Stromata Blog: Bill Clinton: Closet Homophobe?

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Worth Reading (Fiction)

Mamet, David: Chicago: A Novel
In Roaring 20's Chicago, a Great War veteran turned hard-boiled reporter falls in love with the wrong woman and then seeks to find her killer.
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Ursula Todd has the opportunity to relive her life, over and over and over, moving steadily through the Great War and its sequels and accumulating shards of memory.
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Tim Powers: My Brother's Keeper
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Tim Powers: Declare: A Novel
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H.F.M. Prescott: The Man on a Donkey
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Theodore Odrach: Wave of Terror
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Simon Montefiore: Sashenka: A Novel
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Harry Turtledove: The Man with the Iron Heart
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Neal Stephenson: Anathem
If you have not a smidgen of interest in how Platonic philosophy relates to the "many worlds" version of quantum mechanics, you still may like this novel, though you'll probably wish that the characters talked less. Persevere. After a slow start, the story grows compelling, and the intellectual dialogues turn out not to be digressions.
Alfred Duggan: Lord Geoffrey's Fancy
Perhaps the finest book of one of England's finest historical novelists. The setting is 13th Century Greece, where Crusaders fought each other and the shattered Byzantine Empire. The history is accurate, the writing graceful and the characters not merely modern people in fancy dress.
Rodney Bolt: History Play : The Lives and Afterlife of Christopher Marlowe
A pseudo-history springing from the premise that Shakespeare's flashy predecessor survived the famous Deptford brawl and fled to the continent, where he secretly wrote almost all of the Bard's works. A clever, tongue-in-cheek reworking of literary history that also recreates the milieu shared by many real Elizabethan exiles.
Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays (Library of America, 131)
Fiction and essays by a black American writer who deserves a wider audience.
Harry Turtledove: Gunpowder Empire
Debut of a juvenile series set in parallel worlds. 22nd century teen siblings, trapped without adult aid in a besieged city, must cope with the bizarre (to them) customs and prejudices of a never-fallen Roman Empire.

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Monday, June 28, 2004

Bill Clinton: Closet Homophobe?

The Wall Street Journal's subscription-only Political Diary has a fascinating trivium about Bill Clinton's contribution to weightlifting apparatus. A homosexual friend of co-editor John Fund started perusing the index to see what the ex-President had to say about various "gay" members of his Adminstration and found − nothing.

He reports that all the major gay players who served in the Clinton administration go unmentioned in the book. "I stumbled across this when I wanted to find out what President Clinton had to say about David Mixner, his most famous openly gay aide. No mention of Mixner, even though he played a significant role in Clinton's life and presidency and the book tosses thousands of names around like confetti."

My friend also checked for mention of James Hormel − whom Clinton appointed as ambassador to Luxembourg, creating a major political dispute in Congress. Nothing. Then Roberta Achtenberg, the first openly gay person to win a Senate confirmation vote. No mention. Bob Hattoy, a White House personnel aide. No mention. Richard Socarides, a special assistant to Mr. Clinton on gay issues. Nada. Keith Boykin, an aide who set up the first meeting between a sitting president and gay and lesbian leaders. Zip. The list goes on and on, and so does Mr. Clinton's failure to mention any of his gay appointees.

Omitting to specify officials' sexual preferences would be sensible, but the men and women themselves have vanished in a remarkable "straightening" of the Clinton Presidency. I won't speculate on why or how this purge happened, but it is certainly curious.

Posted by Tom Veal on Monday, June 28, 2004 at 06:44 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink

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Strange Tales for Strange Times
Get the stories shown below plus more in one inexpensive package.
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Monday, June 28, 2004

Bill Clinton: Closet Homophobe?

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