“I was raped: I said no and he wouldn't stop. I also had a scar on my back and blood coming out of my ass. To some that's just rough sex. Some would read that sentence and be turned on by that: the 51st Shade of Gay.” SaidSexBloodGaySentencesAssRoughShadeComing OutScar Author:Kevin Sessums
“I don't like the vulgarity of Oscars weekend, but it's also sweet. It's prom weekend for anyone who didn't experience the real prom: the nerds, gay, arty outsiders. Hollywood is high school with money.” RealSchoolSweetGayHigh SchoolHollywoodWeekendOutsidersOscarsNerdVulgarityProm Author:Kevin Sessums
“Is it easier for you to have straight friends, Larry [Kramer], since you seem so often disappointed in your gay friends who can't live up to what you expect of them as gay people?” PeopleSeemsEasierGayDisappointedLarryGay PeopleKramerGay Friend Author:Kevin Sessums
“David Remnick [the New Yorker's editor in chief]is about as interested in anything gay as I am interested in anything to do with baseball. It drives me nuts.” GayBaseballChiefsEditorsNutsNew Yorkers Author:Kevin Sessums
“If there was criticism about [Oscar Wilde], it was because it was written by a straight man who wasn't very educated about the gay world.” IfsMenWorldWrittenGayCriticismEducatedOscarsWilde Author:Kevin Sessums
“I think I just felt a sadness at some points in my career that what is available to a straight writer is not available to a gay writer.” ThinkingFeltCareersSadnessGayAvailable Author:Kevin Sessums
“I don't think everybody's gay. But I think a lot more people are than the world knows about.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldGay Author:Kevin Sessums
“I think basically what The American People is about is that we've been here from the very beginning, and that has never ever been acknowledged in the history books. John Winthrop wasn't off the boat ten seconds before he passes a law that homosexuals should be hanged. And then he hung 'em, including an attempt to hang his own son when he found out he was gay.” PeopleThinkingShouldBookLawFoundSonGayTenIncludingBoatEmsSecondsHungHomosexualHistory Books Author:Kevin Sessums
“Larry [Kramer] and I often disagree. There was the whole meshuggaas we went through about his donating his papers to Yale, and I disagreed with him on a number of things about that. You wanted a gay center.” WholeWantedNumbersGayPaperDisagreePapersLarryYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“Those people are seen, I assume, by Larry [Kramer] as writing partly about gay issues and problems, whether it's on the surface or not, and I am not. But another thing is when we met, there still wasn't exactly a gay/straight divide in the minds of a lot of straight people. There weren't any gay people, as far as we knew, at Yale.” PeopleWritingMindStillsProblemIssuesMetsGayAssumingSurfaceDividesLarryGay PeopleYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“There was a lot really awful about that time [in fifties] if you were gay.” IfsGayAwful Author:Kevin Sessums
“One of the few nice things about [time in Yale] was you got to know people before there were labels on them, so you got to know them as people, not as either gay or straight. Because as far as we knew, we thought everyone was straight.” PeopleKnowsNiceGayLabelsNice ThingsYale Author:Kevin Sessums
“Back in Kansas City, I associated Harvard with sort of gnarly guys who wore capes for effect in a kind of Oscar Wilde scene. Even though I also knew there was such a thing as the Harvard-Yale game, I was still a little surprised that Harvard had a football team. I just assumed if there were such a thing as gay people, that they were nothing like us. Little did I know that probably half the swim team at Yale was gay.” PeopleIfsKnowsKindLittlesStillsGuyGamesCitiesHalfTeamEffectsFootballSceneGaySwimOscarsHarvardGay PeopleFootball TeamKansasYaleCapesWildeKansas CityGnarlySwim Team Author:Kevin Sessums
“[Robert Gottlieb] wouldn't have published 'Remembering Denny' . Denny was a Rhodes Scholar. He was on the swimming team. Had this great California crew cut and this great smile. Life magazine covered his graduation, and Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed it. We all expected him to be president some day. But he committed suicide when he was in his 50s. If he were gay in the 1950s, then the rest of what I wrote was commentary because life was so miserable for gay men back then. And that's why he committed suicide.” IfsMenRememberPresidentCuttingTeamGaySuicideCommittedExpectedMagazinesMiserableCaliforniaCoveredSwimmingScholarCrewCommentaryGay MenSwim Team Author:Kevin Sessums
“You're talking about the 1970s now and not the 1950s. We were all more sophisticated by that time, and I just assumed he was gay. But I do remember when we were all sitting around on a roof one night and Larry turned to me and said, "You do know I'm gay, don't you?" There was a statement made. A declaration. We just never had really talked about it.” KnowsMadeSaidRememberNightTalkingGaySittingStatementsRoofSophisticatedDeclarationRemember WhenOne NightLarrySitting Around Author:Kevin Sessums
“[Larry Kramer] thinks Charles de Gaulle was gay. He thinks Max Schmeling was gay.” ThinkingGayMaxLarryKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
