This book, ironically enough, is profoundly anti-homosexual. Writing from an evangelical
Christian perspective, the author, Thomas E. Schmidt, finds homosexual practice totally
unacceptable. There’s no need to read Straight and Narrow? Compassion & Clarity in the
Homosexuality Debate unless you’re researching evangelical Christian homophobia. Even
so, I’m glad the book is in the Library—four copies are now on the shelves—and glad it
was assigned to me for Reversing Vandalism. The pieces of the slashed book sent [to] me
were complete with one exception—the fragment of the cover containing the face. This
made me curious. When I found the cover I was delighted. What a handsome, modest,
wonderfully androgynous youth. How perfect for a book about homosexuality! And it gets
better. This detail of a statue in the Vatican (!) shows the face of Doriphoros. The statue of
Doriphoros was one of the most admired sculptures in the Greek and Roman world. The
original by Polyclitus did not survive but more than thirty copies have been found.
Doriphoros was hailed as “a perfect embodiment of the masculine ideal of a fearless
warrior-citizen”— an excellent candidate, from a homosexual perspective, for cover boy.
I salute Doriphoros and I’m delighted to bring you his resurrection.
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