Australian gay and lesbian writing Book

Lovely, actually, at the end. What a brave man he was. In some ways, I suppose, he might be seen as superficial, but he was not defeated by the bigotry of Louis B. Mayer. Haines stood up to Mayer when the studio head told him to dump his lover, Jimmie Shields, if Haines expected to stay a star. Haines told Mayer to go to hell, left movies, and became one of the great interior decorators of the 20th century. Perhaps it isn't Rosa Parks, but this man always insisted on the right to sit wherever he damned pleased and with whomever he damned pleased. So much of their relationship is still a mystery, but I wept when I read how Shields just couldn't go on without Haines. Jimmie killed himself a couple of months after his mate died. The loneliness was just too much. No mention of their 40 years together was mentioned in Haines's obituary and Jimmie didn't even have one. But their urns stand together at Woodlawn Mausoleum in Santa Monica, the way it should be.