Christopher Marlowe (February 26, 1564 - May 30, 1593)

Christopher Marlowe represents homoerotic situations and incidents in his plays and poems more frequently and more variously that any other major English Renaissance writer. His personal tastes are best expressed by his famous epigram: "All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools."

Born in Canterbury in the same year as Shakespeare, Marlowe was his most significant predecessor as an English playwright who was also a great poet. The son of a cobbler who earned a scholarship to Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1584 and an M.A. in 1587, Marlowe pursued a course of study that was designed to culminate in holy orders, yet the most profound result of his education may have been his love of classical literature, especially Ovid, whom he was to translate and whose comic ironies and worldly sophistication were to influence him greatly.

A writer deeply immersed in both religion and classics, Marlowe reflects in his work the tension between Christian culture's condemnation and classical culture's acceptance of homoerotics.

He was probably an agent in the Elizabethan spy network run by Sir Francis Walsingham, yet he was frequently in trouble with authorities. In 1593, he was accused by Elizabeth's Privy Council of heresy and blasphemy, but before he could answer the indictment he was murdered in a tavern in Deptford.

Marlowe's famous lyric beginning "Come live with me, and be my love" is a brilliant recital of the pastoral delights with which Corydon attempts to woo Alexis in Virgil's homoerotic second eclogue. Marlowe's seductive poem economically imagines an idyllic, self-contained golden age far removed from the demands and constraints of Elizabethan society.

Yet what is most striking about it as an adaptation of the second eclogue is not that it contains homoerotic innuendoes but, quite to the contrary, that it suppresses the unapologetic homoeroticism of its source. By failing to specify the gender of the passionate shepherd's love, Marlowe may hint at the possibility of homosexual bliss, and thereby query the dominant assumptions of his society, but he never makes that teasing hint concrete or explicit.

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Citation Information
Author: Summers, Claude J.
Entry Title: Marlowe, Christopher
General Editor: Claude J. Summers
Publication Name: glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
Publication Date: 2002
Date Last Updated July 24, 2006
Web Address www.glbtq.com/literature/marlowe_c.html
Publisher glbtq, Inc.
1130 West Adams
Chicago, IL 60607
Today's Date May 30, 2013
Encyclopedia Copyright: © 2002-2006, glbtq, Inc.
Entry Copyright © 1995, 2002 New England Publishing Associates

( Further Readings )

Glenn Burke (November 16, 1952 – May 30, 1995)

Glenn Burke was a born ballplayer—a "natural"—who spent several years as an outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s before the pressures of living a double life with his teammates forced him into early retirement—and an honored place on San Francisco’s gay softball teams.

Burke once said, "They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it." He was dubbed King Kong by his Dodgers teammates for his size and strength.

Burke was always open about his sexuality with his family and community, but not with his teammates or team management. When he debuted with the Dodgers he threw a party at the Pendulum, a neighborhood gay bar.

He encountered tremendous prejudice within the baseball community and had to resist pressure from his coach, Al Campanis, to marry. His friendship with manager Tommy Lasorda’s estranged openly gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr., caused additional problems for Burke.

When Burke returned for spring training with Oakland in 1980, Billy Martin, the newly hired manager of the Athletics, made public statements about not wanting a homosexual in his clubhouse. Burke eventually quit major league baseball. He stated in his autobiography that "prejudice just won out."

Burke died from AIDS-related illness in 1995. One of his legacies is the "high five," which he introduced to baseball.


AIDS Quilt

Source: Queers in History, The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgenders by Keith Stern

( Further Readings )

GayRomLit Ebook Giveaway: Josephine Myles - Screwing The System

I asked to all the authors joining the GayRomLit convention in Atlanta in October (http://gayromlit.com/grl-authors) a personal favor, a special Ebook Giveaway: twice a week I will post 1 book from each author, and among those who will leave a comment, I will draw a winner. Very easy and very fast ;-) I will send a PM to the winner, so remember to not leave anonymous comments!

