Coming out!

I love this new book I'm reading! Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mellon, about gay men in Washington D.C. during the 1950s -- the era of McCarthyism and his hunt for all things red or lavender... In an early chapter, one of the men -- the older, more sophisticated, Gregory Peck sort of character -- is subpoenaed to testify about his "manliness" before the "Miscellaneous M Unit." They ask him to walk across the room, read a passage from Somerset Maugham, and submit to a lie detector test. (He lies, but passes anyway.) Anyway, the history parts are wildly interesting, the Roy Cohn dialogue, the shake of McCarthy's bourbon bottle -- and the personal parts are excruciating. I suspect it's going to end disastrously, especially for the milk-drinking, scapular-wearing young lover.

Anyway, the older guy is a Foreign Service officer, which reminds me of my one and only friend in the Foreign Service...who also is gay! (He and I have lost touch. He may not be the FS anymore, but he most certainly still is gay.) He and I went to the Senior Ball together, and then camped in a tent in my backyard. He was funny. And very smart -- his ability to learn foreign languages amazed me. Anyway, his first posting was Siberia, where his most singular task was arranging the return transport of a very obese, dead American reindeer hunter.

At dinner, shortly after graduation: "Mary Ellen, I have something to tell you. I was a party with everybody in my thesis class, and I kissed Professor S- in the kitchen!" (Ever notice how everything good at a party happens in the kitchen?)
"Wow! That's Katherine, right?"
"No... Howard."
"Oh, WOW!"