By Allen Young / The Rag Blog / February 20, 2025
As I sat down to write a review of Brian McNaught’s memoir — knowing I
would praise and recommend the book — I wondered what some of my friends
might think. An imaginary friend might declare, “Allen calls himself a ‘hardcore
atheist,’ so why is he lauding this book by a rather religious Christian man who
calls upon the Holy Spirit and who declares that Jesus is his friend?”
I can and will answer that question, but first, there’s a saying, “Timing is
everything.” Enter into the popular American consciousness the Rev. Mariann
Edgar Budde. She is the Episcopalian bishop who became nationally known and
much admired in progressive circles for her comments at the religious portion of
the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president.
Yes, I am a hard-core atheist, also proud of and comfortable with my Jewish
heritage. But as I got older, after years as a devoted left-leaning anti-war and gay
liberation activist, I started warning myself and others against dogmatism and
zealotry. So while I am indeed an atheist, I’m not dogmatic about it. I can
recognize, within various religions, a variety of beliefs including devotion to
kindness, generosity, sharing, love of nature, progress and more.
Thus, McNaught and Budde are people whom I can proudly admire, even if
I don’t adhere to their religious beliefs.
McNaught’s memoir, at 200 pages, is exactly as the subtitle hints, a narrative
about his work in the gay liberation movement. (Like me, Brian is not keen on the
widespread use of the acronym LGBTQ+, so I’m avoiding it now.) My 2018
autobiography, Left, Gay & Green: A Writer’s Life, takes 500 pages for me to
tell about my life as an activist. My role differed from Brian’s in that I was
primarily an activist (and author) while he was an educator (and author, too).
First, by coming out within Roman Catholic circles (joining the Detroit
chapter of Dignity), and later, by speaking to college students and workplace
managers, Brian worked tirelessly for social change. He spoke to thousands of
people about homosexuality, helping them overcome generations of ignorance and
prejudice (and silence) about what Oscar Wilde once called “the love that dare not
speak its name.”
While I was primarily an activist, Brian has been primarily an educator. He
often worked alongside other people, most of them heterosexual, in the broad-
ranging field of sex education. He met many of these at an Annual Workshop on
Human Sexuality known as Thornfield, held in New York State for many years.
The book’s title stems from a comment made by a nun who met Brian
when he was a small child, calling him “a prince of a boy.” I found the title amusing, imagining that the nun’s positive evaluation of little Brian contrasted on occasion with people who heard adult Brian’s talks later in his life — those few who simply (I presume) called him a “faggot.” Most people, it’s clear, loved his talks (plus books and videos) as he received lots of praise and a steady stream of invitations.
He traveled around the world as a professional homosexual, often being
paid well as he delivered his valuable message with humor and wisdom. The
book includes information about the support he received from his nuclear family,
and the valuable partnership he has with his husband of almost 50 years, Ray
Struble.
After completing college, Brian got a job for a Catholic newspaper in
Detroit, but after coming out as gay, he was fired. That’s how his true adventures
began. From a religious perspective, that meant departing from the Rome-based
church while continuing to feel connected to concepts such as the Holy Spirit and
continuing to admire many nuns and priests who were his discreet or public allies
for change. He joined the same gay liberation movement that I had joined just a
few months after the historic Stonewall Uprising. And he helped the movement
gain influence in circles most gay radicals never even approached (such as the
world of corporate management).
This summary of Brian’s life’s work appears on page 143 of the book:
Like me, the reader need not be a Christian or even believe in a Holy Spirit to
admire Brian McNaught and celebrate his accomplishments.
That mantra works for me, and will work for most readers of this memoir.
“My mantra from the beginning of my unintended career of being an
educator on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender issues, initially in the
Catholic Church, then on college campuses, then in the City of Boston’s mayor’s
office, and finally in the workplace, is that ignorance, by which I mean lack of
familiarity, is the parent of fear, and fear is the parent of hatred. If people are
given the opportunity to safely listen to new information, shared not with anger
but with loving kindness, you can turn a person’s life around, and that of their
family members and friends.”
There is a lot to see on Brian’s website, which is at https://www.brian-mcnaught.com/.
[Allen Young has lived in rural North Central Massachusetts since 1973 and is an active member of several local environmental organizations. Young worked for Liberation News Service in Washington, D.C., and New York City, from 1967 to 1970. He has been an activist-writer in the New Left and gay liberation movements, including numerous items published at The Rag Blog. He is author or editor of 15 books, including his 2018 autobiography, Left, Gay & Green; A Writer’s Life — and a review of this book can be found in the Rag Blog archives.]
