John Boswell in front of my West Hollywood apartment in 1983.
Photo by Chris R. Glaser.
The last two posts of
May unconsciously began a series of personal reflections on the LGBT Christian
movement that will continue each Wednesday of June, Pride Month. For those
unfamiliar with this blog, be assured that I will return to other topics next
month!
When
I was serving a national Presbyterian task force on homosexuality as its only
openly gay member, one of my Yale Divinity School professors, Henri Nouwen, suggested
I would benefit from the scholarship of a new young professor in Yale’s history
department, John Boswell.
But
it was other mutual friends who brought us together for dinner, and by the end
of the evening I was smitten, not only by how brilliant his mind and
revolutionary his research, but by his good looks and boyish charm. I persuaded
my task force to invite him to share some of his handwritten manuscript, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and
Homosexuality, at our next meeting in Philadelphia.
We
had sought the expertise of scholars like situation ethicist Joseph Fletcher
and scientists like sex researcher William Masters of Masters and Johnson, but
none of the experts we consulted wowed the task force like John, and some of
his as yet unpublished work filtered into our background paper and certainly
influenced the recommendation of the committee’s 1978 majority report that
homosexuality should not bar someone from ordination.
When
I served as founding director of the Lazarus Project, the first ministry of
reconciliation between the church and the LGBT community funded by a mainstream
denomination, Boswell lectured many times for us over the years about his work
discovering the hidden history of LGBT Christians, from saints to same-sex
unions in the church.
He
happily stayed in my modest, shoe-box-shaped West Hollywood apartment on those
visits, and his unique request each time was that we go to Disneyland.
As
far as I know, I was the only friend who called him John because of my
affection for the name. Other friends knew him as “Jeb,” the acronym of his
initials.
On
the occasion of his first visit in the fall of 1983, I invited several people
to have dinner with him: Rev. Troy Perry, founder of MCC, Malcolm Boyd, openly
gay author and priest (who did not use “Rev.” as a title), and Steve Schulte,
executive director of L.A.’s LGBT Community Services Center and one-time Colt
model.
Meanwhile
my friend George Lynch was en route from South Carolina. We had met at the
beginning of the summer during the Atlanta General Assembly reuniting the
southern and northern Presbyterian churches, and we joked that we took reunion
seriously by bonding as a couple. He was scheduled to arrive the next day, so I
urged him to get there in time to enjoy this dinner.
I
probably served my signature lasagna, as it was something I could prepare
beforehand and bake while I visited with
guests. The salad, however, was in process when I received a phone call from
George that he had broken down on the nearby Hollywood Freeway, and the tow
company would only take cash, no credit card. So I left Boswell with the task
of finishing the salad and greeting our arriving guests while I drove to assist
poor George.
As
I was going out, a feverish Troy Perry made a brief appearance to meet Boswell,
and excused himself before dinner because he had returned from Mexico with a
severe case of—in his own words—“Montezuma’s revenge.” Upon my return, Boyd, with his date, a writer
from the L.A. Times, and I enjoyed chatting with Boswell over dinner, while
awaiting the arrivals of George after tending to his car, and Steve Schulte,
who was delayed at the airport returning home.
George
and Steve arrived at the same time, and after introductions and servings, the
initial focus was on George’s long distance drive and his harrowing experience
breaking down in the middle of Los Angeles rush hour traffic. We all welcomed
him to California!
Given
the cast of characters, I am certain that we had some important conversations
about church, politics, and the LGBT community. But the memorable thing for me
was our good humor as we adjusted to the evening as it was, a bit chaotic, very
homely—yet a rare opportunity for an intimate gathering of early history-makers
in the LGBT community.
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Copyright © 2016 and photo copyright ©
1983 by Chris R. Glaser. Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution
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