Dinner, film fest award honor gay writer Maupin
At age 73 and long past the age of bashfulness, Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin regaled a crowd at South on Main on Monday night, mincing no words while talking about diversity, being gay and liberal among his Trump-supporting family members and the legacy of the book series that made him famous.
He was honored during a Southern-style dinner sponsored by South on Main, Oxford American and Argenta Wealth Management as part of the Kaleidoscope LGBT Film Festival. Maupin was lauded with the festival’s inaugural Kaleidoscope Career Achievement in Literature Award.
He was introduced by Oxford American Executive Director Ryan Harris and interviewed onstage by assistant editor Sara A. Lewis. Harris, noting the 25th anniversary of the magazine and the nonprofit arts organization that supports it, declared that Oxford American was “committed to diversity way before it was a corporate buzzword that was hip and cool.”
Before dinner, certain ticketholders joined Maupin for a private meet-and-greet and book-signing at the magazine’s offices nearby. At South on Main, guests were treated to the evening’s signature drink, the Tale of the South — a concoction of vodka, lime, mint and blackberry.
Maupin proclaims himself “one of the most famous fags in the world,” and “a fierce foe of the closet,” meaning he’s not one to hide his sexuality.
“I’ve always used my art to explain myself,” he said. He was among the first to talk — and write — openly about the early ’80s AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. While losing friends to the disease “the best coping mechanism for me was humor,” thus the LGBT-theme Tales was born.
His memoir, Logical Family, is set for release Oct. 3. In addition, Maupin said Netflix is reprising Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City with actresses Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis, who also starred in the Showtime and PBS adaptations of the series in the 1990s.