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ihistead Maupin
sits, and Why They Should Come Out
by Steve Warren
Armistead Maupin recalls a Hollywood
maxim from the period when multimillionaire
Merv Griffin had a daily talk show: "You
don't get on Merv Griffin unless you get on
Merv GriffinV'
Maupin is the author of the Tales Of The
City series. When he and his lover, Terry
Anderson, stayed at the Griffin-owned
Beverly Hilton recently, Maupin says, "The
place was under construction, it was really
somewhat of a mess. As we were leaving we
found a comments card on which we were
asked to place any suggestion.. .about how the
hotel could be improved And Terry wrote,
"Hotel is under construction and Merv is in
the closet; so finish hotel and have Merv come
out."
"We left the card and two weeks later we
received a [form] letter from Baron Hilton
himself, saying 'Thank you very much for
your comments about our hotel. We have spo
ken to our staff and we are taking measures to
correct the situation..." I was imagining the
staff being lined up and told, "Now listen,
we've got to do something about Merv taking
Eva Gabor to events."
Maupin has been friends with a number of
gay celebrities both open (Quentin Crisp,
Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy)
and other wise. He says he began urging Rock
Hudson to come out in 1976. "I think it would
have been quite possible at that point. He had
all the money in the world, he was already
playing older leads.
"Ian McKellen will tell you this is the hap
piest time of his life. He's not creeping around
in fear anymore; he's in charge of himself.
People can’t say nasty things about him in the
tabloids because he’s already exploded the
sensationalism of it by announcing himself in
a calm and happy manner."
Maupin thinks all gay men and lesbians
should come out, for their own good and the
good we can do each other; but celebrity clos
ets are his pet peeve.
"I don't buy this 'working for us on the
inside' line," Maupin continues, "because
they've been doing that forever and the world
isn't getting any better. Hollywood still creates
the impression that homosexuals do not exist.
I guess I've become more strident about this as
I've become more famous because I see more
and more instances of hypocrisy. I didn’t know
who was gay years ago, I was buying the line
that Hollywood was giving me: but the more
contact I've had with the people who run
things there the more I realize to what degree
this is an enormous lie that's being told to all
of us.
Told that the late puppeteer Wayland
Flowers once said to a close associate,"If I
said those three little words - 'I am gay' - it
would cost me a million dollars a year,"
Maupin responds, "He's got no choice in the
matter [now]...that combination of greed and
self-loathing is not particularly attractive...the
man was working gay cruises...making
money off the fact of his homosexuality.”
'Tve worked the same bookstore circuit as
Lily Tomlin. She has as many homosexuals
standing in line at her book signings as I do.
But god help you if you ask her why.
"For Wayland Flowers to say he'd lose a
million dollars if people found out he was gay
is no more acceptable than for an actor to say,
'if they knew I was Jewish I wouldn't make as
much money as I do, so please keep quiet
about it’ Imagine a Jewish person saying that
to another Jewish person, and imagine the
response of that second Jewish person.
"We have to go to the very source of this
problem," Maupin maintains, "which is the
homophobia itself, and the only way to attack
the homophobia is to refuse to maintain the
secret of homosexuality, either your own or
anyone else's. And that means expressing your
impatience to other gay people who are in the
closet, telling them you feel that they have a
moral responsibility to be more honest about
their lives because it will make the world a
better place for everyone.
"I realize that that's a process that takes
some people longer than others, and I'm will
ing to wait, as long as I see some movement
on the part of my friends."
Maupin, who appeared on Oprah Winfrey
on National Coming Out Day, Maupin refers
to the event when he says, "The whole
premise of National Coming Out Day is 'take
the next step.' What I'm saying is, take the
next step, Lily and Jane. Take the next step,
Barry Diller. Take the Next step, Merv
Griffin."
The author of a recent "Playboy" inter
view, Maupin notes, spent half a page trying
to draw Barry Diller out about his sexuality,
but Diller kept the door firmly closed.
