Born in 1947 in Savannah, Georgia, Perry Brass grew up in the 1950s and 60s
in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economically impoverished, and very much gay.
To escape the South’s violent homophobia, he hitchhiked at 17 from Savannah to
San Francisco—an adventure, he recalls, that was “like Mark Twain with drag
queens.” He has published 13 books and been a finalist six times in three
categories (poetry; gay science fiction and fantasy; spirituality and religion)
for national Lambda Literary Awards. One of the main themes in his writing has
been the integration of sexuality and the religious or spiritual impulse, as
exemplified in his novels Albert: or, The Book of Man, Angel
Lust, and Substance of God. His writings have attempted
to answer questions such as: Why are so many gay men religious and political
conservatives? Why is the need for God so important to us? What is our own place
in nature and the world?
Brass has been involved in the gay movement since 1969, when he co-edited the
newspaper Come Out!, published by New York's Gay Liberation Front. His
many essays and newspaper stories from this period became part of the literature
of the post-Stonewall "liberation" era of the gay movement. Later, in 1972 with
with two friends he started the Gay Men's Health Project Clinic, the first
clinic for gay men on the East Coast, still surviving as New York’s
Callen-Lourde Clinic.
During this period, Perry was involved in the publication of the celebrated
lesbian/feminist and gay male issues of the Methodist motive magazine
in 1972. As Perry recalls that experience:
"I became involved with the Gay Men’s Liberation issue of motive
magazine through my friendship with Roy Eddey, the issue's editor. Roy,
originally from New Jersey, had been living in Nashville, the headquarters of
the Methodist Church, where he worked for motive as, I believe, a
production assistant. A Methodist youth, he was also very involved with the
peace movement, which at that time was known simply as “the Movement.”
motive had started out as the Methodist “youth organ,” however as the
Sixties youth culture became more synonymous with the Movement and emerging
feminism, motive started to take a definite swing toward the
“counter-culture,” then associated with the New Left. Every issue of
motive had a theme, and the magazine’s almost fatalistic verge further
Left, hit its midway point in its infamous “Women’s Liberation Issue” from early
'71. As Roy recalled to me, the lead piece in this issue began: 'Here she is,
Miss America. Take her off the stage and fuck her.' The magazine lost half its
subscription base after this issue; and the elders of the church warned that if
motive continued in this vein, its days were numbered.
"Roy, who had been somewhat out at motive, and who like many other
young people decided that the Peace Movement was the issue of the period (like
AIDS would be for a later generation) decided it was time for a change himself.
In the summer of 1971, he left Nashville for New York, the home of the New
York’s Gay Liberation Front, where Come Out!, the GLF newspaper, was
being published out of my apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. At this point, Roy had
come from a real publishing background, and I had almost none. I’d actually
become involved with Come Out! in 1969 because I was hungry to work on
a publication where I could be openly gay: they really did not exist at this
time. After several permutations of its “collective” staff, I became the paper’s
leading coordinator. For the next several months, Roy continued to have a
relationship with the feminist women who still worked on motive, while
helping to staff Come Out! At one of our meetings he announced that
motive’s funding from the church would allow it to bring out one final
issue: a gay liberation one. Roy had pitched this idea, and the women on the
staff, many of whom were lesbians, eagerly agreed. They also decided that the
issue would appear in two separate parts: a lesbian issue and a gay male one. At
that time, this was very much the way people thought--that women should control
their own media--so there was no way of binding both editions into one. Roy
very much believed in a commited Christian peace movement that authentically
should embrace the gay, feminist, and lesbian movements; so he made me feel that
my own work would be welcomed. I submitted several pieces and he accepted
them.
"I remember him bringing a mock-up of the issue later to a meeting in my
apartment. What saddened me was that this would be motive’s last issue;
but what strikes me now about it is its range of voices, including John Preston,
who later went on to fame writing gay erotica; Ken Pitchford, a leading “male
feminist,” at the time married to Robin Morgan; members of Washington’s GLF,
whom I did not know personally, but was in touch with through Come Out!; and the
sheer, outrageously splendid radicalism of the voices (which I feel was lost in
most gay media after that). But most wonderfully, there was Roy himself, who
believed that motive’s mission, as an authentic religious voice, had to
be to speak for those who could not be heard otherwise. In that, I feel he did a
great job."
Among the early anthologies that included Brass's work were The Male
Muse, the first anthology of openly gay poetry ever published, edited by
Ian Young; The Gay Liberation Book from Rolling Stone Press, including
work by John Lennon; The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse; and Gay
Roots from Gay Sunshine Press. His work can be
found in over 20 anthologies of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs, and
other writings. A poetry cycle called "Five Gay Jewish Prayers" was used as part
of the high holiday service at New York's Beth Simchat Torah congregation. The
text of this poem was accepted (in 1985) as one of the first gay Jewish
documents in the YIVO Archives of Jewish history. This poem was set to choral
music by Chris De Blasio, as "Five Prayers," which has been sung by several gay
choruses.
In 1984, his play Night Chills, an early play dealing with the
AIDS crisis, won a Jane Chambers International Gay Playwriting Award. Brass’s
collaborations with composers include the words for "All the Way Through
Evening," a five-song cycle set by DeBlasio, which was featured on the AIDS
Quilt Songbook CD from Harmonia Mundi, France, and Heartbeats from
Minnesota Public Radio; "The Angel Voices of Men" set by Ricky Ian Gordon and
commissioned by the Dick Cable Musical Trust for the New York City Gay Men’s
Chorus, which has featured it on its CD Gay Century Songbook; "Three
Brass Songs" with Grammy-nominated composer Fred Hersch; and "Waltzes for
Men" also commissioned by the DCMT for the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus and set by Craig
Carnahan.
Brass's non-fiction book, How to Survive Your Own Gay Life (Belhue
Press, 1999) deals with the psychic and physical survival of gay men, with their
spiritual and psychological growth, and with achieving happiness and maturity.
It was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in religion and spirituality,
and has been the basis for many LGBT discussion and support groups,
classes, and workshops.
(This biographical statement provided by Perry Brass. Photo by Jack
Slomovitz.)