The Deviant's War Quotes

“After two Republican senators learned that the son of Senator Lester Hunt of Wyoming, a Democrat, had been arrested in Lafayette Park, they gave Hunt a choice. He could withdraw from his 1954 reelection campaign or face the publicity of his son’s homosexual arrest. The Senate was virtually tied. If Hunt resigned, he risked shifting power to the Republicans. On the morning of June 19, 1954, Senator Hunt, a straight victim of antigay political blackmail, entered his Capitol office and shot himself with a .22-caliber rifle.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“In only a decade, homosexuals had graduated from criminals—merely incarcerated after homosexual activity—to mentally ill criminals subject to psychiatric remedies, which included shock therapy, castration, and lobotomies.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“And if society rejected him? ‘Why, society can,’ as he later described the realization. ‘They’ll lose more than I will.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“An Ohio ACLU case, Obergefell v. Hodges, ultimately reached the Supreme Court. On June 26, 2015, in a 5–4 decision, the court ruled that “Baker v. Nelson must be and now is overruled,” referring to the failed marriage case of Jack Baker and Michael McConnell. Gay marriage became legal across the country.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“The placard, written by the Black marcher but carried by the white Scarberry, an FBI informant responsible for the ruined career of at least one homosexual, said EQUALITY FOR ALL.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“What the hell ever happened to the concept of freedom and equality that we espouse?” wrote Dick Michaels, editor of The Los Angeles Advocate. “What difference does it make whether the straights push us around directly or do it through other, uptight homosexuals. This is what the concept of ‘image’ eventually leads to. The image becomes more important than the goal.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America

“During Kameny’s first year at Harvard, someone invited him to a Boston gay bar. He wanted to go, and he knew he would likely enjoy it. And if he enjoyed it, he would likely return. And if he kept returning, if he found himself voluntarily trapped in Boston’s gay world, that would indicate that he was a homosexual, which he was not. The “tissue paper barrier,” as he later described it, still existed between his urges and his acceptance of those urges. He was not ready to tear down that thin wall.”
― Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America