There was absolutely nothing worse than being a homosexual in the 50s and 60s.
Homosexuals were worse than communists. It was still a criminal offense in many states. I had no role models. Liberace played the piano on TV and even at age 8, I had him pegged as a homo. He denied it. He even sued an English newspaper that hinted he was ‘swishy.’ Amazingly, he won! I secretly followed the story in the Los Angeles Times. I was always looking and listening for any information I could get about queers, but I had to be careful about appearing too interested.
Homosexuals were outcasts. They dressed in the cheap, ugly, ill-fitting clothes of the opposite sex. They lived in dingy rooms in Long Beach or downtown Hollywood. (I was fascinated with Hollywood.) They worked as florists or hairdressers or, if they were very lucky, back-up dancers on The Carol Burnett Show. They were probably drug fiends, too.
Los Angeles, 2006
Lance Bass, ex-boy-band singer and would-be astronaut makes the cover of People by declaring he’s gay. I find the reaction confusing. It certainly is not the scandal it would have been in the 50s or 60s. But still...it makes the evening news, and not just Access Hollywood. Certainly we’ve made huge strides, but homosexuality is still a divisive subject: gay marriage, gays in the military, gays in Congress, gays in the clergy, gays in New Jersey! The question of who’s gay and who isn’t continues to be played out in the media every day.
I began this series of portraits with two extremes: the unthreatening, pleasant smiley-face, Lance Bass, and the powerful, ruthless J. Edgar Hoover. The other 98 fall somewhere in the middle. Heroes, villains, victims...homos come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Okay, but...Lincoln!?!! Flashback to 1958: my favorite book is a biography of Abraham Lincoln. I identified with him as a sensitive boy who escaped by reading. He was suspiciously close to his mother and developed a caustic sense of humor (a common defense mechanism used by homosexuals). Historians disagree about a youthful gay affair. But I’ll leave that question to that strange and perplexing group, The Log Cabin Republicans.
This NYC and Greenport artist works in watercolors and oils. Born in New York, and raised in a family of artists, from childhood on Jada was a successful actress on Broadway and television. She is most remembered for her twenty years on The Secret Storm as Amy, and eight years on The Doctors as Carolee.
With a painter/illustrator grandfather and artist/writer parents to inspire her, Jada started drawing and writing as soon as she could hold a pencil. The back of every script of every show she was ever in was covered with sketches of the other actors. And finally, in 1983, tired of acting, never having been unemployed for more than three months at a time, and having the opportunity to join her astrophysicist husband on sabbatical in Denmark, she took a big gamble. She decided to fulfill a lifelong desire to be a professional artist and writer; she quit acting.
She has kept on drawing and painting and writing. Below are some of the paintings exhibited in Interiors.
Kael Alford, born in Middletown, NY in 1971,has photographed in-depth the cultures, politics and conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East. She was based in Bulgaria, Kosova, Macedonia and Serbia from 1996-2003 and photographed widely in the region. In 2003 and 2004 she worked in Iraq before, during and after the US-led invasion documenting the war, the rise of Iraqi resistance, and the turmoil that followed the US occupation. Her work is included in an exhibition and book, Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists in Iraq (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2005). Alford has a master's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and has taught photojournalism at the American University of Bulgaria. She is currently based in the United States and is represented by Panos Pictures in London.
