“What could a gay man do in the 19th century?” art expert and researcher Gregorio Luke asked aloud. “He had to make his life a work of art.”
Luke did not instantly arrive at this point when developing what he openly proclaims as hopefully his best lecture ever, “Gay Greatness: A Celebration of LGBTQ Contributions in Art, Culture and History.”
Gary Keener–an avid Center volunteer–found himself impressed by Luke’s “Mural Under the Stars” program at the Museum of Latin American Art. Enlightened by Luke’s ability to educate the Latino community about its history and strength, he approached Luke with a simple wish: “I wish you could do that for the LGBTQ community.”
Being a straight man, Luke saw an intellectual challenge in the idea of creating a lecture on the LGBTQ community–and went about it typically with a series of biographies spanning well-known LGBTQers such as Socrates to Elton John.
“I realized this approach was superficial, that is was not enough,” Luke said in a tone of lament. “The genius of Michelangelo or Da Vinci or Thomas Mann cannot be entirely explained by their sexuality.”
More important, Luke felt, was to exemplify the struggle and persecution that the LGBTQ community has experienced for thousands of years–and not just point it out, but to persistently remind people of it.
“I don’t think there is a single other community that has been so oppressed and marginalized [than that of the LGBTQ community],” Luke said.
His studies highlight the strange transition from Greek antiquity–where homosexuality and bisexuality were accepted and even revered on a certain level–to the Middle Age years proceeding Justinian’s destruction of Aristotle’s Academy.
Following a double-Foucauldian line of history (one route following Discipline and Punish while the other follows The History of Sexuality), Luke points out the disturbing way in which the Catholic interpretation of sodomy transferred to law, which then transferred into medicine and science through the study of perversions.
It is hard not to acknowledge Luke’s disheartening tone when he discusses these histories, as sometimes his voice slightly quivers with a sense of confusion and disturbance.
“We–humans–used to tie other humans down and while showing pictures of themselves, would shock them,” Luke explained. “We would electrocute them while showing images of themselves. So here you have a person who was rejected from the church: you’re an abomination. Rejected from the law: McCarthyism called them Commies and Communism called them traitors. Rejected from science: your brain is off kilter… And then the social pressure. Even after laws become more lax, the social pressures become so intense that one of the most talented composers in history–Tchaikovsky–commits suicide.”
Luke’s incredibly deep research about the marginalization of the LGBTQ community–ranging from the pink triangles of the Nazi regime to the outcast of Mexican “sexual deviants” to the Isla Marías in Mexico–showed the back-and-forth the LGBTQ community had. With the late 60s and 70s, an affirmation of free love and sexuality was eventually thwarted by the AIDS crisis, where once again political pundits attempted to justify their ignorance the epidemic through divine justifications.
The devastation of the AIDS pandemic brought him to his own childhood. His mother is famed choreographer Gloria Contreras and given her work, Luke was continually surrounded by gay men.
{loadposition latestlgbt}”Many of these men were my father figures,” Luke explained. “And so many wonderful people died… I recall the empty lockers growing in number as the years passed.”
These jump and setbacks–persecution, liberation, ostracizing–are not entirely pejorative. The silver lining, and one that Luke is adamant in pointing out, is that despite consistent persecution, our world has still harnessed some of the greatest thinkers, artists, writers, and contributors through the LGBTQ community.
“The problem isn’t society–it’s homophobia,” Luke emphasized, even going further and unabashedly countering Tom Brokaw’s proclamation that the WWII generation was the “greatest generation any society has ever produced.”
“I would say the current LGBTQ community is the greatest community in history,” he said. “What it has accomplished in terms of recognition, in terms of respect, in terms of the ability to be free is extraordinary. I think it is something to be celebrated–and not just by those who are gay, but by all of us who believe in freedom and love.”
“Gay Greatness: A Celebration of LGBTQ Contributions in Art, Culture and History,” a multimedia presentation by Gregorio Luke, will take place on Saturday, May 4 at noon. The Art Theatre, located at 2025 E. 4th Street, will host the event.
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