Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. – Emily Dickinson
Poet Emily Dickinson’s words resonate with award-winning lesbian writer Donna Minkowitz, whose new memoir (Growing Up Golem: How I Survived My Mother, Brooklyn, and Some Really Bad Dates) tells her story as if she were her mother’s “own personal golem.”
Golems, Minkowitz says, are artificial people made of clay. With no will of their own, they exist only to follow commands.
Minkowitz sees parallels to the experiences of LGBT people. As Minkowitz notes, LGBT people often (especially during youth) attempt to be something they’re not in an effort to please the wider culture and, in many cases, family.
At an appearance at the Antioch University Los Angeles Library, 400 Corporate Point at Slauson, on Tuesday, Minkowitz will discuss her book, the idea of the “false self,” and Jungian ideas about transforming the things that are holding you back. The event, which starts with a light dinner at 6:30 p.m., will feature a discussion between Minkowitz and Dr. Douglas Sadownick, director of Antioch’s LGBT specialty in clinical psychology. The event is open to the public, but RSVPs (to LGBTSpecialization@antioch.edu) are required.
For Minkowitz, the specter of the golem is a device that allows the reader some distance from material that can be difficult to read about. She also relates to the idea that, for many people, there’s a dichotomy between true self and public persona. In the ’80s and ’90s (“some very pivotal days for gay and lesbian activism”), Minkowitz’s own Village Voice writings about LGBT politics garnered her a reputation has “fierce and very activist.”
“Inwardly, I didn’t feel fierce at all,” Minkowtz said. Golem has to do with the writer figuring out how to deal with people on a personal level, which she said can be harder than picketing political opponents.
Minkowitz is known for reporting on the violent murder of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man; it was reportedly her account that led to the story being told in Boys Don’t Cry.
She also garnered press for going undercover (disguised as a male teen) to check out a rally of the religious right men’s group Promise Keepers. She went in feeing concerned and frightened, she said, then discovered they “actually weren’t all bad.” As a butch lesbian, Minkowitz said she could relate to some of the challenges the men talked about—such as pressure to be strong and having difficulty sharing emotion.
Her first memoir, Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me about Sex, God and Fury, received a Lambda Literary Award. Golem is a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award.
