Grady Quinn, 20, attended a high school prom in conservative Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the full support of that school’s principal and several fellow students ( May 22). But in Rhode Island, Fricke first had to file a lawsuit in Federal court (with the help of the ACLU), charging that the school district was infringing on his First Amendment right to free speech. “I feel I have the right to attend,” he told the judge. “I feel I want to go to the prom for the same reason any other student would want to go.” The judge agreed (PDF: 60KB/7 pages), and ordered the school district to allow the couple to attend,.

Two days later, Aaron Fricke, wearing an electric blue tux, and Guilbert in traditional black, arrived to find the venue surrounded by TV cameras, flash bulbs, and reporters shouting questions. Once inside, principal Lynch ushered the couple to an empty table, where they ate their dinner, with the other students, and yet also very alone. After dinner was over, a few other students started to approach the table to offer their encouragement. The dance began. A girl that Fricke new in elementary school asked him to fast to a fast number, and he obliged. But other than that, Fricke and Guilbert held back for several more song. Then it was time for a slow song: Bob Seger’s “We Got The Night.” Guilbert asked Frike to dance. They walked onto the dance floor. As he later wrote:

The crowd receded. As I laid my head on Paul’s shoulder, I saw a few students start to stare at us. I closed my eyes and listened to the music, my thoughts wandering over the events of the evening. When the song ended, I opened my eyes. A large crowd of students had formed a ring around us. Probably most of them had never seen two happy men embracing in a slow dance. For a moment I was uncomfortable. Then I heard the sound that I knew so well as a B-52s fan. One of my favorite songs was coming up: “Rock Lobster.”

Paul and I began dancing free-style. Everyone else was still staring at us, but by the end of the first stanza, several couples had also begun dancing. The song had a contagious enthusiasm to it, and with each bar, more dancers came onto the floor.

The prom ended on a high note, but Fricke’s troubles didn’t end. He was accompanied to his graduation commencement by several uniformed policemen, for his own protection. Fricke went on to become a gay rights advocate, with a particular emphasis on school safety and anti-gay bullying. Meanwhile, the case of Fricke v. Lynch became an important legal precedent for other gay couples across the nation since then.

Fricke later wrote about his experiences in Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story about Growing Up Gay. He also collaborated with his father on another book about coming out, Sudden Strangers: The Story of a Gay Son and His Father.

[Source. Aaron Fricke. “One Life, One Prom.” In Michael Denneny, Charles Ortleb, and Thomas Steele (eds.) The Christopher Street Reader (New York: Coward-McCann, 1983): 21-27.]

Born On This Day, 1926: Christine Jorgenson

(d. 1989) She was born in the Bronx, and described herself as “frail, tow-headed, introverted little boy who ran from fistfights and rough-and-tumble games.” She also went by “George.” After a stint in the army following World War II, her identity as a woman was overwhelming — and her physical development as a man was underwhelming. As she attended dental school, she began taking the female hormone ethinyl estradiol on her own and looked into sexual reassignment surgery. At the time, the only surgeries being performed were in Sweden. But at a stopover in Copenhagen to visit relatives, she discovered Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish endocrinologist and specialist in rehabilitative hormonal therapy. Denmark’s Minister of Justice allowed her first surgery to take place, and before she returned to America, she took the name Christine in honor of the doctor who made her life possible.

Christine’s surgical transition wasn’t the first of its kind, but that’s how it was portrayed on December 1, 1952 when the New York Daily News carried the front-page headline, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty.” Within months, she was a national celebrity, and became the most written-about person in 1953. She tried to use her celebrity as an opportunity for education, which turned out to be a huge task. She acted in summer stock, toured the lecture circuit, wrote an autobiography, and made countless radio and television appearances. She was engaged to marry John Traub, but that engagement was called off. In 1959, she announced her engagement to Howard J. Knox, but the couple couldn’t get a marriage license because Jorgensen’s birth certificate still listed her as a male. They ended that engagement and  Knox was fired from his job over the publicity. Shortly before Jorgensen died in 1989, she said she had given the sexual revolution “a good swift kick in the pants.” She died of bladder and lung cancer just a month shy of her 63rd birthday.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From Out (Washington, DC), April 6, 1979, page 13.

