Sunday, September 07, 2003
My chief book reading at the moment is Ben Tyler's frothy made-to-be-a-beach-read Gay Blades, all (gay) diva clashes and (gay, duh) sex sex sex, set in the world of touring figure skating shows. It's utter fluff, but it's high-quality fluff, with no nasty chemical additive aftertaste. I'm reading it mainly because I needed some (as 'fer suggested when I told him) sorbet to cleanse my palate, as I'm in the midst of a spate of non-fiction books.
Last week I finished Neil Miller's splendid, shocking Sex-Crime Panic, which examines said "panic" (real and perceived) in Sioux City, Iowa in the 1950s. Numerous (at least 35) gay men were institutionalized in a mental hospital to sate the public's fears of "sexual predators" after the appalling murder/molestations of two young children in Sioux City - during a time when over half the states in our (then un)fair union had "sexual psychopath" laws on the books, ostensibly to allow police and prosecutors the freedom to lock up the potential child murderers and rapists among us. In reality, however, most states used said laws as an excuse to toss men who had sex with other men away, damn the consequences. Miller tells his story excellently, exploring every angle possible, reminding us all that such things can and did happen in these United States - and, I'd add, that we should never forget what came before us. Forget your history/doomed to repeat it isn't just a clever adage.
Last week I finished Neil Miller's splendid, shocking Sex-Crime Panic, which examines said "panic" (real and perceived) in Sioux City, Iowa in the 1950s. Numerous (at least 35) gay men were institutionalized in a mental hospital to sate the public's fears of "sexual predators" after the appalling murder/molestations of two young children in Sioux City - during a time when over half the states in our (then un)fair union had "sexual psychopath" laws on the books, ostensibly to allow police and prosecutors the freedom to lock up the potential child murderers and rapists among us. In reality, however, most states used said laws as an excuse to toss men who had sex with other men away, damn the consequences. Miller tells his story excellently, exploring every angle possible, reminding us all that such things can and did happen in these United States - and, I'd add, that we should never forget what came before us. Forget your history/doomed to repeat it isn't just a clever adage.
# posted by Thomas : 5:42 PM
