"No Important Homo Composers"

I ran across the following which I thought might be great for the blog, considering our reading of Michael Sherry's book. It's from the May 1967 issue of the physique magazine Grecian Guild Pictorial, from its "Newsfront" column under the headline above:

"In the history of music, there's not one important woman composer, let alone a homosexual composer. Music, of all the arts, demands total virility." So says Allan Jay Lerner, America's leading lyricist, musical comedy writer and lyricist of "Brigadoon," "Gigi," "My Fair Lady," "Camelot," and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." In an interview for McCall's magazine with Richard Heffner, Lerner went on to say that "the world of serious music, unfortunately, is dominated by homosexuals. Why? I just don't know. It isn't just in America...I don't know what's happened, but something's gone wrong somewhere. It may have nothing to do with anything psychological. It may have to do with fallout, for all I know. There's no question that in the serious theater there is today a tremendous domination by homosexuals, which accounts for this one-sided view of life. In the musical theater, it isn't true." One might question whether Mr. Lerner does not have much to learn himself about music history. What about Peter Tchaikovsky? Or Frederick Chopin, or the closet-queen type composer, such as the most thunderous of the three B's? Could there not have been many more great "lady" composers than Mr. Lerner realizes?

[posted for Philip]