And the ebook giveaway goes to: bokl_c

Today author is Josephine Myles: English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it. Jo is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and publishes regularly with Samhain. She’s one of the organising team behind the UK Meet, an annual event celebrating GLBTQ fiction. She has also been known to edit anthologies and self-publish on occasion.
Website: http://josephinemyles.com/
Most recent title: Screwing the System
Publishers: Amber Quill/Amber Allure, Dreamspinner Press, Samhain Press, Cleis Press

Screwing the System by Josephine Myles
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (February 12, 2013)
Amazon Kindle: Screwing the System

He’s nobody’s bitch. Until he gets a ride on the bitch seat.

Forced to apply for a job he doesn’t want, Cosmo Rawlins has only one aim in mind: fail the interview and get back to making music. Except his attempt to shock the older, sharp-suited Alasdair Grant doesn’t have the desired effect.

Instead of getting thrown out of the office by flaunting an interest in BDSM, Cosmo finds himself on his knees, apologizing to the sexy, good-looking Top.

Alasdair has more important things on his mind than training a novice sub, especially a rebellious bad boy like Cosmo. But there’s something beneath the younger man’s defiant attitude that’s too intriguing to ignore.

As Alasdair takes Cosmo in hand—and for a wild ride on his Harley—he becomes obsessed with bending the young rocker to his will, both in and out of bed. Until he goes one demand too far, and Cosmo is gone in a cloud of dust. Forcing Alasdair to admit that earning Cosmo’s loyalty—and love—will involve the toughest challenge he’s ever faced.

Warning: This title contains an overbearing Top with a less-than-glamorous job, a rebellious brat who refuses to call him sir, and a total lack of high-end BDSM clubs or playrooms. Expect floggings over the kitchen table instead.

Game on by Summer Devon

Have you ever had that feeling of eating something really good, and thinking, I would wish more, but then, considering that the morsel was the right mix of flavours without stuffing you? That is the feeling I had upon finishing Game On. I knew Summer Devon, and I was expecting to like the characters and the writing; on that front this author doesn’t disappoint. What I was not expecting was for the story to be short, a novella, because usually, if I like the characters, a novella is too short to satisfy my need to spend time with them.

But Game On had a nice development of the story, even if, basically, it’s four scene in total: boy meets boy, boy fights boy, boy falls in love with boy, boy and boy live happily ever after. But the strong asset are the characters, Grant and Ned; both different types of nerd at school, they managed to become successful in their respective fields, but those fields are so different that they seem unlikely as a couple.

I like the sexiness that seems unborn in Ned, and I like the uptightness of Grant, who is able to unleash a dominant lover when necessary; I also like that Grant, while admitting having a relationship with Ned is not politically correct (for working related reasons), in any case doesn’t deny to himself the pleasure to indulge, and with no regret.

Amazon Kindle: Game on
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

LGBT Ebook and Print Releases, May 2013

A Casual Weekend Thing by A.J. Thomas (Dreamspinner Press)
A Conspiracy of Goodness by Jennings, C.P.T.
A Darker Shade Of Oxford Blue by Blunt, Lily G.
A Gentleman Never Does by Lee Brazil (Breathless Press)
A Good Name for a Hero by D. E. Elledge (Dreamspinner Press)
A Lesser Evil by EM Lynley (Total-e-Bound)
A Man's Worth [Brac Pack 31] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) by Hagen, Lynn
A Perfect Romance by Layce Gardner
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology, and leaves... by Bornstein, Kate
A Rogue’s Power by Azalea Moone (Total-e-Bound)
A Surprise for Daddy by J.M. Snyder (JMS Books)
A Time For Love by B.K. Wright
A Wolf Brushed Red by Andie Johnston (Torquere Books)
Adrian's Librarian by Hollis Shiloh (Dreamspinner Press)
After This We Go Dark by Theresa Davis
All in the Details by AKM Miles (Silver Publishing)
ALL OF ME (Can You Take All Of Me?) by Vanden, Dirk
Allergic Reaction by Adams, Leslie
Always Been You by Jess Buffett (Silver Publishing)
Arresting Behaviour by Morticia Knight (Total-e-Bound)
Art And Snowflakes by Sean Michael (Amber Allure)
Artifice by Alex Woolfson and Winona Nelson
At Love's Edge Part 1 Love's Tragedy by Kani Chie, Rari
At Your Service (Total-e-Bound)
Authentic Leadership: An Engaged Discussion of Lgbtq Work as Culturally Relevant by Lemuel W. Watson and Joshua Moon Johnson
Avery by Anna Leigh Boettcher
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