The Gay Reality

Jo Anna Walker ended her letter regarding Charles Higham’s biography of Cary Grant (in which Higham writes of Grant’s alleged homosexuality) by stating: “What good purpose can such books serve?” By “such books” she meant those that set out to smash icons.

One good purpose “such books” serve is to show people that, sexually speaking, the human race is not channeled to one form of sexual outlet. This fact, which should be a commonplace by now, still brings out exclamation marks from Ms. Walker (as, I am sure, from the audience at large): “. . . Errol Flynn . . . a bisexual!” Why the sign of alarm?

Unless I have been mistaken by what I have read in psychology, biology, philosophy, anthropology, ad nauseam, humans are born in a state of undifferentiated sexuality and are free to indulge in it throughout their lives.

If this polysexual capacity belongs to us by birth, why the shame or shock when one of our icons turns out to be more wholly human than previously suspected?

JOSE HERNANDEZ

Santa Monica