Photo, Mark Homan
November 28, 1944- Rita Mae Brown:
“The funny thing is, I don’t believe in straight or gay. I really don’t. I think we’re all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it’s a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things & used their real name, I suddenly became the only lesbian in America. It was hysterical. It was a misnomer, but it’s okay. It was a fight worth fighting.”
Like so many others, I had a brief period in college where I experimented with Lesbianism. Not all that talented at softball, therapy, or carpet-munching, one of the things I really took away from that time was my appreciation for the novel Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) & other writings of Rita Mae Brown.
You could never accuse Brown of having squandered her life. She is author of 37 books, nearly all bestsellers, & she is all-around accomplished: feminist activist, lesbian pioneer, animal lover & even tabloid star, thanks to that 3 year relationship with tennis superstar Martina Navratilov. Brown:
“Martina & I are not friends now. We fell out over her divorce with Judy Nelson, & it was an extremely foolish & ugly affair on both of their parts. I was the middleman, & whenever you’re the middleman you lose both. But you know what? I think I solved the problem. I kept them out of court. I mean, I’m sure their lawyers deserve some credit. Judy sued her for support, & wanted some astronomical sum. I believed that she was part of her success. She was the person who organized, scheduled, made sure she ate right, etc., etc. What wives do. Martina, when she is done with you, is emphatically done. She couldn’t care less about you. Not in an ugly way necessarily, but she cannot imagine that other people still have feelings because she doesn’t anymore. She may have changed, but that’s the way she was then. She just wants to go to the next person & have a good time.”
Brown has stayed busy & her output is certainly prolific with 3 volumes of poetry, 16 lesbian themed novels. She has “coauthored” along with her cat, Sneaky Pie, a series of 24 mysteries featuring the feline character Mrs. Murphy. Quite the overachiever, Brown has a second mystery series built around Sister Jane Arnold, the master of the foxhounds at a fox hunting club in Virginia. In 2010, Brown added a new series featuring Detective Mags Rogers & her wire haired dachshund Baxter. Besides the fiction, Brown has published 4 volumes of memoirs, plus a cookbook, Sneaky Pie’s Cookbook For Mystery Lovers (1999) & produced nine screenplays including a TV movie Murder She Purred (1998).
In the 1960s, Brown was active in the Women’s Rights, Civil Rights & Anti-War movements, & she helped form The Student Homophile League, the first college campus gay group in the USA. NOW (National Organization of Women) was formed in 1966, but the feminist group was not all that keen on lesbians joining in the fight. Brown spoke at a meeting in 1969, stating:
“I’m tired of hearing everyone moan about men. Say something good about women. I’ll say something good. I love them. I’m a lesbian.”
The book that made me a lesbian lover was, of course, Rubyfruit Jungle, about a young girl who is out of the closet & happy about being gay, at the time a strange notion. It was a surprise bestseller & 43 years later it is still selling.
“Rubyfruit Jungle brought me notoriety &a ton of hate mail, numerous threats on my life including 2 bomb threats, increased outrage from the conservative wing of the feminist movement & scorn from the radical dykes. Straight people were mad because I was gay. The dykes were mad because I wasn’t gay enough.”
Not ever afraid of courting controversy, Brown has stated that she feels that there is little that is different between the Republican & Democratic parties.
“The difference between the parties is the difference between syphillis & gonorrhea. Neither one of them has a very compelling program for America. They don’t question our whole economic base, & I’m not talking about being Socialist or anything like that. What we need to look at is whether our economy is safe for the earth.”
Brown’s screenplay credits include the nutty Slumber Party Massacre (1982), directed Roger Corman, & a TV version of The Long Hot Summer, with Don Johnson & Cybill Shepherd.
During her Hollywood era, Brown had actor Marlo Thomas introduce her to comedian/writer Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Café). Brown describes it as love at first sight &The ladies were a couple for a few years. Brown:
“Fannie had a different generation’s outlook. They were already getting established in their careers when we were in our teens & struggling with the Vietnam War & Civil Rights. There was a grand canyon between us. It doesn’t mean we didn’t love each other.”
Brown has lived on a working farm in Virginia for the past 25 years. She shares her life with 11 cats, 5 house dogs & a pack of 70 fox hounds.
“I know this will bore everybody, but I do grasses experiments. I grow different combinations of grasses on different pastures. I just love doing this.”
Brown is an outspoken advocate for Animal Rescue organizations, but she’s not so cool on the gay issues anymore. About being labeled a “Gay Writer” she has stated:
“I really don’t know because I don’t think that way. I love language, I love literature, I love history, & I’m not even remotely interested in being gay.”
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