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IN MEMORIAM: Peter Gomes (1942-2011)
Influential
minister, educator, and author Reverend Peter Gomes died on February
28, 2011 in Boston following complications from a stroke. In 1991, after
a homophobic incident at Harvard University, where he was Pusey
Minister of the Memorial Chapel and Plummer Professor of Christian
Morals, Gomes came out publicly as a gay man. Soon afterwards, he
declared that he would devote the rest of his life to addressing the
"religious case" against gays. He subsequently wrote "The Good Book:
Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart" (1996), in which he
contextualizes and deconstructs the passages of the Bible that seem to
condemn homosexuality, and became an impassioned and effective advocate of marriage equality.
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/gomes_p.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/bible.html
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/same_sex_marriage.html
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IN MEMORIAM: Farley Granger (1925-2011)
American
actor Farley Granger died in New York City on March 27, 2011. The star
of Alfred Hitchcock's homoerotic film classics "Rope" (1948) and
"Strangers on a Train" (1951) and Luchino Visconti's "Senso" (1954),
Granger spent most of the second half of his long career as a stage and
television actor. The strikingly handsome bisexual actor had
well-publicized affairs with actresses such as Shelley Winters and Ava
Gardner as well as male celebrities such as Arthur Laurents and Leonard
Bernstein. He was preceded in death by his long-time companion, Robert Calhoun, who died in 2008.
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/granger_f.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/bernstein_l.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/laurents_a.html
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/leopold_loeb.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/visconti_l.html
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IN MEMORIAM: James "John" Finley Gruber, Jr. (1928-2011)
James
"John" Finley Gruber, Jr., the last surviving original member of the
Mattachine Society, one of the earliest American gay movement
organizations, died on February 27, 2011 in Santa Clara, California. Gruber and his boyfriend Konrad Stevens became the last of the group's original members when they joined in April 1951. At a Christmas party, Gruber took the
only known photo of the original members of the Society. A friend of
Christopher Isherwood as well as Harry Hay, Gruber appears in Eric
Slade's documentary film "Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay"
(2001).
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mattachine_society.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/gernreich_r.html
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/hay_h.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/isherwood_c.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/jennings_wd.html
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IN MEMORIAM: Lee Hoiby (1926-2011)
Composer
Lee Hoiby died in New York City on March 28, 2011. A protégé of Gian
Carlo Menotti, Hoiby was known as an unapologetic champion of lyricism.
His best known opera is "Summer and Smoke" (1971), based on the
Tennessee Williams play and featuring a libretto by Lanford Wilson. In
addition to operas, Hoiby wrote ballets, chamber music, and concertos,
as well as more than 100 songs and choral pieces. He is survived by his partner, Mark Shulgasser, who wrote libretti for most of his operas and who directed many of them.
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/music_classical.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/opera.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/menotti_gc.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/williams_t.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/wilson_l.html
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IN MEMORIAM: Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)
Legendary actress, glbtq ally, and gay icon Elizabeth Taylor died in Los Angeles on March 23, 2011 of congestive
heart failure. Known for her friendships with gay actors such as Roddy
McDowall, Montgomery Clift, and Rock Hudson, and for her roles in films
based on works by Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, Taylor was
propelled into social activism by the death of Hudson from AIDS in 1985.
She helped found the American Foundation for AIDS Research and later
established the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. She helped raise more
than $100 million to fight AIDS. She is survived by a brother and four
children.
https://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/aids_activism.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/clift_m.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/hudson_r.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/mcdowall_r.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/williams_t.html
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IN MEMORIAM: George Tooker (1920-2011)
Painter
George Tooker died on March 27, 2011 at his home in Hartland, Vermont,
the result of complications of kidney failure. Often described as a
"magic realist," Tooker was closely associated with Paul Cadmus, Jared
French, and Lincoln Kirstein in the 1940s. He is best known for works
that convey a distinctively twentieth-century sense of anxiety and
alienation. Recent retrospectives have recognized him as a major
American painter. In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He was preceded in death by his partner, the painter William Christopher.
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/am_art_gay_1900_1969.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/cadmus_p.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/french_j.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/kirstein_l.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/lynes_gp.html
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IN MEMORIAM: Lanford Wilson (1937-2011)
Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson died on March 24, 2011 of
complications from pneumonia. Along with Doric Wilson and Robert
Patrick, he is considered one of the pioneers in establishing an
American gay theater. Among his plays dealing with gay issues are "The Madness of Lady Bright" (1964), "Lemon Sky" (1970), "Fifth of
July" (1978), and "Burn This" (1986). Wilson was one of the founders of
New York's Circle Rep Theater Company.
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/wilson_l.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/contemp_drama.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/hoffman_wm.html
https://www.glbtq.com/literature/patrick_r.html
https://www.glbtq.com/arts/wilson_d.html
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