{"id":944,"date":"2022-10-30T14:15:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T18:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=944"},"modified":"2022-10-30T14:15:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T18:15:16","slug":"roy-and-joes-coming-to-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2022\/10\/30\/roy-and-joes-coming-to-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy and Joe’s Coming to Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Angels in America <\/span><\/i>Tony Kushner argues that when<\/span> s<\/span>ituations arise in which\u00a0people, who are not already \u2018out\u2019 as members of the LGBTQ+ community,\u00a0must label their sexuality (I.e.,\u00a0Aids) they will struggle with this (47). <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Roy hears that he has AIDS he is unable to accept it because he does not identify with\u00a0one of the four H\u2019s (hemophiliac, Haitian, heroin user, homosexuals).\u00a0Even though Roy regularly has sex with men, he shouts at\u00a0his doctor\u00a0\u201cRoy Cohn is not a homosexual. Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man, Henry who fucks around with guys.\u201d He refers to himself in the third person because his self-perception is based on how others view him in society (straight).\u00a0He believes that \u201chomosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout\u201d (46). Roy says this to Henry to \u2018prove\u2019 he is not homosexual for he is\u00a0symbol for hard work and masculinity in this story\u2014he is the one who knows President Reagan after all. Roy\u00a0believes that being homosexual will prevent him from gaining trust and respect from other successful people which is why he is so sensitive to this information and rather believes he has liver cancer. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another example that supports my claim shows up when Harper asks Joe if he is homosexual. Joe does not outright deny her\u00a0accusation and refers to his gayness as a \u2018thing that he\u2019s fought very hard to kill\u2019 (40).\u00a0He then says, \u201call I will say is that I am a very good man who has worked very hard to become good and you want to destroy that\u201d (41).\u00a0 He believes that accepting his identity will prevent him from being a\u00a0\u2018good\u2019 Mormon in the same aspect that Roy believes being homosexual will prevent him from being good at his job.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roy and Joe feel like their queer identities contradict other facets of their identities which are more outwardly appearing, like being a successful lawyer and a kind husband and Mormon. Both characters are essentially forced to come out, which explains such emotional reactions from each of them. They don\u2019t feel safe coming out because people have already formed ideas of who they are in their heads. Even though Roy is not married to a woman, like Joe is people have already deemed him straight too because he is successful even though the two characteristics are clearly unrelated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Angels in America Tony Kushner argues that when situations arise in which\u00a0people, who are not already \u2018out\u2019 as members of the LGBTQ+ community,\u00a0must label their sexuality (I.e.,\u00a0Aids) they will struggle with this (47). \u00a0 When Roy hears that he has AIDS he is unable to accept it because he does not identify with\u00a0one of … Continue reading Roy and Joe’s Coming to Terms<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}