Ep81. Dying to be Normal, Brett Krutzsch

I sat down with Brett Krutzsch to talk about his book Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics. The book highlights how, through the process of commemoration, secular gay activists deployed Protestant Christian ideals to present gays as similar to upstanding heterosexuals and, therefore, as deserving of equal rights. Our conversation centres on the treatment of Harvey Milk, Matthew Shepard, and Tyler Clementi who, in the wake of their deaths, had aspects of their life, politics, and personality erased in order that they might make more appropriate martyrs in the eyes of white Protestant America. Through this we see the way Christian language of sacrifice and redemption, and the symbol of crucifixion still hold sway in American society and thus limit the ways (and the who) of seeking equality and dignity. As Krutzsch writes, "Ultimately, this is a story of exclusion, built on a politics of inclusion, shaped and foreclosed by a white Protestant vision of “normal” American citizens."

Brett Krutzsch is a scholar of religion at New York University’s Center for Religion and Media where he serves as Editor of the Revealer, a monthly online magazine about religion and society. He is an expert on religion and LGBTQ history and is the author of Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics from Oxford University Press, a 2020 Lambda Literary Award finalist for best LGBTQ nonfiction book of the year.

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