2. AGENDA
• Make-up Exam
• Change Teams
• Presentation: The 70s
• Discussion
– The Front Runner
• Author Introductions:
– Barbara Cameron
– Allen Barnett
3. Announcement
• Make up exam #1: Class 17 Wednesday, 11/19
• If you are not taking this exam, you may have the day off.
• Remember, if you take this exam, you are ineligible to
submit an essay revision
5. Presentation: The 70s!
1970 Unitarian Universalist Association becomes first U.S.
mainstream religious group to recognize LGB clergy and
laity within its ranks and to demand an end to anti-gay
discrimination.
1970 The Vatican issues a statement reiterating that
homosexuality is a moral aberration.
1971 Idaho repeals the sodomy law, then re-instates the
repealed sodomy law because of outrage among Mormons
and Catholics.
1972 East Lansing, Michigan, becomes first city to ban anti-gay
bias in city hiring.
1972 The Rev. William R. Johnson became the first openly
gay minister to be ordained in the United Church of Christ.
6. 1973 American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list
of mental illnesses.
1974 First state-level openly gay person elected: Elaine Noble of
Massachusetts.
1974 Robert Grant founds American Christian Cause to oppose the “gay
agenda,” beginning modern Christian politics in America.
1974 Ohio Supreme Court rules that even though homosexuality is legal,
the state can refuse to incorporate a gay organization because “the
promotion of homosexuality as a valid life style is contrary to the public
policy of the state.”
1975 U.S. Civil Service Commission stops banning gay men and lesbians
from federal jobs.
1976 Tales of the City published by the “San Francisco Chronicle,“
includes LGB and T characters.
1976 Lynn Ransom of California is one of the first openly lesbian mothers
to win custody of her children in court.
7. 1976 San Francisco Bisexual Center opens.
1977 Anita Bryant and Save Our Children succeed in repealing Miami law
against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
1977 80% of surveyed Oregon doctors say they would refuse to treat a
known homosexual.
1977 Arkansas recriminalizes gay sex after two years without such a law.
1978 The rainbow flag is first used as a symbol of homosexual pride.
1978 Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in
California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk
served 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay
rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor
George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor
who had recently resigned and wanted his job back.
1979 The first homosexual rights march on Washington, D.C. is held
8. QHQ: Front Runner
First Half
1. Q: What role does Christopher play in Harlan’s life?
2. Q: Even though there is no evidence that Harlan has homosexual
activity with Denny, why he is forced to resign?
3. Q: Does Harlan Brown accept the boys into the school/ track program
for his own benefit since he finds Billy sexually attractive?
4. Q: Why does Billy act weird when Mr. Brown corrects the boys about
his name from Harlan to Mr. Brown?
5. Q: Why was Harlan being cruel towards Billy?
6. Q: Does Mr. Brown suppress his attraction toward Billy because of
internalized homophobia?
7. Q: Before they initiate a romantic relationship, how Billy and Mr.
Brown’s silent feelings for each other affect them both in harmful ways?
9. 1. Q: Why does it take Harlan and Billy so long to realize they
could date and just keep it secret? Why put one another
through the pain for that long?
2. Q: Does Billy possess that “ghost of [him]self” that Harlan
claimed to be looking for in other lovers?
3. Q: Before they initiate a romantic relationship, how Billy and
Mr. Brown’s silent feelings for each other affect them both in
harmful ways?
4. Q: Why does it take Harlan and Billy so long to realize they
could date and just keep it secret? Why put one another
through the pain for that long?
5. Q: Why would Harlan decide to tell a tabloid magazine of his
relationship with Billy?
6. Q: What were the social repercussions of being gay at that time
period that kept homosexuals like Harlan closeted?
10. QHQ: Front Runner
Second Half
1. Q: Why does Harlan think that their relationship would
last forever even if Harlan is way older than Billy?
2. Q: Before everything went so horribly wrong so fast,
why was Harlan so seemingly obsessed with marrying
Billy, despite Billy’s desire not to?
3. Q: What are Richard Mech’s motives for killing Billy?
Are they justified?
4. Q: Do you think Harlan’s reaction to Billy’s murder was
appropriate or at least uncharacteristic?
11. 1. Q: If Billy had not been killed, would the marriage have
really lasted? Especially with plans to have an actual
child together?
2. Q: Why does it take Vince to finally get Harlan to cry?
3. Q: What is difference between queer literature before
the stonewall riot and after the stonewall riot?
4. What are the politics (ideological agendas) of
specific gay, lesbian, or queer works, and how are
those politics revealed in...the work's thematic
content or portrayals of its characters?
5. What does the work reveal about the operations
(socially, politically, psychologically) of
heterosexism?
12. Author Introduction: Barbara Cameron
• Born in Fort Yates, North Dakota,
Cameron was raised on the Standing
Rock Reservation by her grandparents.
• She eventually moved to San Francisco.
There, in 1975, just a few years after
the Stonewall riots in New York, she co-founded
Gay American Indians with
activist Randy Burns. Cameron's refusal
to be queer in one corner of her life,
and native in another, is as radical and
transformative now, as it was then. In
"Gee, You Don't Seem Like an Indian
From the Reservation," Cameron tells
of the conflicts she faced for being both
gay and Native American.
1954-2002
13. Author Introduction: Allen Barnett
• Barnett was born on May 23, 1955, in a small
town near Joliet, Illinois, the oldest of seven
children. Barnett moved to New York City,
initially to seek work as an actor, but eventually
enrolling in a Master's degree program in liberal
studies at the New School. In the late 1980s,
Barnett's writing found its way to Michael Denneny,
an influential editor at St. Martin's Press. Denneny
not only contracted to publish The Body and Its
Dangers and Other Stories, but placed one of the
stories ("Philostorgy, Now Obscure") in the highly
influential New Yorker magazine in advance of the
book's publication.
• Barnett had less than one year to enjoy the resulting
acclaim. He died on August 14, 1991, of AIDS-related
causes, having earlier been treated for Kaposi's
(1955-1991) Sarcoma in the lungs.
14. Homework
• Read “Gee, You Don’t Seem Like
an Indian From the Reservation”
by Barbara Cameron 1982 from
This Bridge Called my Back
• “Philostorgy, Now Obscure” by
Allen Barnett
• Post #15 QHQ from either short
story