“Is DC becoming the gay capital of America?” That’s what The Washingtonian magazine asked in 1980. The evidence was there for anyone with eyes to see: gays were a major voting block for Mayor Marion Barry (back when Barry actively courted the gay vote before becoming an anti-gay politician), police harassment had largely died down, and gay visibility was increasing with businesses catering to the pink dollar — including four gay bars near DuPont Circle alone! Rascals was one of the four named, along with Mr. P’s, the Fraternity House, and Friends. “The waiting line outside Rascals is all male,” the sharp-eyed Washingtonian observed. Rascals was a popular show and dance club for about a decade. The building also included Shooters, a male strip club, upstairs.

Today In History, 1965: Second White House Protest

Gay rights advocate Jack Nichols (see Mar 16) and Frank Kameny (see May 21) on the picket line in front of the White House.

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there, does it make a sound? That’s the kind of question that may have been on the minds of members of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. following the first ever protest in front of the White House for gay rights the month before (see Apr 17). The group decided not to publicize that hour-long protest in advance because they didn’t want to give the police time to invent a reason to block their demonstration. But that also meant that there were no reporters or news cameras there either. As far as everyone outside the little group knew, it simply didn’t happen. But as Frank Kameny, co-founder of the Washington chapter recalled, the protest “went so well that we immediately decided to do a repeat, with advance publicity.” This time, they decided on a three-prong approach to get the word out: they sent a news release to major news outlets, handed out a mimeographed leaflet to passersby during the demonstration, and sent a follow-up release to news media after the protest ended.

Thirteen people showed up with picket signs, and this time there was considerable press coverage, including brief mentions in The New York Times, The Washington Star, the Associated Press, United Press International, and ABC television, whose East Coast viewers saw a line of respectable men (in jackets and ties) and ladies (in heels and skirts), protesting according to the dictates handed down by Kameny (“If you’re asking for equal employment rights, look employable!”). This protest would establish a pattern for future gay rights protests for the next four years.

Today In History, 1981: “Polyester” Premieres

The John Waters film Polyester made its debut on the silver screen. Divine (Oct 19) once again starred, this time as Francine Fishpaw, a suburban housewife whose world is thrown into chaos when her pornographer husband declares he’s been unfaithful, her daughter becomes pregnant, and her son is accused of breaking local women’s feet as part of his fetish. Nineteen-fifties heartthrob Tab Hunter (Jul 11) appeared near the end as lounge-suit-wearing Todd Tomorrow who swept Francine off her sweep and proposed marriage — only to plot with Francine’s mother to embezzle her divorce settlement and drive her insane.

The film was notable for a unique technological breakthrough: it was presented in “Odorama,” in which theatergoers were handed scratch-and-sniff cards so they could smell along with the action. One of those odors was feces, leaving Waters delighted with the thought that his audiences actually “pay to smell shit.” Despite the film’s positive reception — it even got a positive review at The New York Times — it remains a scandal that Polyester has yet to earn any major cinematic awards.

Today In History, 1987: Barney Frank Comes Out

Barney Frank became only the second member of Congress to confirm that he was gay, and the first to do so wholly voluntarily, when he told a Boston Globe reporter:

“If you ask the direct question: ‘Are you gay?’ the answer is yes. So what? I’ve said all along that if I was asked by a reporter and I didn’t respond it would look like I had something to hide and I don’t think I have anything to hide.”

Frank had been planning to come out for quite a while, but he kept putting it off while, ostensibly, looking for the right time. But in 1986, he felt particularly pressured to do so. In 1986, former extreme-right Congressman Robert Bauman (R-MD) published his memoir, The Gentleman from Maryland: The Conscience of a Gay Conservative, which, in part, described his exile from Congress in 1980 after he had been charged with  soliciting a male prostitute (Oct 3. In it, he lashed out at those who he held responsible for his downfall: President Jimmy Carter, House Speaker Tip O’Neal, and Maryland politicians. He also took the highly aggressive step (for 1986) of outing Barney Frank, by writing about Frank attending a Gay Pride parade with someone Bauman assumed to be Frank’s boyfriend. (He wasn’t.) Frank later wrote: “No one reading it could miss the clear import: I was a gay man who enjoyed a media silence that he had been denied. I was scared. I was ready to come out, but not at his hands, not in that way, and not at that time. ”

Most of his straight colleagues tried to talk him out of coming out. Given the tenor of the times, their arguments made sense: merely being gay was, itself, scandalous, and potentially political suicide. Or if not outright suicide (Gerry Studds managed to be re-elected after he was censured by the House for being in a relationship with a former male page, (Jul 20)), it would, they warned, stopped any further progression in its tracks. Then came the disintegration of Gary Hart’s presidential campaign earlier that month over reports of his extra-marital relationship with a young model, and the revelation that Rep. Stewart B. McKinney of Connecticut had died of AIDS. Frank said there was “an unfortunate debate about ‘Was he or wasn’t he? Didn’t he or did he?’ I said to myself, I don’t want that to happen to me.” So he called the Globe — he had promised them the exclusive the year before when they first approached him about Bauman’s book — and came out on May 29. Two days later, the Globe did a follow-up and reported that most of his constituents were unperturbed by his announcement, and many were unsurprised.

Today In History, 2005: “Current Mood: Depressed”

Remember MySpace, the first large-scale social media site? Remember how posts began with the writer’s current mood? It was typically located right under the post’s title. In this case, the title was, “The World Coming To An Abrupt Stop,” and it was written by sixteen-year-old Zach, who had plenty of reasons to feel depressed. He wrote:

Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay. This didn’t go over very well, and it ended with my dad crying, my mom tearing, and me not knowing what I’d done – or what to do. It kind of.. went away for about a week or two I think. They claim it’s because they didn’t want to interfere with my last week or two of school.

Yesterday they told me that I couldn’t go anywhere until I got a job. Out of the blue. Because I’m the most irresponsible child my dad knows – as he told me – mainly because I forget to unload the dishwasher sometimes… it doesn’t matter that I have to clean up after my sisters and myself everyday. It just doesn’t.

Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long “talk” in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they “raised me wrong.” I’m a big screw up to them, who isn’t on the path God wants me to be on. So I’m sitting here in tears, joing the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs – and I can’t help it.

I wish I had never told them. I wish I just fought the urge two more years… I had done it for three before then, right? If I could take it all back.. I would, to where I never told my parents things and they always were mad at me– It’s better than them crying and depressed cause they will have no granchildren from me. It’s better than them telling me that there’s something wrong with me. It’s better than them explaining to me that they “raised me wrong.”

Currently listening:
Hot Fuss
By The Killers
Release date: By 15 June, 2004

The next day it only got worse:

Monday, May 30, 2005

After The World Stopped, It Gave Me A Lot Of Rules.
Current mood: worried

Yeah, I was upset yesterday.. however I found an email about the rules and regulations of the program. My parents lied to me.. they told me (29th of May) that they didn’t know what the rules were exactly, however, this email wasnt sent on the 26th of May. I see now why they “didn’t know what the rules were.” It’s horrible.. they’re posted below.. and I so worried. It’s like boot camp… but worse. I obviously was not supposed to see this.. Seeing the bottom say “Parental Rules (not to be given to client)”

What is with these people…? Honestly.. how could you support a program like this? If I do come out straight I’ll be so mentally unstable and depressed it wont matter.. I’ll be back in therapy again. This is not good–

Currently listening:
Breakaway
By Kelly Clarkson
Release date: By 30 November, 2004

Zach posted the rules, giving the world first look at what the Memphis-based Love In Action residential ex-gay program was all about. The rules were staggering: hair can’t be too long or too short and can’t be colored, no Abercrombie and Fitch or Calvin Klein clothing, no contact with anyone outside the program, no cell phones, computers, or internet access. No TV, movies or “secular media.” No more than 15 minutes in the bathroom with the door closed while showering. Bedroom doors must be kept open at all times. The rules went on for several pages and were highly detailed.

