Thursday, November 5, 2026
Via White Crane Institute //
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| This Day in Gay History | |||
November 05 | |||
Today's Gay Wisdom  2017 - Equinox/Return An excerpt from Mark Thompson’s Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning What Edward Carpenter, Gerald Heard and Harry Hay recognized was the “new city of Friends” described by Walt Whitman over a hundred years ago—a sustaining place where “robust love” might thrive, a deep source of empowerment. It has been a dream asserted by a few and glimpsed by others at crucial points in our development. The early 1950s and 1970s were times when our movement howled at the moon, briefly acknowledging that this dream could be a reality. That this rude awakening represented something instinctual, wildly alive, posed problems for our leaders. Here was nature, woolly and cloven-hoofed, taking on unexpected form. Here were luminous faces peering out on the edges of accepted reality. How strangely familiar, too, for others to suppress what they do not comprehend, to fear what they’ve been taught to distrust. Power, status, the hierarchy of who’s on top is the real currency of American culture, and so many of our leaders have been seduced by it all. These are the tactics of assimilation and they smell of panic. Thinking we have gained so much, we have been led to settle for less than we can be. There is a tyranny implicit in any label, and certainly the label of Gay has now been revealed as much for its limitations as for its liberations. Why not consider difference, whatever its reason, in terms of function? The concept of a faerie shaman is just one idea that indicates a purposeful role, beyond that of just political or sexual identity. In times past and in many cultures, we often assumed the tasks of the shamans—wise and creative ones—and were duly honored as such. If we can but take gay beyond society’s definition—which we have internalized—and see ourselves as part of this function, our secret will be out. I failed in my father’s eyes, and he in mind, as, I suppose, it had been fated. More to the point, few gay men ever seem to find complete acceptance from their fathers. (And even tolerance, however honorable, cannot account for true knowing.) Gay men have even less hope of being accepted by the greater father, the world of our daily existence, which, despite tolerant inroads, remains disapproving to its core. But neither can an opposite reality—that is, the matriarchy—hold any more honest place for us. Perhaps at one time, and according to the current feminist myth, the dominant Great Mother societies of agrarian, pre-Judeo-Christian times accepted gay men as welcomed sons. But I suspect, more likely, as subservient sons, in contrast to the outlawed sons of our contemporary age. So gay men remain suspended in a horrible dilemma. Both the matriarchy and the patriarchy have, in effect, played themselves out; and the future, symbolized through an historic union of the two—has yet to fully emerge. Gay male consciousness remains stymied, unable to come of age. This is why so much of recent gay-identified culture appears to lack deeper meaning; however fresh and guileless its messages, empowered as it is by ritual dance and sex and defiance against corrupt authority. At what point do gay boys stop finding favor in their father’s eyes? What stories are withheld, what rites of manhood lost in that uncomprehending gaze? Now, as gay men, we must begin by finding forgiveness in each other’s eyes, seek favor in stories of our own telling — our own fairy tales, the instructional fables we need to assume a mature and ever evolving gay adulthood. And for this we need to reinvest in wonder. By learning more fully to evoke and to balance the powers of (what were once known as) the Earth Mother and Father Sky, we can set into motion our own whiling evolution as gay men beyond definition. We will no longer suffer from the constraints of living on a fraction of a life. We will evidence harmony as men who see clearly within and thus act cleanly without. We can learn to revel in our perspective, as much as our preference, and we don’t need a name. Our freedom is our responsibility. We simply need to do our work. But first we must take the dark fantasies of our suppressed spirits out of their closets into the powerful light of reality. We can have a vision, and, thus, a culture to affirm, until one day perhaps our fathers will knowingly proclaim: “I have one of those.” Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning is now available at www.gaywisdom.org www.whitecranebooks.org | ||
|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8 Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute "With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989! |8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8 |
Via Tricycle //
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Via Daily Dharma: Desires Are Endless
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Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Via White Crane Institute \\ J.R. ACKERLEY
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| This Day in Gay History | ||||||||
November 04Born  1896 - J.R. ACKERLEY, English writer, born (d: 1967); Arts editor of The Listener, the weekly magazine of the BBC, and an important author in his own right. He was also openly Gay, a rarity in his time. Ackerley was educated at Rossal School, a public and preparatory school in Fleetwood, Lancashire. While at this school he discovered he was attracted to other boys and realized he was homosexual. His striking good looks earned him the nickname "Girlie" but he was not sexually active, or only very intermittently, as a schoolboy, though there was ample opportunity. He described himself as: “a chaste, puritanical, priggish, rather narcissistic little boy, more repelled than attracted to sex, which seemed to me a furtive, guilty, soiling thing, exciting, yes, but nothing whatever to do with those feelings which I had not yet experienced but about which I was already writing a lot of dreadful sentimental verse, called romance and love.” By all accounts, he was “a writer’s writer” because he devoted a good portion of his creative years helping young writers working on their manuscripts, and assisting them to get published. His own published works are few in number, but each is perfect, a polished gem, including at least two minor masterpieces of English prose, the unforgettable My Dog Tulip, perhaps the most perceptive and moving book ever written about the mutual dependence of man and dog, and My Father and Myself, an autobiographical work that is almost indescribable because of the many layers of truth it explores, from the inability of human beings to ever understand one another fully, no matter how closely related, to a profound understanding of the nature of one’s own sexuality. Truman Capote, not one to comment lightly on other writers, called it “the most fascinating autobiography I ever read.” Ackerley’s life was intertwined with that of his friend E.M. Forster, and a greater study in contrasts cannot be imagined. Ackerley was a remarkably handsome, well-built man. Forster, as described by Virginia Woolf, was, “timid as a mouse.” Ackerley never hid his sexuality, his masculinity seemingly insulating him from gibes and insults. Any sniggering was immediately met with a blazing string of epithets, ending with “bloody pack of arse-holes.” And that usually settled it. Ackerley spent his life in quest of “the Perfect Friend,” and, there being no such critter, never found him. He waged a lifelong battle to get Forster to come out publicly, saying, “Look at Gide!” To which Forster would whine, “But Gide has no mother.” Ackerley is a wonderful, wonderful writer. Read him.
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Via Daily Dharma: Renew Happiness
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Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Via Daily Dharma: People and Their Views
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