OTD: Gay Author Augusten Burroughs

 

Bestselling author Augusten Burroughs was born on this day in 1965. As his website states:

Augusten Burroughs is one of the most widely-read and critically-acclaimed memoirists in the world. His works are published in more than 30 countries and have sold over 10 million copies, making him one of the best-selling LGBTQ+ authors of all time.

"The #1 bestselling author has written eight memoirs, one novel, a self-help book and a children's picture book. His memoir Running with Scissors was a publishing phenomenon, spending more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and exploding the memoir genre wide open. Augusten's follow-up memoir, Dry, details the story of his recovery from alcoholism and remains -- over 20 years after its publication -- a staple literature in the recovery community.

 

Bruce Rind writes about him:

 

Shortly after the Catholic Church sex scandal involving priests sexually involved with boys began, Burroughs retold his own involvement with priests to add some nuance to the invariant black-and-white presentations in the media. Burroughs noted that

 

"Catholic priests have given me some of the best blow jobs of my life."

 

The first was when he was 14 years old. Though his mother was not Catholic, nor even particularly religious, she frequented a Catholic church on Sundays for the symbolism, and young Augusten occasionally accompanied her. He would spend his time walking around the offices rather than attending the services. Often on his explorations he would pass by a priest, on whom he had a crush “because he was young and almost hunky.”

 

Eventually in the priest he could discern a hunger to match his own. At one point, Augusten passed the priest in the hallway and then walked into the men's room for the sole purpose of peeing. Then the priest walked in – Augusten thought the priest entered to scold him about some bad conduct. Instead the priest walked up to the urinal next to him and began staring at Augusten's penis in an absorbed, transfixed manner. For Burroughs, the unfolding situation was sudden and unexpected, but not unwanted.

 

As Burroughs commented, he himself felt horny, so he dropped his pants and stepped away from the urinal, facing the man – and getting what turned out to be his “first excellent blow job from a Catholic priest.”

 

The priest then began sobbing – he was fearful that his transgression would become known. Augusten, though, assured him he would never tell, and he never did tell anyone. He commented that he felt terrible – not for the sex, but for the priest's reaction. But for the sex itself, Burroughs provided the following analogy to convey his feelings:

 

“He was a hunky young guy in the wrong career who got my rocks off. For a straight guy, it would be like being 14, and having one of the centerfolds from Playboy step out of the magazine and hand you a bottle of mineral oil.”

 

Rind adds that Burroughs did realize that not all sexual encounters with Catholic priests have been positive and that he had homoerotic desires when his own encounter took place.

 

Source: Article by Bruce Rind "Blinded by Politics and Morality -- A Reply to McAnulty and Wright" in Censoring Sex Research, republished in Positive Memories by T. Rivas.