I am very proud to be part of Charlestons gay past (especially since South Carolina public television refused to air Tales of the City.) The former home thats depicted was the studio of artist Elizabeth ONeill Verner. I lived in her attic and met my first full-fledged love in her shop downstairs (circa 1970). Curt Dawson was a New York actor who played Donald in an early Broadway production of Boys in the Band. When Ian McKellen performed his one-man show at Stonewall 25, I discovered that Curt had also been Ians first love at RADA back in the sixties. If I remember correctly, playwright Terrence McNally also had thing for Curt. We all lost him to AIDS in 1985. Harlan Greene, who compiled this map, wrote a groundbreaking gay novel called Why We Never Danced the Charleston. Im thrilled to see he included the home of Dawn Pepita Simmons, a brave transgender woman who first raised my awareness of her kind.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 01:54:38 +0000