As a teenager, Zach wasn’t eligible for the adult residential program. Thank God for small favors. Instead, he was sent to the youth-oriented Refuge program, a two-week day camp that would begin on June 6. Thanks to the pre-Facebook/Twitter power of MySpace, Zach’s cry to the world was quickly answered, first with comments of support and outrage over what was about to happen. Zach posted again to thank those who offered their support:

Friday, June 03, 2005

Thanks.. by the way.
Current mood: numb

Thanks. Thank you for all of the comments and messages, they mean a lot. really. I was shocked to see all of this… of course I haven’t been on a computer, phone, nor have I seen any friends in a week almost– Soon. Soon, this will be all over. My mother has said the worst things to me for three days straight… three days. I went numb. That’s the only way I can get through this. I agree, if you’re thinking that these posts might be dramatized.. but the proof of the programs ideas are sitting in the rules. I pray this blows over. I can’t take this… noone can… not really, this kind of thing tears you apart emotionally. To introduce THIS subject… I’m not a suicidal person… really I’m not.. I think it’s stupid – really. But.. I can’t help it, no im not going to commit suicide, all I can think about is killing my mother and myself. It’s so horrible. This is what it’s doing to me… I have this horrible feeling all of the time… I wish this on no person… I’m so satisfied–happy’s too strong of a word the state I’m in– that everyone’s taking the time to email and write letters in complaint to these people. I dont know if it will do anything, but if something did happen it would be — awesome.

It’s been a week of torture – anger, and crying.
Current mood: worried

Hi. I’m not sure if I’m even supposed to be on. I ran away for a short while. I came back and they took everything from me, they don’t want me to have outside influences– i dont know how long im going to be on, because if tehy wake up, im screwed. The program starts June 6 and is until either teh 17th or the 20th. I’m sorry I don’t have time to write back o all of the comments and messages. I’m just here to let everyone know I am still alive, I’m sure you’ve left messages on my cellphone, they took that.. and my keys… and the computer.. and I’ve been homebound. -=sigh=- I just need this to be over. Don’t worry. I’ll get through this. They’ve promised me things will get better whether this program does anything or not. Let’s hope they aren’t lying. I’ve been through hell. I’ve been emotionally torn apart for three days… I can’t remember which days they were.. time’s not what it used to be.

Zach entered Love In Action on June 6. His friends, having seen his MySpace posts, organized a rally for him outside the facility as he showed up that morning with signs reading “It’s Okay to Be Gay” and “We Support You.” The next day, they showed up again, and the day after that and the day after that — for the next two weeks, so Zach would know he wasn’t alone. After a few days, national media began notice. Before long, the whole country learned what was happening behind the locked doors of Love In Action.

The national controversy brought a lot of unwanted attention to Love In Action. It was investigated by the state of Tennessee for child abuse and for operating a separate unlicensed drug and alcohol treatment program. Love In Action eventually settled with the state by re-casting themselves as a Christian ministry rather than as a therapeutic program. A year later, they quietly shut down their youth program.

In 2012, Memphis filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox released his documentary, This is What Love in Action Looks Like. Zach had remained out of the public eye ever since he left Love In Action, and six years later he still wasn’t giving interviews. But he did agree to appear briefly in the film.

Just as importantly, so did John Smid, Love In Action’s executive director, who by then had established an unlikely friendship with Fox. Smid credits that friendship for being instrumental in his profound change of opinions — about homosexuality, about his role in the ex-gay movement, and about himself personally. Smid resigned from Love In Action in 2008, and had written several letters of apology by 2010. In 2011, Smid wrote that change in orientation was both impossible and unnecessary. Smid and his wife divorced, and he married his current husband in 2014.

Born On This Day, 1934: Nancy Cárdenas

(d. 1994) The poet, playwright, journalist, theater director and social activist was born in Parras, Coahuila in Mexico. She became a noted radio announcer at the age of 20 before turning to the stage. Her interest in literature became apparent in the 1950s when she participated in a public reading program, Poetry Out Loud followed in the 1960’s with the publication of her one-act play El Cántaro Seco (The Empty Pitcher).

