[Larry Kramer] said, when it was all about to fall through, "You betrayed me, Calvin." And I said, "I resent that. I was against you from the beginning."

Kevin Sessums

Categorized in : Fall Betrayed Kramer

Calvin [Trillin] was much more of a mover and a shaker. That's all I'm saying. I was a "weenie." That was another term back then.

shakers term

I was so unhappy as a child in Washington I figured if I'm going to Yale, I am going to start a new life. I'll change my name to my middle name. So I was known for my four years at Yale as David Kramer.

yale children years

When I graduated [from Yale], I went back to Larry [Kramer]. But when I go to Yale reunions, there are still people who call me David.

kramer yale people

The first time I remember our being socially in the same place was after we graduated and [author, investment counselor, philanthropist, and fellow 1950s Yalie] Peter Wolf had a party at his house in the Hamptons.

party house firsts

Another example of what I have to put up with from him. But there was a time I was mad at all my straight friends when AIDS was at its worst. I particularly hated the New Yorker, where Calvin [Trillin] has published so much of his work. The New Yorker was the worst because they barely ever wrote about AIDS. I used to take out on Calvin my real hatred for the New Yorker.

mad hatred real

David Remnick [the New Yorker's editor in chief]is about as interested in anything gay as I am interested in anything to do with baseball. It drives me nuts.

gay baseball nuts

[Calvin Trilllin] is not writing about things that I can criticize. I can call these other people out for what I think they are not doing. There's a big difference.

differences writing thinking

That's why I tried to kill myself when I was a student [in Yale]. I thought I was the only one there.

students yale

I wasn't a [gay] activist, really. by Kevin Sessums

I wasn't a [gay] activist, really.

activist gay

My father was dead by the time I became a writer, and he would have had a heart attack if he had read the first thing I wrote when it came out. My mother still keeps her copy of Faggots hidden away in a bottom drawer.

mother heart father

I just so desperately wanted to be published in New Yorker, and I'd so desperately try to get something in it. But I'd always get nice letters back telling me that Mr. Shawn [William Shawn, the New Yorker's editor from 1952 to 1987] just didn't like this or didn't like that about what I submitted.

editors nice trying

I'm sorry to keep focusing on the New Yorker, but everybody who was growing up when Calvin [Trillin] and I were growing up wanted to be published in the New Yorker.

growing-up sorry wanted

I think I just felt a sadness at some points in my career that what is available to a straight writer is not available to a gay writer.

sadness gay thinking

It's always been hard to be gay in Washington. by Kevin Sessums

It's always been hard to be gay in Washington.

hard gay

If there was criticism about [Oscar Wilde], it was because it was written by a straight man who wasn't very educated about the gay world.

gay criticism men

There's always a door you don't get in. I'm a star in my own right for certain things. I'll own that. During Oscar weekend I did fabulous things. But there's still one inner sanctum I'm not allowed in. That's the one I'm fixated on.

weekend stars doors

Hollywood needs peripheral people like me. You're not of that wor... by Kevin Sessums

Hollywood needs peripheral people like me. You're not of that world, but you're needed.

hollywood people needs

I was raped: I said no and he wouldn't stop. I also had a scar on my back and blood coming out of my ass. To some that's just rough sex. Some would read that sentence and be turned on by that: the 51st Shade of Gay.

gay sex blood

I was raped. That was a hard thing to write about. I never owned that part of it. Guys don't look at themselves as being raped. We're not raised that way.

guy writing looks

I'm not denying Christ by not being Christian. I'm a theist, which involves expanding on the Christ narrative.

expanding narrative christian