For me “Dark” means three
themes:
(a) Gay Liberation strategists should
acknowledge that, when we speak of minorities in the United States aspiring to
liberation, this means Americans with a darker complexion, the black and
brown complexioned people. Our liberation groups have to make political deals
with black liberation groups such as the NAACP, the National Action Network
founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, The Urban League and the Southern Poverty Law
Center. Rev. Al Sharpton was a frequent visitor to the Queens Lesbian and Gay
Democratic Club of Queens County in New York City. He is a true friend of the
gay community of the USA.
The foremost
personification of black and gay liberation is James Baldwin.
James
Arthur "Jimmy" Baldwin (August
2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and social critic. His
essays, as collected in Notes of a Native
Son (1955), explore palpable
yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class
distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America.[1] Some
of Baldwin's essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963)
(b) On the other hand, “Dark” also means, in
terms of gay European and American history the “Dark Ages,” the Middle Ages
which lasted from 478 A. D. to 1399 A. D., which is the last year covered by
John Boswell’s historical study, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality
(published 1976). John Boswell died of AIDS in 1994, the same year his other
book was published, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe.
[moving outside of prompt: Jonathan Ned Katz’ Gay American History
could be seen as the historical sequel to Boswell’s book
(c)
“Dark” means Halloween fun.
The Middle Ages gave us a
rich population of ghosts, specters, elves, witches, wizards, warlocks, elves, goblins,
fairies, leprechauns, angels, demons, etc. Halloween is a medieval Irish
holiday, as pointed out in the film Halloween Three produced by Mustafa Akkad
in 1982.
© 30 Oct 2017
About
the Author
I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City,
Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker
for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally
impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA's.
I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few
interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I
graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
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