The Clearest Proof that Morton Smith Was Not Gay

I know that many people who believe that Morton Smith 'must have been gay' because he never got married. Yet a critical part of Stephen Carlson's theory is that Smith was fully involved in the gay lifestyle as early as the 1950s. There is of course no evidence for any of this nonsense, but how do you disprove someone is a homosexual? Even that person's vehement denials that they only like girls won't prove anything to anyone.

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...