Book Review: From the Closet to the Courts

From the Closet to the Courts

By Ruth Simpson

Forward by Cheryl Jacques

30^th Anniversary Edition

Take Root Media, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4196-6596-7

In her forward Cheryl Jacques, the former president of the Human Rights Campaign and the first openly gay senator from Massachusetts, reminds us “The more things change, the more they stay the same…” and so I found this to be profoundly true when reading From the Closet to the Courts.

Ruth Simpson first wrote these words more than thirty years ago and the first edition of this book was published in 1976. Even so, as I read I could still identify with much of what Simpson so eloquently described in her experiences as the founder of the first lesbian community center in New York City, which came through as part of her role as president of the New York City chapter of Daughters of Bilitis. She held this post until the organization disbanded in 1977 due to internal strife. As an out lesbian, she relates with stunning clarity her own and other’s pain, fear, uncertainty; all the personal and societal ramifications that choosing to be out often carries.

Simpson takes on every conceivable attitude and myth about homosexuals, tracing their roots from the egregious hurts often first inflicted within the family of origin and expands them outward to the larger societal influences. The church, the psychiatric profession, the media, law enforcement, and the courts, Simpson takes them all on with a style that is somehow both scholarly yet down-to-earth. She challenges and debunks much of the faulty logic that has been used to oppress lesbians and gay men and also offers it as consideration for us to apply to other oppressed groups.

Impressive further is that Ruth Simpson also turns her gaze to the very organizations and networks for lesbians and gay men. She offers poignant recollections and searing questions to these groups on how they can and have caused some of their own pain and strife by divisive or exclusionary thinking and actions. Although I admired her ways of examining these issues, I also found myself in disagreement. My own bias is that as a lesbian separatist I do not agree with the sentiment that Simpson states as “naïve” and “irresponsible” in seeking at times necessary separation. Too often lesbians have been co-opted and reduced to an even greater level of invisibility in the service of men, straight and gay alike.

Despite this, I found myself nodding with understanding and recognition to much of what Ruth Simpson has laid down in these pages. Readers of course will find that indeed some things have changed, but as one reads about how blatant and ferocious misunderstandings towards homosexuals was a scant thirty years ago, they will realize that the echo of that is not as far away as it seems in these times of backlash. In her afterword, Simpson reiterates this point, going over many of the trials and tribulations we still have before us and how now more than ever we must be diligent, brave, and revolutionary.

Although not what I’d call an uplifting read, I would nonetheless highly recommend reading From the Closet to the Courts. And once done, to lay down the book and take up an action that continues to counter the wrongful misconceptions and invisibilities still faced by lesbians today. Like Ruth Simpson, we can all be pioneers in thought and agents of change.