Rod McKuen was an American poet, singer-songwriter, and actor. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. McKuen also produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks and classical music. He earned two Academy Award nominations and one Pulitzer nomination for his music compositions and wrote over 1,500 songs.
But what many don’t know is that McKuen NEVER divulged his sexual preferences and was a dedicated gay rights activist.
In 1977 McKuen very publicly opposed Anita Bryant’s 1977 anti-gay Save Our Children—Campaign dubbing Bryant with the name ‘Ginny Orangeseed’—and gave benefit performances in Miami and at multiple gay discos in New York and LA to raise money for gay rights groups. His 1977 album Slide… Easy In‘s cover depicts the arm of 1970’s gay porn star Bruno, his fist filled with Crisco, hovering above a can with the label “disco” on it.. The so-called “Crisco/Disco” album featured the song “Don’t Drink the Orange Juice,” released during the national “gaycot” of Florida orange juice in response to the Anita Bryant campaign.
In fact in the 1950s, McKuen held a leadership role in the San Francisco chapter of The Mattachine Society. And in later years engaged in AIDS activism for well over a decade, participating in numerous fundraisers in support of AIDS related charities.
McKuen himself though refused to identify as gay, straight, or bisexual, but once explained his sexuality saying, “I can’t imagine choosing one sex over the other, that’s just too limiting. I can’t even honestly say I have a preference. I’ve been attracted to men and I’ve been attracted to women. I have a 16-year-old son. You put a label on.” (This caused The Advocate, to give McKuen the dubious “Something You Do in the Dark” award for refusing to identify as gay.)
For over half a century McKuen proudly advocated for gay rights while refusing sexual labels for himself
McKuen lived in Beverly Hills, California with his partner Edward, whom he called his “brother”, and four cats . He died of respiratory arrest, a result of pneumonia, at a hospital in Beverly Hills, California, on January 29, 2015.
) “Pornography has made me be honest, about myself and some of the most intimate details of my life and my fantasies. … Once I had exposed my own sexual fantasies, my most intimate desires, I feared little else about self-exposure as a writer.”
By the mid 1970’s, Preston moved to Los Angeles and became the editor of The Advocate (when it was actually a good media outlet). Then at about 1978, he moved to New York and took up fiction writing with a short pornographic story about a young man, Jaime, who becomes the sexual property of a Master named Aristotle Benson. He sent the story to Drummer magazine, which asked him to write an entire series on the exploits of Jaime and Benson. Those monthly episodes exploring Manhattan’s Leather and S&M scene were immensely popular. T-shirts reading “Looking for Mr. Benson” — some with a question mark, some without — began appearing in gay bars across the country. 
was eventually published in book form, where it set a new standard in pornographic fiction. Other titles followed, including his “Master” series: 
(1984, which became the subject of a Canadian customs court case), 
(1986), 
(1987), and 
(1989).
, in 1985. He co-wrote, with Glenn Swann, a badly-needed safe-sex guide, Safe Sex: The Ultimate Erotic Guide, and two other rather unorthodox advice books: 1984’s 
and 1994’s 
.
(1992), 
(1990, which he began compiling soon after his own AIDS diagnosis), and 
(1995, with two stories by his friend, Anne Rice). Two of his anthologies, 
(1992) and 
(1994) were honored with Lambda Literary Awards.
