Looking Back

Looking Back

by David Rothenberg

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  George Santayana

Looking back at the evolving gay liberation, I celebrate that many young people are open and self-accepting, oblivious of closets behind which millions hid.

In the last 57 years, post Stonewall, a countless number of men and women fought to remove the stigma and legal barriers, a battle which included sit-ins, marches and visiting city, state and federal offices. We entered rooms and corridors of power once denied us. Change comes slowly. It took time but today there’s a gay governor, a member of the Biden cabinet, CEOs and sports stars, nonexistent when I was a college student in the 1950s, living a life of lies and shame. Colleges and high schools across the map have gay organizations.

 There’s a catch in all of this. It is becoming painfully apparent that what was fought for and achieved could be lost with the stroke of a Presidential pen. The forces of evil and ignorance that thrived before Stonewall never vanished. Just pay heed to the insidious implications emanating from our nation’s capital and attempts to erase the history of all marginalized groups. The demonization of transgenders is a hint of the fear and tactics being suggested and imposed.

Homophobia was deeply encrusted in our society until people boldly came forth, putting a face on the issue… and America had to take notice of their sons and daughters, their work partners and childhood pals.

Let me recall a historic tale which took place, a story which must not be lost in the reshaping of history.

In the 1980s, the gay male community was devastated by a disease, originally called GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency).  An early meeting of activists and Ginny Apuzzo, director of the National Gay Task Force, alerted the CDC that naming a disease after a group of people, a demographic, if you will, would have negative consequences. Her words of wisdom were heeded, and the virus was then identified as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency).

AIDS became the catalyst for unapologetic homophobia, overtly and in subtle ways.  National Review publisher and TV host William Buckley advocated that gay men be tattooed, which had echoes of Auschwitz.

Of much greater significance was that during the first three years, after AIDS was identified and thousands of men were dying, the august and influential New York Times had printed but a single story. This was emerging as the major health story in the second half of the 20th century, and the homophobic policy at the paper of record was one of silence.

In the 1980s, The New York Times had a policy of “no coverage” of gay events… or even use of the word “gay”.  This irrational policy evolved after Iphigene Sulzberger, dowager head of the family that owned The Times, sent a note objecting to a freelance travel page story by Cliff Jahr about a gay cruise ship to nowhere. Editors heeded the complaint and gays disappeared from the pages of The NY Times.

At the same time, US President Ronald Reagan had yet to acknowledge the health threat devastating American lives. NYC Mayor Ed Koch had his own convoluted personal issues, a condition which Larry Kramer effectively dramatized in his play, The Normal Heart.

It was The New York Times, though, with its far-reaching influence that had to be confronted. There were threats of picketing the paper. Four of us drafted a letter and sent it to the publisher asking for a hearing. The signers were the aforementioned Ms. Apuzzo, Judge Richard Faila, activist and journalist Andy Humm… and myself, at the time a member of the NYC Human Rights Commission. We suggested that institutional homophobia was preventing The Times, the self-proclaimed paper of record, from covering a major health story.

The four of us had also been meeting with elected officials and religious leaders, most of whom were hesitant to be associated with gays and a virus. One religious “leader” told us he objected to our lifestyle… and we all responded that our lifestyle included work, paying taxes and being good citizens. We suggested that it was sex he found objectionable, and we noted that we were all alive as a result of two heterosexuals having sex. He was visibly offended and dismissed us.

To the credit of The New York Times, we received an invitation to meet with Sydney Gruson, Associate Publisher of the paper known as a close colleague of the many Sulzbergers.

Gruson was comfortable with it and responsive. He stated the next step would be a meeting with Times Managing Editor, the ferocious and feared Abe Rosenthal… He was also one of the most influential men in NYC.

We determined that we would not burden Rosenthal with complaints of the past but to use the opportunity with suggestions of pertinent stories, not the least of which was the ominous presence of AIDS.

A week later, Rosenthal ushered us into the fabled Times dining room, where Presidential candidates and Nobel Peace Prize winners were interviewed. We were prepared for battle and stunned when Abe said to us, “We need your help… where do we begin?”

We suggested stories and told them they had talented gay writers and editors who could ably cover them. I said, “They are fearful of coming out.” and Rosenthal replied, “We would never fire anyone because of their sexual orientation?” and I said, “Perhaps not, but they could end up as the correspondent from Caspar, Wyoming.” 

He smiled and said, “You’ve done your homework.”

The Times published two stories in the next two weeks, one about the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the “buddy” system. The second was covering a Pflag conference (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

The Times evolved into a responsible newspaper covering gay organizations and gay lives. Other media outlets followed suit, and political and business leaders had permission to be supportive. Most significant was that money could be advocated for science to find a cure for AIDS.

Recalling that episode today, with history being rewritten and a Damocles sword hovering over our community, it is essential not to bypass what was when it might provide a guideline for what could be.

People without a history lack a foundation to prepare for the next threat.

David Rothenberg has been a Broadway producer, co-founder of The Fortune Society, served on many commissions in New York and around the nation advocation for human rights. He has hosted a weekly radio show on WBAI for more than 50years and recently published Manhattan Mayhem, a collection of short fiction based on his nine decades.