MARCH 1976

By Albert Morrill

a

HIGH GEAR

MERLE MILLER

BREWSTER'S MOST FAMOUS HOMOSEXUAL

Merle Miller, journalist, raconteur, "true liberal" and best-selling author, notably of Plain Speaking, an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, recently entertained Baldwin-Wallace College audience with his impressions of Mr. Truman and other figures. To gays he is better known as the man who shattered the silence that was the New York Times' tacit position on homosexuality with his essay, "What It Means To Be a Homosexual", which first appeared in the New York Times Magazine on January 17, 1971.

That and its sequel, "Afterword, May, 1971", were republished together later that year by Random House, under the title On Being Different.

High Gear extends its thanks to Mr. Miller, who graciously consented to this interview and to Don Melillo, Director of the Academic and Cultural Events Series at Baldwin-Wallace, for arranging it.

On Being Openly Gay

It certainly, sure as hell, is not a part of Harry Truman. And it may puzzle many people. And I feel that if people are puzzled and they want to ask me about it, OK. They very often don't, partly because of embarassment; partly because of plain puzzlement. But I just think: Yeah, OK. I want you to be aware of this. And if tomorrow afternoon you want to go to the library and look it up and find what was talking about, go ahead.

It seems impossible to ignore, though it easily can be. And many people would prefer to ignore it. All of my best friends would prefer to ignore it. Particuarly liberals, who say. things like "Well, I really don't care about that," or say things

like, "I don't care what you do in bed," which in my case is rather academic.

But I have to say that that's not true. It's just not true. You do care, greatly. Otherwise you

wouldn't say all those things that you say.

My friends, for all my adult life, have been largely liberal to radical Jews, who claim to be totally liberated on all subjects. And it turns out this is the one subject they are not liberated on. Thus, the word 'faggot' is a perfectly operative word to people who would not ever say 'spic' or 'polack' or any of the other put-down words. Certainly not 'nigger'.

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So I say, really, the only reason. Hell, the only reason I wrote the article in the first place was because I thought there ought to be a time when it seemed unnecessary to talk

about it, even. It's so small a part of one's life that, what the hell. But as long as people are insistent on making it a large part of people's lives, and certainly until the political laws are changed, yeah, this is something that has to be talked about.

Changing Times?

For five years, as you probably know, there has been a civil rights bill in New York City

All

saying that gay people should not be discriminated against in housing, jobs, et cetera. In all those five years the brave New York Times, which printed my piece in the first place it was extraordinarly courageous until last year never said a word.

But, except for my piece, the Times is just as reactionary as it has ever been. And when a gay book comes out, they either do not review at all, which IS general, or they review it unfavorably, which is even more general. The most recent one, and a very good book it is, is called The Homosexual Matrix. And they got, I would say, the most bigoted liberal man in New York, so to speak, to review it.

Well, all this will change, of course. Great progress has been made. But it sure as hell seems awfully slow to me, at times..

Giggles

Actually, I don't think my life has changed very much (since the publication of "What It Means To Be a Homosexual").

In a sense, I suppose there are times when I feel more naked than before. By which I mean, before people could say, "Well, Jesus, you know, I think he's a faggot." Now they can say, and very often do, "Well, the son of a bitch, he can't write anything, he's a faggot, you know. So why listen?"

I'm sure more people giggle though maybe not, now that they think I'm kind of rich. As Shaw said, as long as they think you're rich, it really doesn't matter what you do. I mean, it's the feeling of wealth that creates the respectability and the respect.

I've lost what was then my most profitable source ot income, Playboy. I have never been asked to write for Playboy from the time that article appeared until now; and I never

new

Page 17

will be again. Well, unless on the subject of homosexuality. But I will never again be asked.. as an author. And there is a difference.

Matlovich

I thought they Time Magazine handled Matlovich with considerably dignity. Then once they got into the whole business of how homosexuals live and are (it) was just horseshit, as far as was concerned. Typical Time stuff. But Matlovich, I thought, came out... They didn't treat him with contempt; they treated him with dignity.

But, three weeks later, when the letters appeared and there weren't many there was not one letter from a straight person. Now, does this mean that Time chose only letters from gay people? I don't know. Or does it prove that nobody except gay people answered the article? I don't know. But I thought it was very sad.

Campus Gaze

There are very few campuses in which there is not a gay group of some kind, however small. Not as revolutionary as

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