Thanks for all the kind words as I’ve stepped away for a bit.  So very, very much to put down here, and I’ll get to it next week.  The election, Sarah Palin, my 17th Anniversary, on and on.  Today, I’ve decided to chat about homosexuality.

The incident that brings this reflection is the closing of “Rent” on Broadway this weekend.

As many of you may know, I grew up in a small town in Mississippi.  Homosexuality, gay, and lesbians hadn’t been invented yet.  We had things like sissies, fags, tom-boys.  There was no coming out of the closet then, and being picked on and ostracized was the least of the worries of these deformed people.  These sinners would lose jobs, have businesses closed, or be physically abused if they were found out.  I had mentors, friends, and classmates who were in this hidden group.  I vigorously defended the most influential man in my youth (besides my father), getting into a heated argument with a friend of mine who accused this community leader of being seen in Las Vegas with his boyfriend.

Fast forward to college, and a strange plague was creeping into the consciousness of America: AIDS.  We didn’t really have diseases with cute names like this, and this particular disease was neatly focused on this evil, ostracized group of homosexual men.  I have a degree in Biology, and I was stunned by the minimal amount of understanding of how AIDS was transmitted and how it could be prevented.  It was a death sentence to anyone who contracted it, and the victims literally wasted away before our eyes.  I remember making a particularly horrible first impression at the Corporate HQ of my first employer during a management orientation, as I explained to some executive that I felt the company could start an outreach program communicating information about this disease and its prevention to the communities of Upstate South Carolina.  Needless to say, I left a lasting impression on those folks (not good, I might add).

AIDS quickly spread from San Francisco and New York to all parts of America and the world.  It spread beyond this secret community to heterosexuals, hemophiliacs, health workers, children, blood transfusion recipients.  Two ambitious projects were instrumental in shifting our view of this disease and, ultimately, much of our view of gays and lesbians.  One was the movie “Philadelphia,” the story of lawyer Andre Beckett’s battle with AIDS.  Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for the role, Denzel Washington was masterful, Antonio Benderas provided eye candy.  Hanks moved from one extreme to another, winning the our hearts in “Sleepless in Seattle” then taking on the role of a gay man in Philadelphia.  The move brought homosexuality out in the open, although it was fairly tame by our graphic standards today.

The second project was “Rent,” a musical originally inspired by a desire to merge theater with the music of the MTV generation.  It was a labor of love for Jonathan Larson, the composer who worked seven years on the project.  It was a stunning twist when he suddenly and tragically died from an aortic aneurysm the morning before its off-Broadway premier.  Here is a fascinating photo collage and audio about that last dress rehearsal from the NY Times.

With that is a fascinating video from the 1996 Democratic National Convention, a performance from the Original Broadway Cast of “Seasons of Love.”

And from the NY Times, the original review of “Rent.”  The final curtain falls on its run Sunday, and a video version of last night’s Final Show will be available soon after.  It is a different America today, and Rent was at least one of the catalysts for our transformation.  Rest in peace, Mr. Larson.  RIP, Rent.

Tags: Broadway, homosexuality, Philadelphia, Rent, sexuality

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