Rumors of the demise of gay culture have been greatly exaggerated.

I’ve been noting and saving thoughts and images with a vague idea of how they connect, wanting to write a longer piece, but I have too much to do right now and want to save what writer brain I have left and available for the bigger project. I noticed this morning that it’s the 6th anniversary of the Masterpiece Cake ruling by the Supreme Court, the decision that made it clear to anyone who wasn’t listening that religious fanatics still hold huge cultural sway—so I figured instead of waiting I’d just share all this stuff and let you construct your own argument about what it all means.

So here. The first image is the last paragraph in an essay about Charles Ludlum and also about the state of American theater in the 1980s, in a quietly and cumulatively stunning book of essays from 1986 by Andrew Holleran called Ground Zero. It’s out of print.

The second one is a letter my mother received around that same time from a neighbor in response to her short letter to the editor taped at the bottom.

Next is an article in Playbill about Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola, and camp. My impulse to write something came after seeing Titanique soon after Oh, Mary! and feeling exhilarated and optimistic that gay culture has survived after all. (I kind of wish I’d seen the unsexy, unqueer, anti-camp production of Cabaret on Broadway before the other two, which may have soothed the irritation.)

And finally, the video is one I post pretty often around Pride season. In one of my mom’s letters I read this week, where she’s explaining to some Indiana bigot the importance of coming out, she quotes the lyrics at length. We have enemies afoot; they’re closing in around us. They’ve beaten us before; they’ve many ways to confound us.