In a new interview, out author
Armistead Maupin says he refuses to honor homophobic members of his
family.
Maupin is best known for writing Tales
of the City, a series of novels set in San Francisco.
Speaking with Pink News, Maupin,
77, was asked whether he thinks “things will be better for queer
Americans under Joe Biden?”
“It’s too early to tell whether
it’s going to be that much better, but he’s certainly undone a
lot of the horrible shit Trump put into place,” Maupin
answered. “When I wrote my memoir Logical Family, in 2017, I
had a statement about my brother saying that he had joined what I
considered to be a fascist movement in America, the Trump campaign.
When I wrote it, I thought, ‘Maybe that’s a little bit too
strong.’ I’m glad I didn’t change it because it wasn’t strong
enough. Fascism can happen everywhere and it’s happening in
America, in pockets, and we have to keep a very close eye on it.”
Maupin also explained his decision to
“not honor” homophobic members of his family.
“My university decided to honor me
with an honorary doctoral degree about five years ago and I asked my
little brother to come to the ceremony, thinking he’d be proud of
me, and he was embarrassed to have to do it,” Maupin said.
“He made up a pathetic excuse for why
he couldn’t attend. This shit’s been going on there for a long
time. My own family supported Jesse Helms, the conservative senator
who was the most homophobic person in congress. I lost all patience
with that – I have lost all patience. Finally, at the age of 77,
I’m not honoring anybody for biological reasons unless they
understand and love me.”
“That’s why I push the notion of
the logical family, because I think a lot of people are still in a
great deal of pain about what their parents … will not say to them
about their lives,” he added.