Beginners: ‘Simple and Happy’

Oliver: This is what it looks like when Anna tells me about being Jewish in 2003 ^

And when I tell her that my mother was Jewish.  And then my father turned in his gay badge when my mother turned in her Jewish badge.  And they got married in 1955.

My mother didn’t know she was Jewish until she was 13.  It was 1938.

This is what people looked like. And lions and giraffes. 

^ This man was Man of the Year. 

Her father tried to hide that they were Jewish.  This is the swim team that asked her to leave once they discovered that she was Jewish ^

This is what pretty looked like in 1938 ^

My father realized he was gay when he was 13.  It was 1938.  

This is what pretty looked like ^ 

This is the high school where they first met. This is the war they both went to. And this man was popular when they met again ^

This is the only place my father could hide and have sex in the Fifties. My father said if you got caught by the Vice Squad you could lose everything… 

This is everything ^

My father laid down on a couch like this and told the psychiatrist all his problems in 1955.  The doctor told him that homosexuality was a mental illness, but it could be cured. Not everyone got cured.  

This is where my parents lived in 1955. 

And this is the home where the first gay rights group was secretly meeting ^

^ While they were reciting their vows, here in this church.

… Allen Ginsburg was writing his famous poem, Howl, blocks away in this room ^

“Who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists and screamed with joy. Who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love…”