Scotty Bowers is a Flaming Queen: A review of "Full Service"

SCOTTY BOWERS IS A FLAMING QUEEN: A REVIEW OF "FULL SERVICE: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars." Scotty Bowers with Lionel Friedberg. Grove Press; 2012.

Oy vey! The lengths some people will go to to deny they're gay even while writing about all the guys they've been to bed with, and not always for money. Scotty Bowers, procurer for the stars and male prostitute in old Hollywood -- he is now 88 -- writes about many married men with wives and kids who were secretly homosexual, but seems to think because he keeps saying he really prefers women, adds one chapter about two women he was allegedly in love with, and has an [un-pictured] wife he married past the age of sixty, that this means he's not gay! One at least hopes he wouldn't resist the label "bisexual" although if memory serves me well he doesn't use it to describe himself in this pretty tedious book.

Look, we already know about Rock Hudson, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, the phony "romance" between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and so on. The only thing that may be new in here is that both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were bisexual [well on one page they're bisexual; on the next page they're "essentially gay."] Bowers claims to have had sex with both of them. You'd think he'd be embarrassed to admit it, but then this guy thinks Walter Pidgeon is "handsome."

If Gore Vidal and William Mann, who has written books on Hepburn and Gay Old Hollywood [hopefully not with Bowers as a major source], want to praise this piece of shit, let them, although I wonder if they wrote their endorsements before actually reading the book! It's not that many of Bowers' assertions about the homosexuality of Hollywood's leading players and the many closeted gays among the "straight" married community are false, but that Bowers is absolutely the wrong person to be relaying the information. First, rightly or wrongly, who takes whores and procurers seriously? Second, even if some of his claims are true, it's hard to believe that Bowers personally witnessed or experienced everything he says -- much of it actually sounds like second or third-hand knowledge [if not gossip and rumors]. Third, Bowers, despite his strong connection to the gay community [or the closeted variation thereof back in the day], does his unconvincing best to set himself somehow above and apart the "queens" he mostly writes about. He gives lip service to Gay Rights, but this is a guy who has fond memories of being molested at nine and of the men who molested him as well, which is just pathetic. Do we really want his support?

I suppose one could argue that his being molested [assuming the story is even true] made him sexually confused and non-judgmental about sexuality [and more adventurous], but he really just comes off like a self-deluding "old queen." [And in his book jacket photo, in which he seems to have Shirley Temple curls on his head, certainly looks like one, which is ironic.] He writes that when he read a piece Tennessee Williams [for a whore he certainly had a whole shitload of important "friends," all of whom, of course, were close confidantes] wrote about him, he urged the famed playwright to destroy it because it made him seem like the "fairy godmother of the entire gay world in the City of Angels." And that certainly wouldn't do for such a straight stud as Scotty.

While it may be entirely admirable that Bowers has a healthy, realistic and non-judgmental attitude towards different kinds of sexuality [although his acceptance of pedophilia is rather problematic to say the least!] his sensibility is still stuck back in the pre-Stonewall period. He talks about all the married men who like cock, referring to some of them as bisexuals, but then writes about many of the hustlers who had sex with his clients as "straight" guys just because they may have had girlfriends or slept with women. Duh! It's that whole tiresome "rough trade," allegedly "gay for pay" crap that in these days of "Out and Proud" just seems terribly unrealistic and dated, "sexual fluidity" be damned. Besides if his clients can supposedly be bisexual, why couldn't the hustlers be as well?

The book is so indifferently written that it fails to make any of these people come alive with any depth, and it certainly has no compelling erotic descriptions like well-written porn.

Amazingly, Full Service is kind of boring. I imagine unsophisticated straight people from Iowa [no offense,Iowa] may find this "juicy" but for everyone else I would recommend saving your money.  

Some A-holes Never Go Away

You remember Matt Sanchez, the marine who became the Republican party's darling, until they found out he had starred in several gay porn films and had been a prostitute with male clients? Is he gay? Well, if you want to think totally straight guys act in hardcore gay porn films and have sex with other men, go ahead and think he's straight. Oh, what's that? -- he's "gay for pay, huh?" I'm not saying he's gay or bi, but it seems to me that guys who are really hetero can think of easier -- ahem, straighter -- ways of making a dollar. I believe on one radio interview Sanchez claimed that when he was with his male sex clients they weren't really engaging in gay sex (despite the sucking and fucking, yeah) because -- get this! -- his clients were in the closet and didn't think of themselves as being gay. Apparently he doesn't either. Therefore it wasn't gay sex. But it was definitely homosexual, what with there being two guys on the bed and all.

I wouldn't necessarily call Sanchez and his clients, or porn co-stars, gay men --as in "Out and Proud" gay -- but 100% hetero they're not. (I'll have more on this men-who-have-sex-with-men-but-who-are-really- hetero nonsense -- which apparently at least one gay therapist has swallowed -- on a future post.)

As for Sanchez, you'd think this self-hating jerk would have run and hid himself away -- or at least stopped yapping about the gay community -- but he's recently written a piece on "Obama's 'gay' problem" on something called worldnetdaily.

In the article Sanchez writes:

"Obama ruffled LGBT sensitivities when an ex-gay gospel singer headlined during the early days of Obama's presidential run. Gay activists protested to have the singer removed from the campaign The peddlers of pride, diversity, free speech, tolerance and fairness in the workplace wanted the singing black guy fired for disagreeing with them. If that sounds as inconsistent as the vows of two men publicly promising to be monogamous to one another, don't worry; none of this stuff is supposed to make sense..."

