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LK:
The gay rights movement is more a dream than the pow-
erful force it should be. Gays are not very good fighters, in New
York or anywhere else.
MH:
Really? New York has incubated a lot of powerful queer
artists and writers. What about their influence onAmerican culture?
LK:
Don’t use the word queer. I loathe it. I am not talking about
the power of art, which of course is necessary, and we have a lot
of that. By fighters, I am talking about the general gay commu-
nity everywhere. They may be out of the closet, but they are not
really out of the closet, certainly not enough to be fighting ac-
tivists out in the world, not just out at Fire Island.
MH:
Why do you loathe the word “queer”?
LK:
Because I am not queer. I am gay.
MH:
Some see “queer” as an inclusive word that embodies gay,
lesbian, bi, trans, and so on. You think it’s that offensive?
LK:
I do. It’s like calling blacks “niggers.”
MH:
Like the late Vito Russo, you’ve been driven by anger
about complacency during the AIDS crisis. What makes you
most angry today?
LK:
That this is the 35th year of a plague, and we should know
more and have more by now. Research for a cure is
almost nonexistent. That’s the next fight that I’m trying to rev
up anger about. Everything that should be done isn’t being done,
and the world is being sold a bill of goods that are lies.
MH:
I know you were married last year. Do you think same-sex
marriage should be such a priority for queer activists today?
Some have argued it has taken up way too much energy and
money, at the expense of other issues.
LK:
It took what it took, time-wise. Time to move on. Much of
the gay marriage fight was done by straight people, lawyers
working
pro bono
. But yes, I think we concentrated too much
on getting gay marriage. But it shouldn’t have been either/or.
It’s possible to fight for more than one thing. But, to repeat my-
self, gays are not very good at fighting.
MH:
There is one moment that will always stand out to me with
respect to the AIDS crisis. A friend was dying, and we held
hands, and we looked at each other. And he knew it was over
and so did I. No words were uttered, but it was just so incredi-
bly, profoundly sad and helpless. Is there one moment in this
entire war with the epidemic that stands out for you?
LK:
Plague. Please call it a plague. There are many such mo-
ments as the one you describe. Perhaps the first one for me was
in 1980 when a friend named Enno Poersch was walking des-
perately all around Fire Island Pines carrying his very sick lover,
Nick Rock, in his arms, asking if anyone knew what was hap-
pening to Nick. He’d seen every doctor imaginable in the city,
and they had no idea. Enno carried Nick to my house because
he knew I was someone well-known, to ask if I had any ideas.
The way he held Nick up to me, like an offering, a cry for
help—I can still see that image. Both Nick and then Enno died.
MH:
When I interviewed Ed Koch a couple of years before he
died, he still seemed puzzled that you had taken such aim at
him. Did you ever forgive him for his lack of engagement dur-
ing the early years of the AIDS crisis?
LK:
Why would or could I ever forgive a closeted man with all
his power who wouldn’t use it to help his dying brothers? By the
time you interviewed him, he was playing a different game,
telling us how much he’d done.
MH:
Barbra Streisand was originally supposed to direct
The
Normal Heart
. Have you heard if she saw the HBO production
and if she had any reaction?
LK:
I wonder about that too, but I’ve never heard.
MH:
What do you think of Obama as a president? Some on the
Left call him Obummer; there’s a lot of disappointment in many
of his policies.
LK:
There has never been a president—or a Congress—that
has done what a president or public servant should do to help
save a dying population.
MH:
The arrival of the Internet has made it harder for someone
to live as a writer. Publishing has been hit hard, as have news-
papers and magazines. What advice would you have for young,
aspiring, impassioned writers today?
LK:
It’s always been hard to make a living as a writer. But if
you want it badly enough, you’ll find a way to write. There are
many more outlets where stuff can be posted on the Internet,
and it’s occasionally seen by editors and other outlets that can
help push your visibility up a notch or two. But you’re right:
there’s precious little money in publishing unless you write
a commercial TV series or a hit Broadway musical.
MH:
Did you find it strange to watch a documentary about you?
How did it feel?
LK:
Complicated, painful, thankful—many things. I didn’t
want to do it, but Jean Carlomusto, the director, is an old friend
and said she was going to make it whether I approved or not!
MH:
I guess you’ve patched things up with Tony Kushner.
What was his reason for not acknowledging that Lincoln may
well have been gay?
LK:
I have no idea. He didn’t think Lincoln was gay, and
he was faithful to what his research made him believe. I offered
to introduce him to academics who now have come around. I
don’t know if he talked to them or not. I told him I thought it
was his responsibility as a gay writer to broach this somehow.
We are still distant with each other. I have apologized to him
for harming what had been a very close friendship. He has said
he wants to come and visit me, but he hasn’t. I miss him. Oh, the
dramas of trying to write the truth.
MH:
How does it feel to be eighty?
LK:
Totally weird! One day you’re young and then, suddenly,
one day you’re not. I am grateful I’m still alive, but I hate my
loss of certain things, like mobility and energy. Some days when
I have the shakes and can hardly type, I go nuts.
MH:
Where do you think the gay community would be today
if AIDS had never happened?
LK:
Dancing ourselves to exhaustion.
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