February 12, 2009
In a brazen series of articles on the Radical Faerie movement in Frontiers magazine (January 27 and February 24, 2009) not yet finished, Don Kilhefner so far offers an outrageous revisionist history of the origins of the Radical Faeries in which he attempts to erase the signal intellectual collaboration of Mitch Walker and Harry Hay which first laid out the intellectual foundation leading to the organizational call for the initial Conference of Radical Faeries in 1979.
Like the Stalinists of old who expunged people’s pictures from history books and edited out the contributions of those with whom they had theoretical differences, Don is attempting to create a newly purified history in which he plays a singularly pivotal role as Harry’s key partner. According to Don, the theoretical and inspirational idea of a Radical Faerie conference originated in talks between himself and Harry in 1978. In this alternate story line, Mitch Walker has no role at all in the creation of the Radical Faerie movement until 1979 when he attends a meeting at Don’s apartment. He claims that Mitch then left the organizing group after an argument at a second meeting. To describe Mitch’s contribution in this minimizing way is a complete fabrication on Don’s part.
Since Harry and his partner John Burnside are recently deceased, it may seem to Don that no one is left to expose such distortions, in which he claims that the inspiration for the Conference originated with himself and Harry in May of 1978. But a very different description of this history is available in The Trouble With Harry Hay, the definitive biography which author Stuart Timmons wrote after a long series of talks with Harry and which were corroborated by interviews Stuart conducted with John, Mitch and Don himself. In Stuart’s account, Mitch began a correspondence that lasted nearly a year after he first heard of Harry in 1976 and that led to Mitch traveling to meet with Harry in New Mexico and work for nearly a month on issues of Gay consciousness in February of 1978. This included creating twelve hours of taped interviews on “history, mythology, and the meaning of Gay Consciousness.” According to Stuart’s interviews with Harry, this event led to Harry suggesting that “they call a gay male conference based on the ideas they had been discussing.” He adds further, “John Burnside observed a tremendous excitement and great affection developing between Harry and Mitch” at this time. All of this is ignored in Don’s blatantly self-aggrandizing account.
According to Stuart, “The Mythic, hidden aspects of gay identity that they [Harry and Mitch] had studied separately suddenly converged, with a greatly increased current.” By the time Mitch left to go back to California, according to Stuart’s account, they were well on their way to creating the Radical Faerie movement.
According to Stuart’s interviews, although Harry had met Don before, “they did not begin a sustained relationship until a third meeting in May of 1978.” This subsequently led to a collaboration between Don, Mitch and Harry which resulted in a presentation titled “New Breakthroughs in the Nature of How We Perceive Gay Consciousness” at the Gay Academic Union in Fall of 1978. “Their debut in the G.A.U. forum was a success, and afterward Hay told Walker that with this ‘magnificent organizer,’ Don Kilhefner, they were now a society of three. Their dreamed-of conference could now proceed.”
Furthermore, while Don makes it appear as if Mitch contributed nothing other than getting into a fight, Stuart lists many other contributions Mitch made to the creation of the original Faerie movement. All of this leads one to wonder why Don is now attempting to write Mitch out of this history. Finally, what Don has also so far failed to mention in his articles is that he and Mitch eventually had theoretical differences with Harry that led them to leave the Radical Faeries and create a whole new organization, Treeroots, which still exists and is dedicated to exploring gay consciousness in a more explicitly psychological and depth-oriented way. Don worked for several years with Mitch Walker before he eventually left that organization over further theoretical differences. For Don to now rewrite history so as to eliminate his former colleague (particularly when the historical records clearly contradict his depiction of events) is foolhardy at best, and at worst suggests a pathologically violent level of rivalry and unprincipled debate that should be unacceptable in a supposedly-ethical gay movement, especially from such a prominent “leader.”
In a brazen series of articles on the Radical Faerie movement in Frontiers magazine (January 27 and February 24, 2009) not yet finished, Don Kilhefner so far offers an outrageous revisionist history of the origins of the Radical Faeries in which he attempts to erase the signal intellectual collaboration of Mitch Walker and Harry Hay which first laid out the intellectual foundation leading to the organizational call for the initial Conference of Radical Faeries in 1979.
Like the Stalinists of old who expunged people’s pictures from history books and edited out the contributions of those with whom they had theoretical differences, Don is attempting to create a newly purified history in which he plays a singularly pivotal role as Harry’s key partner. According to Don, the theoretical and inspirational idea of a Radical Faerie conference originated in talks between himself and Harry in 1978. In this alternate story line, Mitch Walker has no role at all in the creation of the Radical Faerie movement until 1979 when he attends a meeting at Don’s apartment. He claims that Mitch then left the organizing group after an argument at a second meeting. To describe Mitch’s contribution in this minimizing way is a complete fabrication on Don’s part.
Since Harry and his partner John Burnside are recently deceased, it may seem to Don that no one is left to expose such distortions, in which he claims that the inspiration for the Conference originated with himself and Harry in May of 1978. But a very different description of this history is available in The Trouble With Harry Hay, the definitive biography which author Stuart Timmons wrote after a long series of talks with Harry and which were corroborated by interviews Stuart conducted with John, Mitch and Don himself. In Stuart’s account, Mitch began a correspondence that lasted nearly a year after he first heard of Harry in 1976 and that led to Mitch traveling to meet with Harry in New Mexico and work for nearly a month on issues of Gay consciousness in February of 1978. This included creating twelve hours of taped interviews on “history, mythology, and the meaning of Gay Consciousness.” According to Stuart’s interviews with Harry, this event led to Harry suggesting that “they call a gay male conference based on the ideas they had been discussing.” He adds further, “John Burnside observed a tremendous excitement and great affection developing between Harry and Mitch” at this time. All of this is ignored in Don’s blatantly self-aggrandizing account.
According to Stuart, “The Mythic, hidden aspects of gay identity that they [Harry and Mitch] had studied separately suddenly converged, with a greatly increased current.” By the time Mitch left to go back to California, according to Stuart’s account, they were well on their way to creating the Radical Faerie movement.
According to Stuart’s interviews, although Harry had met Don before, “they did not begin a sustained relationship until a third meeting in May of 1978.” This subsequently led to a collaboration between Don, Mitch and Harry which resulted in a presentation titled “New Breakthroughs in the Nature of How We Perceive Gay Consciousness” at the Gay Academic Union in Fall of 1978. “Their debut in the G.A.U. forum was a success, and afterward Hay told Walker that with this ‘magnificent organizer,’ Don Kilhefner, they were now a society of three. Their dreamed-of conference could now proceed.”
Furthermore, while Don makes it appear as if Mitch contributed nothing other than getting into a fight, Stuart lists many other contributions Mitch made to the creation of the original Faerie movement. All of this leads one to wonder why Don is now attempting to write Mitch out of this history. Finally, what Don has also so far failed to mention in his articles is that he and Mitch eventually had theoretical differences with Harry that led them to leave the Radical Faeries and create a whole new organization, Treeroots, which still exists and is dedicated to exploring gay consciousness in a more explicitly psychological and depth-oriented way. Don worked for several years with Mitch Walker before he eventually left that organization over further theoretical differences. For Don to now rewrite history so as to eliminate his former colleague (particularly when the historical records clearly contradict his depiction of events) is foolhardy at best, and at worst suggests a pathologically violent level of rivalry and unprincipled debate that should be unacceptable in a supposedly-ethical gay movement, especially from such a prominent “leader.”
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