Yet here's something silly that I noticed while reading Morton Smith's Hope and History essay which - while utterly ridiculous - should close the door on Carlson's claims that he was part of the 'homosexual scene' in New York city.
In the course of describing the various problems that are confronting America in 1982 Smith makes reference to:
The rising rate of production…has created enormous demands for labor and pulled whole tides of men…from one country into another—Turks and Greeks, Yugoslavs and Italians into Germany…; Mexicans into the southern United States, southern negroes [sic] into the north, and so on [italics added].
Does anyone believe that a gay man in Manhattan frequenting gay clubs and going to dinner parties would still be using the word 'negro' in 1982? Come on, people. Morton Smith didn't have a social life. He wasn't 'cottaging' in the 1950s as the fruitful imagination of Carlson has invented. Nor was hanging around homosexual gatherings in NYC in the gay 80s. He was a complete social introvert who had no friends, acquaintances or contacts outside of academia. I have had this fact confirmed to me by over a dozen sources.
Negroes. He sounds like the white guy in that Elton John 'Honky Cat.' Morton Smith was probably the only person in Manhattan still using this word in 1982. If he was coming into contact with gay men in New York, they would have straightened him out ...
Honky Cat
words and music by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
When I look back boy I must have been green
Bopping in the country, fishing in a stream
Looking for an answer trying to find a sign
Until I saw your city lights honey I was blind
chorus
They said get back honky cat
Better get back to the woods
Well I quit those days and my redneck ways
And oh the change is gonna do me good
You better get back honky cat
Living in the city ain't where it's at
It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine
It's like trying to drink whisky from a bottle of wine
Well I read some books and I read some magazines
About those high class ladies down in New Orleans
And all the folks back home well, said I was a fool
They said oh, believe in the Lord is the golden rule
[repeat chorus]
[repeat chorus]
They said stay at home boy, you gotta tend the farm
Living in the city boy, is going to break your heart
But how can you stay, when your heart says no
How can you stop when your feet say go
You better get back honky cat
Better get back to the woods
Well I quit those days and my redneck ways
And oh the change is gonna do me good
You better get back honky cat
Living in the city ain't where it's at
It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine
It's like trying to drink whisky from a bottle of wine
Get back honky cat, get back honky cat, get back...