In the 1970s, she became an acclaimed theater and film director. Her 1970 film, El Efecto de los Rayos Gamma Sobre las Caléndulas (The Effect of Gamma Rays on Marigolds), was a critical hit, earning the Theatre Critics Association Award. It was also very controversial for being gay themed. She drew death threats and the film was protested by the brother of then-President Luis Echeverría, which was no small thing: President Echeverrí­a had been the hardline Interior Secretary during the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, when the Mexican government opened fire on protesting students ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics. But such was Cárdenas’s influence that not only was the film shown in the Mexican capital, but in a major theater on Avenida de los Insurgentes no less — Insurgentes being one of the principal boulevards in Mexico city. It was a huge success.

She came out as a lesbian in 1974 during an interview on the public affairs television program 24 Horas. That act made her the first publicly declared lesbian in Mexico. That year she founded El Frente de Liberación Homosexual (FLH, the Gay Liberation Front). In 1975, she co-wrote with Carlos Monsivais the Manifiesto en Defensa de los Homosexuales en México. On October 2, 1978, as part of a commemoration of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, she headed the first Gay Pride march in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. She continued her advocacy throughout the 1980s through her plays, poetry and public statements. She died in 1994 of breast cancer.

Born On This Day, 1947: Gene Robinson

► Gene Robinson: 1947. When he was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of New Hampshire in 2004, he became the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be elevated to the episcopate. His election was so controversial, he wore a bullet-proof vest during his consecration. In a BeliefNet interview the day after he gave a prayer at the opening of President Barack Obama’s inaugural celebrations, he talked about his journey toward coming to terms with his sexuality:

I’ve been the reparative therapy route. I did that. My own experience is it doesn’t work. I think what it does it that it teaches gay and lesbian people to become so self loathing that they are willing to not act in a natural way, and deprive themselves of the kind of love and support that makes life worthwhile, that makes sense of our own lives and being. I can’t be supportive of that. It only underscores the way the church has gotten this wrong. God doesn’t ever get it wrong but the church often does.

Bishop Robinson formally retired in January, 2013.

Born On This Date, 1959: Rupert Everett

His 1981 role as a gay schoolboy in the stage version of Another Country proved to be his break, opening the way for his screen appearance in the 1984 film version with Colin Firth. In 1989, Everett moved to Paris and came out as gay, which he said may have damaged his career. Wags would say that the 1987 flop Hearts of Fire may have been a factor. But his appearance in the 1997 film My Best Friend’s Wedding and 2000’s The Next Best Thing showed that his career wasn’t entirely over — although it did appear that he would forever be typecast as the heroine’s gay best friend. In 2009, he told the British newspaper The Observer:

The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn’t work and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point. You’re going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they’ll cut you right off… Honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out.

In recent years, Everett has remained active in British television and in the lead role of a London production of The Judas Kiss, about Oscar Wilde’s downfall and 1895 gross indecency conviction. And as a former sex worker himself, he has lately championed the decriminalization of sex workers and their clients. And ever the iconoclast, he criticized those who advocated for marriage equality in Britain, saying, “I find it personally beyond tragic that we want to ape this institution that is so clearly a disaster.”

Born On This Day, 1961: Melissa Etheridge

Her debut album was completed in just four days after her record label rejected her first effort as too polished. That stripped down album, titled simply Melissa Etheridge, not only defined her sound, but it yielded a hit single, “Bring Me Some Water” and a Grammy nomination. In 1992, she won her first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance on the strength of her third album, Never Enough. Her breakthrough album, 1993’s Yes I Am, was certified Platinum and garnered her a second Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for her single “Come to My Window”. Her 2006 song “I Need to Wake Up” was recorded for Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

She came out publicly in 1993 and has been a committed gay rights advocate ever since. She is also a committed advocate on behalf of the environment and breast cancer research, having herself undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2004 and 2005. In an interview with Dateline NBC, she discussed her recovery and her use of medical marijuana while undergoing chemo. In 2011, she announced her separation from her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, after seven years together. They have two children, fraternal twins, who were born in 2006. Etheridge also has two children from her previous long-term relationship with Julie Cypher. In 2013, she announced her engagement to television producer Linda Wallem who, coincidentally, shares the exact same birth date. They married in 2014, two days after they both turned 53.

