Synopsis:
Determined to do what he could to stop the rising tide of bigotry perpetuated by the right wing and frustrated by not being able to acknowledge his sexual preference, Marvin Liebman - a major strategist and fund-raiser for the conservative movement - decided in 1990 to reveal his homosexuality.
With the demise of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union - the "enemy" that has long held the conservative movement together - Liebman fears that the American Right has begun a frenzied search for a new villain. He warns that gays and lesbians may be the next targets of hate, just as blacks, Jews, and foreigners have been victimized in the past.
Writing with exceptional charm, candor, and insight, Liebman opens up both the "back rooms" of American politics and his personal life. He has been a political insider who has worked closely with William F. Buckley, Jr., and his National Review, and with conservative politicians from Barry Goldwater to Ronald Reagan; an activist who struggled for the radical Irgun to free Palestine; a religious convert from Judaism to Catholicism; a producer of theater and films in London; and now, after many years of hiding, an outspoken gay man.
Whether creating influential organizations like Young Americans for Freedom and the Committee of One Million, staging political rallies and Presidential conventions, or raising and quietly channeling funds to friendly groups worldwide, the author has been instrumental in shaping the conservative movement.
Coming Out Conservative is more than one person's account of being gay and being conservative; it is about individual freedom and the future of American politics.
Reviews:
In this uneven autobiography, leading conservative activist Liebman chronicles the closeted homosexual life that he lived while pursuing his very public career. In 1990, after 40 years at the forefront of anti-communist politics and involvement in theater production, Liebman announced that he is homosexual in the National Review and the gay newsmagazine the Advocate . Though aware of his sexual orientation at an early age, he avoided publicly declaring it; after a demoralizing dishonorable discharge from the Army and a brief (annulled) marriage, he continued to hide his homosexuality from even his closest friends. Consequently, his book is more about his politics--and such associates as William F. Buckley, Clare Booth Luce and Ronald Reagan--than about his coming out. Asserting his belief in "the importance of the individual over any state, political party or religious hierarchy," Liebman tells of founding, in the mid-1950s, the Committee of One Million, whose mission was to exclude Communist China from the United Nations, and, later, the Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
An eventful, stylish, sometimes painful memoir by right-wing agitator Liebman. Liebman grew up in Brooklyn as a youthful Communist. But when his hero, onetime Communist Party (USA) chairman Earl Browder, was purged, he turned to the right; and when news of Soviet labor camps broke, Liebman started using techniques he'd learned from the left to mobilize Republicans. He founded Young Americans for Freedom, and the Committee of One Million, which kept Communist China out of the UN for almost 20 years. Liebman is gay, and his story is in large part about his struggle to accept his sexual orientation. In 1990, he ``came out'' in the pages of his friend William F. Buckley's National Review. Here, Liebman expresses deep concern that, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, conservatives are increasingly turning to ``hate politics''--including gay-bashing-- to polarize voters. He argues that, instead, it's the idea of the primacy of the individual over the state that should draw people, including gays, to conservatism. Liebman has lived an eventful life. He's been interned in a British camp for Jewish refugees to Palestine; spent his birthday singing Andrews Sisters songs atop a bombed-out Naples orphanage; and taken time off from politics to become a theatrical producer in London. He's also hobnobbed with the celebrated: ``Bill'' Buckley and his wife Pat appear regularly here, while Ronald Reagan confides his fear that dancers are ``funny.'' And around 1950, we learn, Liebman took a young actress named Nancy Davis--the future First Lady--out to Barney's Beanery in Hollywood (``She was rather square and not very interested in politics''). Andr‚ Gide and Sir James Goldsmith make cameo appearances, and, finally, there's Clare Booth Luce, who, Liebman alleges, said she once ``tried it'' with another woman but found it ``rather messy.'' An absorbing, occasionally awkward book given resonance by the author's struggle with--and final acceptance of--his homosexuality. (Sixteen pages of photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Liebman, a noted political strategist and fund-raiser for the Republican Party, is recognized as the founder of the modern conservative movement in the United States. Here, he offers fascinating insights into contemporary conservative politics. This autobiography resulted from his 1990 decision to distance the conservative political movement from the "radical right." His first step was to write a "coming out" letter to both the conservative journal National Review and the gay news magazine The Advocate . Liebman's story provides a riveting account of what it is like to be gay and conservative, an often unacceptable combination within the gay rights movement in the United States. Not since Robert Bauman's The Gentlemen from Maryland ( LJ 8/86) has the issue of gay conservatives been examined in such a forthright manner. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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