Forty Years of Love Erased

Your Head Trucker is not a big fan of drag shows; a little bit is fun, if it's well done, but it's not high on my interest list. So I never heard of British drag star Danny La Rue until I read a mention of his death last week.

The contrast between newspaper obits there and here is very striking, though; and says an awful lot about how far we still have to go in this country to win equal respect for our relationships:

But while the British papers all note that the performer was pre-deceased by Jack Hanson, his companion of 40 years — the Telegraph includes a heart-rending description of the devoutly Catholic, avowedly monogamous La Rue being “hysterical with grief” after Hanson’s death — the New York Times and the Associated Press don’t mention Hanson at all. The result lets readers imagine that La Rue led a lonely life. Given the ongoing politics of same-sex marriage, the omission of the news that an archetypal gay performer lived a life of domestic stability is especially disappointing. What a drag.

(From Obit Magazine via Andrew Sullivan)