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Books Today Are a Fungible Affair
To the Editor:
In “The Price of Going Mainstream”
[May-June 2015], Dolores Klaich mourns
the fate of gay and lesbian bookstores,
which are rapidly going out of business,
along with many other independent small
bookstores. While this is undoubtedly true,
she fails to mention that there now exists a
virtual explosion of GLBT e-books online.
Unlike the gay and lesbian bookstores, all of
this can be accessed not just in big cities but
from anywhere in the country, and even the
rest of the world.
Now that traditional book publishers can
no longer pick and choose the relatively few
books that will be available to the public,
there’s a much more open market for all sorts
of writing. Even a rank amateur can place his
or her writing before the general public at lit-
tle or no cost. The downside of this open
market is that it’s much harder to distinguish
between well-written and poorly-written ma-
terial, but this is no worse than trying to sort
out truth from falsehood when seeking any
sort of information on-line.
Of course, there are still some limits on
what may legally appear even in e-books,
but those limits are a lot looser than they
used to be. Erotica is available to anyone
who has his own computer, whether it be a
desktop or a smartphone. Just this category
alone has a myriad of GLBT-positive e-
books, and they’re easy to find. I know. I
both read them and write them myself.
Karl Five, New Bern, NC
There’s Something Gay About the Circus
To the Editor:
I was struck by your BTW item (July-
Aug. 2015) about the Italian acrobats pro-
posing marriage on national TV. I wonder
how many dancers and athletes are still
waiting for their same-sex matrimonial de-
sires to come to fruition. It is inspiring to
know that the physical attraction still is
valid and that athletes from around the
world are coming together to reclaim their
gay identity.
I found when I was growing up that the
circus was a sensuous experience filled with
many reflections that somehow got buried in
the closet. Women acrobats are also part of
this sensuous affair and very often influence
youthful men to cross-dress and take up
dance. I was never any good at team sports,
but I am waiting for the opportunity to stretch
my legs out and limber for the greatest show
on earth that is not really a show but a fan-
tasy that touches on gay life in general.
Robben Wainer, New York City
Correction
In the May-June 2015 issue, a review of
Tru-
man Capote: A Literary Life at the Movies
,
by Tison Pugh, listed the publisher and page
count incorrectly. The 287-page book was
published by the Univ. of Georgia Press.
Correspondence
Ronnie Gilbert, A Woman of Courage, Dies at 88
IN MEMORIAM
Near started performing together with a concert in 1983, which
produced the album
Lifeline Extended
; and in 1996 they came
out with the album
This Train Still Runs.
In 1985, they toured
with folksingers Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger and recorded
under the name HARP (for Holly, Arlo, Ronnie, and Pete).
As time progressed, Ronnie Gilbert continued to use her
magnificent alto voice to sing about the outstanding social issues
of the day: AIDS, anti-gay prejudice, feminism, homelessness,
war, unemployment, racism, and all forms of social justice. She
performed a one-women play about the trade union organizer
Mary Harris Jones titled
Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous
Woman in America.
And she developed a performance piece,
Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life With Songs
.
Although heterosexual during most of her life, in the mid-
1980s she met the person she termed “the love of her life,”
Donna Korones. Her activism now included lesbian feminism.
Her songs “When I’m Not Near The Girl I Love” (a takeoff on
the song from
Finian’s Rainbow
) and “Marie (a love poem)” are
testaments to her newfound sexuality. In 2004, Ronnie and
Donna were married in San Francisco at the time when Mayor
Gavin Newsom had officiated at same-sex weddings despite the
fact that this was in defiance of state law.
Gilbert was a lifelong agitator for all the right reasons. She
inspired countless singers, including Mary Travers (of Peter,
Paul and Mary) and Holly Near, who heard that irrepressible
contralto voice and realized that she too had the right to sing
with power and courage. She is survived by her partner, Donna
Korones, her daughter Lisa, and a granddaughter. She lived in
Mill Valley, California. Her memoir,
Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical
Life in Song,
is forthcoming from the University of California
Press this fall.
I
RENE
J
AVORS
R
ONNIE GILBERT, the bold and provocative female
voice in the Weavers folk quartet (which also included
Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman) died on
Saturday, June 6, 2015.
Ruth Alice Gilbert was born in Brooklyn on September
7,1926. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Eu-
rope, and her mother was a card-carrying Communist. She grew
up believing in the need for all of us to strive to make this world
a better and more just place for all people.
For Ronnie Gilbert, music was the language of liberation,
and her participation in the Weavers provided her with the con-
text in which she could give voice to her politic causes. Formed
in 1948, the Weavers gained widespread popularity with Lead
Belly’s “Goodnight Irene,” which made it to number one on the
charts for thirteen weeks in 1950. Then came “Tzena, Tzena
”
and Woody Guthrie’s “So Long, It’s Been Good to KnowYou.”
They also made Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” popular.
Unfortunately, success was short-lived. Their songs of protest
and leftist politics made them targets for McCarthy-era anti-
Communist red baiting. In 1952, they were blacklisted, their
record contract with Decca was voided, and they were prevented
from performing. In 1955, as the frenzy of Joe McCarthy’s
House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunt began to
abate, the Weavers returned to Carnegie Hall for a triumphant
comeback concert. They continued performing until 1964.
Once the quartet broke up, Ronnie Gilbert began a solo ca-
reer as a singer, actress, and psychotherapist. She became an in-
spiration to many younger singers, especially to the feminist
Holly Near, who dedicated an album to her in 1974. Gilbert and
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