Here we go again. Those of us who are oppressed are being "hypocritical" if we protest against a political candidate giving added national exposure to a man who preaches intolerance and who spews ridiculous lies about the gay community. Surely most political candidates would not want to ally themselves with blatant Nazi's or racists, but it's okay to have a homophobe who spouts garbage be highly visible during your campaign? Oh, I get it. We progressive, wimpy gays are just supposed to sit back and let stupid, bigoted people say any damn thing they want about us, especially when they attach themselves to a political candidate, which may give their stupid views more weight and exposure. Blacks and Jews would certainly not put up with that crap, so why should Gays?

As for Sanchez' snide comments about monogamous gay couples, all I can say is they come from a porn star and a prostitute. I couldn't care less about Sanchez' background; I've never been a boy scout and have no moral objection to pornography or prostitution. The trouble is Sanchez' utter hypocrisy. Funny, conservatives like Sanchez are the ones who argue that no one is born gay, that it's a choice (even if it were, which it isn't, that doesn't make it wrong. But homosexuality isn't a choice -- the choice is in deciding to be open and proud as opposed to closeted and dishonest.) So I can imagine what the conservatives Sanchez courts really think of him -- a supposed "straight" guy who chose time and again to engage in homosexual acts -- for money, no less. (Or enjoyment.) By the way, his porn star/prostitute past is not mentioned on worldnetdaily. Wonder why?

I mean, is this guy a complete asswipe or what?

Matt then decides to rewrite history a la Sanchez with this paragraph:

"Ever notice the LGBT advocates constantly compare the same-sex struggle to the civil rights movement? According to polls, African-Americans are the most opposed to the legalization of gay marriage, and no black leader has endorsed the comparison between racial equality and the "right" for pre-op transsexuals to get a taxpayer funded sex change. The liberal interpretation of the civil rights struggle through the rainbow-colored glasses of the "queer theory" activist would have given the Rev. Martin Luther King a nightmare, rather than a dream."

Okay, Sanchez has a hot line to Martin Luther King, eh? Actually, if King were alive today, he might well be pro-gay and pro-LGBT. There are many black leaders who support Gay Rights and Gay Marriages, including New York's new governor David A. Paterson. And he's just one of many. Sanchez is such a pathetic loser that he thinks it's okay to sow divisiveness between the LGBT community and the African-American community, forgetting that there are many people who belong to both communities and not only that a.) many gays fought for civil rights, but that b.) many blacks are entirely sympathetic to, and in part identity with, the LGBT struggle.

But in Sanchez' sad, sorry, self-hating worldview, all that matters is that the defrocked media darling attack the Out and Proud community that snickered at his "straight"ness and recoiled from his hypocrisy. I'm sure he got a big surprise -- thinking the whole gay community would eagerly embrace this modestly-attractive ex-porn star and hooker -- But I'm so hot how can they reject me? he thinks -- instead of puking. Hell, he could be the hottest porn star-hooker on the planet. Stupid is not sexy.

So puke is what we all did, and will continue to do every time he opens his mouth and attacks us. Maybe someday he'll get the message and just go away.

Matt Sanchez -- forgotten but not gone.

Whores and Ministers on Law and Order

The Law and Order shows have recently aired two episodes about anti-gay ministers involved with male prostitutes practically back to back. The latest on Special Victims Unit featured Timothy Daly as a minister arrested for the murder of a male hustler who was apparently blackmailing him. (Can't we get past this tiresome blackmail theme in “gay” episodes on crime shows?) I liked the scene when Olivia said that the minister kept having children (ten of them) because he just couldn't accept that he was gay and had a desperate need to hide it through his many offspring (which I believe does happen in real life). This made the excellent and true point that a man can be married with kids and still be homosexual. Unfortunately this was undercut when it turned out it was actually one of Daly's sons who was having the affair with the hustler (and the actual murderer was someone else entirely) and Daly was supposedly straight. The once anti-gay minister was almost turned into a sympathetic hero, lying to cops to protect his son (whom he inexplicably thought murdered his lover) and becoming sympathetic to him in a matter of mere months, even preaching tolerance – as if that would ever happen so quickly. The show was decidedly well-intentioned, but in its attempts to be full of twists and turns, while this generated suspense, became a bit too muddled to be memorable. Frankly, it would have been more powerful and honest – and more fun – if the Daly character had been boffing the hustler or some other guy as well.

It reminds me of something I heard on the radio once. About a woman in Italy who had ten children with her husband of many years but was filing for divorce because he was gay. The announcer told the story as if it were all a big joke; it was hilarious, he thought, how could a man who fathered ten children possibly be homosexual? But if a gay man can have two or three children (or even just one) – and we know this has happened over and over again – there's absolutely no reason why he can't have ten or even more. Hell, I've met grandfathers who have many children, many grand-kids, and are still gay. At least when they're carrying on in the gay bars or online. Of course, very few men, gay or straight, want to have ten children!

So this episode of Law and Order SVU could have made that point – and tried to, I guess – but went in another direction altogether. Too bad. Still, it was quite absorbing, and I basically think the show, while imperfect, is one of the best on television.