Armistead Maupin [left], with his husband Christopher Turner, was born May 13, 1944 and turned 66 today. He grew up in a conservative Christian home in Washington D.C. and moved, early in life, to North Carolina where he was raised.
Armistead is best-known for his series Tales of the City. He has also written two other novels, Maybe the Moon, and The Night Listener. (The latter has been turned into a film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.)
He started doing a lot of his writing when he was a journalist for North Carolina’s The Daily Tar Heel, and is a veteran of the United States Navy, having served several tours of duty including one in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Maupin says he knew he was gay since he was a child, although he didn’t come out until 1974, the same year he started his project that would later become Tales of the City.
Maupin and Turner said their vows on February 18, 2007. However, they say that they called each other husband two years prior to that.
When asked about being a ‘gay writer’ he said:
“I’ve always been proud of the fact that I’ve been openly gay longer than just about anybody writing today […] but I never intended for that declaration to mean that I was narrowing my focus in any way, or joining a niche.”
“It’s complicated. I don’t want to feel any less queer, but I think for us to march along in a dutiful little herd called ‘gay and lesbian literature’ and have little seminars that we hold together is pointless at this point, it makes no sense to me at all. […] I cringe when I get ‘gay writer’ each time. Why the modifier? I’m a writer. It’s like calling Amy Tan a Chinese-American writer every time you mention her name, or Alice Walker a black writer. We’re all discussing the human condition. Some of us have revolutionized writing by bringing in subject-matter that nobody’s heard about before. But we don’t want that to narrow the definition of who we are as an artist. […] I don’t mind being cross-shelved. I’m very proud of being in the gay and lesbian section, but I don’t want to be told that I can’t sit up in the front of the book store with the straight, white writers.”
On writing to an audience of more than gay men:
“I think Jerry Falwell must be very happy with those little cubby-holes at the back of book stores that say ‘gay and lesbian’ – it’s a warning sign, they can keep their kids away from that section. I’d like people to stumble on my works in the literature section of Barnes and Noble and have their lives changed because of it.”
Armistead Maupin has earned several awards in his career. In 1999 he won the Capital Award, presented by GLAAD Media Awards. In 2001 he won the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Book Award. And in 2006 he won the Best Gay Read Award, presented by the Big Gay Read Literature Festival in the United Kingdom, then in 2007 he won the Barbary Coast Award, presented by Litquake Literary Festival in San Francisco.
Thank you Armistead, for all you have done. For your works of art and literature and for your service in the United States Navy. And thank you for standing up against adversity and staying true to who you are. You are an inspiration.
Happy Birthday!