"I feel someone should be in a position to
pressure the people who are really in power,"
the writer goes on. "Homosexuals are not
some sort of oppressed minority. We are in
fact in charge of a lot of places. Eddie
Murphy's boss is a gay man. (Actually, Barry
Diller has left Paramount for the top spot at
Fox, Inc.) Someone could have told Eddie
Murphy 'this is inappropriate' when he made
those horrid AIDS jokes, but we have an enor
mous number of gay people out there who
have no conscience when it comes to the issue
of homophobia. They're perfectly willing to let
it ride because they're afraid of blowing their
own cover and making less money.
"The pressure can't be put on by Joe blow
in the street," Maupin says, "but if I were in a
room with Barry Diller I would tell him that. I
do this. I made the same speech to Tim Curry
last year after reading (in an interview by this
writer) that his private life involves watching
ducks on the Thames.
"Tim looked me up when he came to town
because he had read the [Tales of the City]
books, and I was flattered because he's a cer
tain cultural icon to me. We hit it off tremen
dously, had dinner on three or four occasions,
and partied together. One night I made it clear
to him I felt he should be open about his sexu
ality, and I didn't hear from him again. Here is
a man who spent the greater part of the '70's
running around in a garter belt and a merry
widow -1 don't know what he's trying to pro
tect, but he doesn't have half the guts Ian
McKellan does.
"Ian had trepidation about coming out,"
Maupin acknowledges. "He had people telling
him not to do it. Now I've actually heard peo
ple saying, 'Oh, it's easy for him because he's
at the top of his field.' Then I hear quite the
opposite - they say, 'I can't do it because I'm
not famous enough yet'
"I've heard every excuse in the world,"
Maupin sneers. "It really just boils down to
coming to grips with your own life."
Peppering his diatribe with anecdotes,
Maupin tells of a young, little-known actor
friend who once called excitedly to say he had
a date with John Travolta, who had invited
him out through a mutual acquaintance. The
excitement was gone when the actor called
back with the post-mortem: Travolta had
taken him to a Scientology presentation!
"They've got him pimping for them" Maupin
laughs.
The writer/activist had hoped AIDS would
make things better in the movie industry.
When Rock Hudson died, for instance, "I
thought that Hollywood's sensible response to
that whole situation would have been to gath
er 30 of its top stars in a room and have some
one step forward and say, Half of us are gay
and half of us are not. If doesn't matter to us
and it shouldn't matter to you.' But we haven't
even gotten that close."
Maupin considers Selleck "today's Rock
Hudson," tracing his career through adventure
films and light comedy to his current serious
drama, and recalls an advertisement the actor
appeared in shortly before the success of
Magnum PI. "He was the perfect clone,"
Maupin says. "People couldn't believe they'd
use someone so gay-looking in an ad."
Reminded that he's speaking for the
record, Maupin has no desire to censor him
self. He is skeptical, however, that his works
will ever be published: "What invariably
stops a story like that from even making it
into print is that a lawyer comes along and
says this is libelous. Why is it libelous? If I’d
said they were Jewish or black, would it have
been libelous?"
"Malice is usually required to prove libel,"
Maupin points out. "I would challenge any
one to find malice in my action, because I'm
happy about being gay and I celebrate the
other people that are gay - and most gay peo
ple do. That's why we have something like the
Gay Engagement Calendar that brags about
the people who are gay, because we're proud
of these people."
Unaware that Tom Hulce has joined the
short list of openly-gay actors, Maupin is
happy to hear it and not too surprised; "He
seems to have the kind of character that
would make that possible."
"One of the unwritten laws of gay life,"
Maupin sighs, "is where you reach a certain
level of fame you shut up about your homosexu
ality. You're not told this by straight people,
you're told it by other famous homosexuals who
are ushering you into the pantheon of the right.
"And for somebody like me who's relative
ly new on the scene and who's making a big
noise about it, you make people extremely
uncomfortable...everyone compromises at
one point or another, and I've resolved to be
the one who doesn't If my career doesn’t go
any further than this, I don't give a damn. The
joy I'm having is in living my life completely
openly and sharing everything about myself
that I want to share."