“I find myself applying the addict's impulse to how I cruise. I don't look at the ass. If I see a hot guy walking towards me I look at his arm, and if he has a vein I fantasize about shooting up with him.” IfsLooksGuyArmsWalkingHotAssShootingImpulseVeinsAddictCruiseHot GuyShooting Up Author:Kevin Sessums
“Sometimes if I am walking down the street and thinking about my panoply of God, Ganesha, Parvati [Ganesha's mother], I say "Lucifer," because he belongs in that panoply. I miss him. That's why I'm a theist.” IfsThinkingSometimesMotherStreetsMissingWalkingLuciferTheist Author:Kevin Sessums
“I was so unhappy as a child in Washington I figured if I'm going to Yale, I am going to start a new life. I'll change my name to my middle name. So I was known for my four years at Yale as David Kramer.” IfsYearsChildrenNamesKnownFourMiddleUnhappyFour YearsNew LifeYaleKramer 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
“My father was dead by the time I became a writer, and he would have had a heart attack if he had read the first thing I wrote when it came out. My mother still keeps her copy of Faggots hidden away in a bottom drawer.” IfsFirstsHeartStillsMotherFatherBottomCopiesDrawersHeart Attack Author:Kevin Sessums
“There was a lot really awful about that time [in fifties] if you were gay.” IfsGayAwful Author:Kevin Sessums
“If someone had come up to me at Yale and asked me how many homosexuals there were in my class, I would have said I don't think there are any. There may have been a few who were shy with girls. You have to understand, this was the 1950s.” IfsThinkingMayHas BeensSaidGirlClassCome UpShyHomosexualYale 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
