A World without Gay or Lesbian people

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 8:42am

The following is adapted from Diane Silver's "The New Civil War" --

At times it seems as if some people would prefer a world where no
lesbians or gays existed. But what would that world really be like?

Here is a look at what the world might have been like if it had never
included people who were homosexual or had a significant homosexual
relationship in life.

President Gerald Ford might have died in 1975 because a gay ex-marine
Oliver "Bill" Sipple would not have been alive to push away the gun
of an assassin in San Francisco.

The United States, Britain, and the other Allies might have lost
World War 2 because Alan Turing, a gay British mathematician, would
never have been born. Turing broke one of the Nazis' most important
codes (German Enigma Code) to help shorten the war.

African-Americans might have struggled longer before receiving civil
rights because there would have been no Bayard Rustin, the gay man
who organized the 1963 March on Washington. This the march where Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Religious life would have been lessened without the voices of Malcolm
Boyd, Troy Perry, Jane Spahr or John McNeil. Christians would also
have a difficult time conceiving the New Testament without the
scholarship skills of Desiderius Erasmus (the basis for the Tyndale
and King James Versions).

Our musical world would have been impoverished because gay American
composer Aaron Copeland would have never been born. Russian composer
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky would not have existed, neither would have
Leonard Bernstein, English composer Benjamin Britten, or singers
Bessie Smith, Melissa Etheridge, or Elton John. Katherine Lee Bates
would have never written: "O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber
waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain.
America, America, God shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good
with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

(Yes, Katherine Lee Bates wrote the patriotic song "America the
Beautiful" and she was a lesbian and she had a domestic partner)

We would have also missed the folk songs of Stephen Foster and the
clever compositions of Cole Porter. We would never have listened to
the "Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" or "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" --
both were written by gay men to their lovers (in both cases,
publishers demanded that gender pronouns be switched).

Western art would look very different because neither Michelangelo
nor Leonardo da Vinci would have been around. And of course, we would
have missed Plato and a woman Plato honored with respect as
the "tenth muse" -- Sappho.

The Disney movie hits "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast"
would have been much duller because Howard Ashman would not have been
alive to write their Academy Award winning songs. Or imagine "Star
Wars" or "E.T." or "Schindler's List" without the scores of John
Williams.

Literature would have been lessened because many authors would never
have been born, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.H. Auden,
Nobel Prize winning author Patrick White of Australia, E.M. Forster,
Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, and Walt Whitman.

Movie theaters would have been duller: no Rock Hudson or Marlene
Dietrich or Montgomery Clift. Actually, many of the most important
plays of the American stage would never have been written because gay
playwright Tennessee Williams would not have existed. We would have
also missed the plays of Edward Albee or the brilliant acting of Sir
Laurence Olivier.

Who else would have been missing? Sports stars like Martina
Navritalova or Greg Louganis or Brian Orser would be gone. The list
of people who have had significant same-gender relationships is very
long and includes Socrates, King Richard the Lion Hearted, Queen
Christina of Sweden, Eleanor Roosevelt and so many more.

We may never know the exact cause of homosexual orientation but one
thing is sure -- It would be difficult to envision or recognize a
civilized world without the contributions of gays and lesbians.

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:28am

Thanks for that ...very cool.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:33am

They neglected one:

Broadwayworld.com would be a sparse and solemn place.

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:35am

. . .and no will & grace

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 10:35am

How very true, Rathnait, how true...

Updated On: 2/2/05 at 10:35 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:29am

and Kelsey Grammer would have been the only man in the cast of Frasier!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 11:45am

As Fran Leibowitz once said: "Eliminate the influence of gays & Lesbians on American culture and you're pretty much left with 'Let's Make A Deal."

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:30pm

uh - they can leave Will and Grace off the list as far as I'm concerned - that show does NOTHING To further our cause - NOTHING.

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:32pm

I wouldn't have any friends off this board...

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:43pm

LittleFish, you are a nut.

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:44pm

Tis a fact, my sweet Rath.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 12:47pm

That was wonderful... thanks for sharing

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:41pm

Olivier was gay? He was married to Vivien Leigh, right? I'm not going crazy, am I?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:44pm

SUPPOSEDLY, Lord Olivier had flings with men, as well - SUPPOSEDLY with people like Danny Kaye.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:46pm

Why do you think poor Vivien lost her mind?

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:46pm

This is the first I've ever heard of it, but I'm not surprised.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:48pm

hey you missed Boy George :-Phehehe

actually that is a wonderful list. But there are a lot more peopel that are missing. Oscar Wilde for one.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:50pm

Not only Danny Kaye, but at least one James Whale (director of Frankenstein; subject of "Gods and Monsters") bio has suggested that Whale and Olivier were more than friends when the two were working in the theatre in England in the 20s, before either was well known.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:51pm

He also slept with other women while he was with Leigh, including her good friend Claire Bloom (this according to Bloom herself).

[robbiej]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:53pm

And don't forget that without Gay people, Luke would never have learned about the force (poor dear dead closeted Alec).

Updated On: 2/2/05 at 04:53 PM

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:55pm

Poor Vivie!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 4:58pm

I'm surprised William Shakespeare didn't make the list.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 6:30pm

Plus, had there been no Howard Ashman, there wouldn't be a musical of "Little Shop Of Horrors."
And we wouldn't have Ian McKellan.
Or John Tartaglia!

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 6:30pm

Or Ellen DeGeneres!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 6:59pm

Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner.