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John Mitzel

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John Mitzel (1948-October 4, 2013) was a Boston writer, publisher, bookseller, and gay community and cultural activist.[1]

Early activism

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Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Boston University, he was one of the organizers of Boston's first gay pride parade in 1971.[2][3] Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective in 1971 which published Fag Rag, and he helped found the Good Gay Poets collective in 1973.[4] He wrote numerous articles for Gay Community News (Boston) and had a column in Philadelphia Gay News in the 1970s and 1980s.[1][5] As a publisher, he started Manifest Destiny Press in the 1970s and Calamus Books in 2002.[6]

Boston-Boise Committee

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In December 1977, Mitzel with other members of the Fag Rag collective organized the Boston-Boise committee largely in response to the alleged police entrapment of both Boston gay men and pedophiles.[7][8]

Mitzel wrote a book detailing the events of what he called The Boston Sex Scandal.[9] Several men were arrested in Suffolk County (Boston) for running what was at the time referred to as a 'boy sex ring' involving 'child prostitutes'. The men included an assistant headmaster and teacher from the Fessenden School, juvenile probation officer, Washington DC lobbyist, school bus driver, Boston Children's Hospital child psychologist and others were arrested as part of the ring. ([10] There were over 60 boys involved in the ring that had been operating since 1971 . The arrest included confiscation of photos of children (nude) in the Mountain Ave. apartment of Richard Peluso as well as confessions of video taping children by Dr. Donald Allen, the child psychologist.[11][12] District Attorney, Garrett Byrne, stated the men had traveled from around the country to access the boys and at least one of the boys had been used for pornographic films in Los Angeles. CA.[13]


In April 1978, through Mitzel's acquaintance with him, Gore Vidal spoke at a fund-raiser for the committee, where Vidal advocated against age of consent laws and alleged statutory rape is an unreasonable identifier. The controversy that followed the event as well as allegations of misconduct led to the resignation of Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge Bonin who attended a fundraiser for the Revere defendants.[14] The founding of GLAD and The North American Man Boy Love Association NAMBLA, a group that advocates for the rights of children to have sex with adults and the lowering of age of consent laws.[15][16][17][18]

Glad Day and Calamus

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Mitzel operated the Boston branch of Toronto's Glad Day Bookshop for some fifteen years until about 2000.[19] He then opened Calamus Books.[20][21][22]

Works and publications

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  • Myra and Gore : a new view of Myra Breckinridge and a candid interview with Gore Vidal : a book for Vidalophiles. Manifest Destiny. 1974.
  • John Horne Burns : An Appreciative Biography. Manifest Destiny. 1974. ISBN 978-0914852018.
  • A Short History of Modern Capitalism Through Its Ladies. Manifest Destiny. 1975.
  • Sports and the Macho Male. Fag Rag. 1976.
  • Mitzel's Skylines : A Memoir. Manifest Destiny. 1976.
  • Some Short Stories About Nasty People I Don't Like. Manifest Destiny. 1977. ISBN 978-0914852032.
  • The Boston Sex Scandal. Glad Day. 1980. ISBN 978-0915480159.
  • Doubly Crost. Calamus. 2009. ISBN 978-0914852193.
  • Inferno Heights. Calamus. 2009. ISBN 978-0914852186.
  • Dead Enz : A Suspense. Calamus. 2011. ISBN 978-0914852155.
  • Some Poems. Calamus. 2011. ISBN 978-0914852155.
  • Last Gleamings. Calamus. 2013. ISBN 978-0914852247.

References

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  1. ^ a b Bronski, Michael (October 16, 2013). "John Mitzel: a remembrance". Gay City News. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  2. ^ Quinn, Garrett (May 20, 2014). "Governor Deval Patrick named grand marshal of Boston Gay pride parade". MassLive. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  3. ^ "Boston Pride names governor Deval Patrick and the Sister of Perpetual Indulgence as grand marshals for 2014 parade". Boston Pride. May 16, 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  4. ^ "Writer and LGBT bookstore owner John Mitzel, 65, has died". Lambda Literary Review. October 5, 2013. Archived from the original on February 4, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  5. ^ Hoffman, Amy (2007). An army of ex-lovers : my life at Gay Community News. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1558496217.
  6. ^ Bronski, Michael (January 2014). "John Mitzel : writer, bookseller, Boston institution". The Gay and Lesbian Review. Boston.
  7. ^ Shand-Tucci, Douglass (2003). The crimson letter : Harvard, homosexuality, and the shaping of American culture. St. Martins's. ISBN 978-0312198961.
  8. ^ Cohen, Art (March 1, 2003). "The Boston/Boise affair". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  9. ^ The Boston Sex Scandal. Mitzel, Jon. Glad Day Books 1980.
  10. ^ Boston Globe. December 9, 1977. 24 Men Indicted in Boy Sex Ring.
  11. ^ Boston Globe. June 15, 1977. Photos of Nude Boys Seized in Child Rape Case.
  12. ^ Comm vs. Allen
  13. ^ Boston Globe. Dec 8, 1977. Ex Educator Doctor Charged in Child Porn Case.
  14. ^ Boston Globe. June 12, 1978. Bonin Trial May Hear Belotti Today.
  15. ^ Kaplan, Fred (1999). Gore Vidal : a biography. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385477031.
  16. ^ Vidal, Gore (2006). Point to point navigation : a memoir. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385517218.
  17. ^ Grzesiak, Rich (Feb 17, 1983). "Boston's darling brat of gay liberation". The Advocate.
  18. ^ Mitzel, Jon. The Boston Sex Scandal. Glad Day Books 1980
  19. ^ Moldenhauer, Jerald. "About". Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  20. ^ Krone, Mark (9 September 2012). "John Mitzel isn't going anywhere". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  21. ^ Gardner, Jan. "John Mitzel's Calamus bookstore newsletter a local gem". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
  22. ^ "Obituary : bookseller John Mitzel". Publishers Weekly. October 7, 2013. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.

Further reading

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