Born On This Day, 1975: David Burtka

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka

The Michigan native began his acting career on the stage, and then in guest roles for TV on The West Wing, Crossing Jordan and in seven episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Those appearances in Mother led to rumors that Burtka was romantically involved with one of the series’ stars, which finally prompted Neil Patrick Harris to publicly acknowledge in 2006 that he was gay. In 2010, Burtka and Harris, who have been together since 2004, became fathers to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. Birtka had cut back on acting to run a Los Angeles catering company and work as a full time chef, but last year he returned to Broadway for a role in It Shoulda Been You.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From The Advocate, August 24, 1977, page 34.

Before 1970 or so, films with gay characters were either tragic (you just knew someone was going to be killed or commit suicide), or were played for laughs. By the 1980s, films turned turned even more tragic, thanks to AIDS. But there was a brief moment, say in 1974 when A Very Natural Thing debuted, when a film about ordinary love and relationships between men could be released to the general public by a somewhat alt-mainstream company, which is what New Line Cinema was aspiring to be at the time.

A Very Natural Thing is regarded as the first American film about gay relationships intended for a mainstream audience. The film’s reception was ambiguous. Straight critics thought it was too political (two men in love, apparently, made it so), while gay critics were more inclined to think it wasn’t political enough (the characters were too white, too middle-class, too heteronormative). Producer/director Christopher Larkin thought all of the critics were reading too much into the film. “I wanted to say that same-sex relationships are no more problematic but no easier than any other human relationships. They are in many ways the same and in several ways different from heterosexual relationships but in themselves are no less possible or worthwhile.”

Today In History, 1919: First Pro-Gay Film Released

The German silent film Anders als die Andern (English title: “Different From the Others”) tells the story of a famous concert violinist, Paul Körner (played by Conrad Veidt, who later appeared in Casablanca as Major Heinrich Strasser) who falls in love with his student Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz). Both men experience disapproval from their parents The real-life Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the famous German sexologist and gay-rights advocate (see May 14), makes several cameo appearances in the film. In one scene, he explains to Körner’s parents that their son “is not to blame for his orientation. is not wrong, nor should it be a crime. Indeed, it is not even an illness, merely a variation, and one that is common to all of nature.”

Hirshfeld’s appearances appear directed more toward the audience than the characters he’s speaking to. In one flashback scene, when Körner first meets Hirschfeld’s character after discovering that an “ex-gay” hypnotherapist was a fraud (some things never change), Hirschfeld tells him, “Love for one of the same sex is no less pure or noble than for one of the opposite. This orientation can be found in all levels of society, and among respected people. Those that say otherwise come only from ignorance and bigotry.”

This film was no masterpiece. The acting is stilted, the plot is predictable. Another character, Franz Bollek, sees Körner and Sivers together, and confronts Körner in a blackmail attempt. Körner reports Bollek for blackmail and has him arrested. In retaliation, Bollek exposes Körner. Both men wind up in court, both are found guilty despite Hirshfeld’s testimony on Körner’s behalf (and another soliloquy for the audience). The judge has mercy on Körner by sentencing him to only one week. Apparently letting him go didn’t occur to the judge. Disgraced and shunned by his family, Körner kills himself. Sivers also tries to kill himself, but Hirschfeld intervenes with another polemic: “You have to keep living; live to change the prejudices by which this man has been made one of the countless victims. … Justice through knowledge!”

The film was originally released for general distribution, but it soon fell under official censorship and its showings were restricted to doctors and lawyers. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they rounded up all the copies they could find and burned them. Only small fragments of the film survives today. A version has been reconstructed from those fragments and is available on DVD. Unfortunately, the films reconstruction relies on surviving stills and added title cards, which make up far too much of the reconstructed film to make it a satisfying experience beyond its historical interest. This clip includes one of Hirscheld’s cameos (beginning at 3:10):

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From GPU News (Milwaukee, WI), May 1972, page 15. (Source.)

via Google Street View.

Milwaukee’s Neptune Club appears to have only lasted about a year: “Neptune Club is believed to have been Chuck Cicirello‘s first gay bar. He later opened the Factory, which was to become the legendary Milwaukee dance/disco bar, followed by Factory 2 and 3, and other bars in later years.” As of last October, the ground floor of the building appears to be empty.