DENNIS ALTMAN Righting My World: Essays from the past half-century. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck

Dennis Altman’s splendid essays span the gay liberation movement, sexual politics, AIDS activism, and glimpses of his personal life.

Dennis Altman was born in 1943 and has been a leading gay intellectual and activist for more than half a century. With degrees from the University of Tasmania and Cornell University, he then moved from Monash University to Sydney University, largely because Sydney ‘seemed the easiest place to be gay in Australia’. In the more easygoing university life of those days, he was given six months leave at the end of his first year and went to New York ‘without a clear project in mind’. This opportunity determined the path of his intellectual life.

Much of my life has been shaped by the stroke of luck that took me to New York at the birth of the American gay liberation movement. Suddenly a young Australian found himself in the midst of the new movement.

He decided to write about the movement and in 1971 published his first book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. It is recognised as a foundational work in the area of gay studies. Since then Altman has published many works on gay and queer studies, as well as more general works on politics and political culture, in addition to a book on stamps (a hobby of his) and a detective novel (something he always wanted to do).

Altman talks about his good fortune in not being killed off during the HIV/AIDS crisis that began in the early 1980s. It took approximately 15 years before effective treatments were found. He regrets the loss of so many lives and the indifference of many governments, especially the United States, to those afflicted, including those in poorer nations without the funds to pay for drugs.

One of the consequences of Altman’s longevity is that he is seen as a ‘grandfather figure’ who is ‘increasingly asked to talk about the emergence of gay liberation half a century ago’.

Righting My World comprises 33 essays that Altman wrote between 1969 and 2024, which range in length from four to 20 pages.

Righting My World combines themes that have inspired my writings for the past 60 years: my continuing love/hate relationship with the United States, my interest in global sexual politics, and the intersection of culture and politics.

Altman was heavily involved in the international queer movement and points to the pluralism of gay life in different countries and over time. He contrasts how, in some Western societies, harsh laws condemning homosexuality have been relaxed or abolished while general societal attitudes against homosexuality still prevail; other societies with strong religious traditions outlaw homosexual acts but turn a blind eye to what happens in the privacy of one’s bedroom.

Altman also highlights the fluidity of sexual behaviour; how it varies between individuals and changes over time. He is particularly aware of the difficulties people experience in coming out. Those who live in societies where family, community affiliations and religious beliefs are important find it difficult to come out in comparison to those in societies where these factors are less important. Much of this discussion seeks to broaden accounts of gay experience beyond a US-centric model.

The gay liberation movement emerged amid the radicalism of the late 1960s and early 1970s that included the women’s movement, the civil rights movement in the US, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Many in the gay movement hoped that they would be part of a vanguard that would be ‘part of a broader movement re-imagining society’. This has not happened. Many gay rights leaders have been co-opted by the state to help manage gay issues such as HIV/AIDS. More significantly, capitalism has co-opted gayness as a market to be exploited. Altman points to how notions of the ‘self’, as distinct from the collective or society, go hand in hand with neoliberalism, which has been with us since the 1980s.

Altman says that ‘For three decades AIDS was the dominant passion of my life, reflected in both community and academic work.’ He particularly praises the public health policies of the Hawke Labor government in the 1980s, leading to campaigns to eradicate HIV/AIDS. Altman was involved with committees established with the support of both sides of politics to confront the problem.

The son of Jewish immigrants who escaped Europe before World War II, Altman was brought up in a secular household. His Jewishness has only been of relevance to him in relation to Israel and its treatment of Palestinians and occupation of Gaza: ‘For many Jews there is a real trauma in coming to terms with the reality that Israel is a brutal occupying power.’

There are also a number of what might be called more literary essays. These range from an appreciation of the whodunits of Agatha Christie and the writings of Patrick White, Sumner Locke Elliot, Christopher Isherwood, James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and others; an examination of the link between musicals and politics; the myth of Australian mateship, and a hilarious spoof on ‘self-important persons’ at an international conference in the spirit of David Lodge’s wonderful Trading Places (1975) and Small World (1984), which were de rigueur reading for academics of that era.

He also has essays on his appreciation of the convivial work environment at La Trobe University following his return to Australia in 1985; his brief experience of therapy during his days in New York (he quickly discovered it wasn’t for him); the same sex marriage plebiscite; life under COVID; the death of his long-term partner; and the celebration of his eightieth birthday, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Usually in a book of essays there are some that don’t work and you can’t work out why they were ever included. This is not the case with this splendid volume. All of the essays are interesting and raise important issues across a wide spectrum. The volume as a whole makes two broader contributions. First, with Dennis Altman being ‘a Johnny on the spot’ at the beginning of gay liberation, Righting My World provides a neat overview of the evolution of the gay liberation movement. Secondly, and more importantly to my mind, it provides insights into and helps us better understand how Australia has changed over the last half century. It also provides a succinct summary of Dennis Altman’s broader contribution to Australian intellectual life.

Dennis Altman Righting My World: Essays from the past half-century Monash University Publishing 2025 PB 352pp $39.99

Braham Dabscheck is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne who writes on industrial relations, sport and other things.

You can buy Righting My World from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.

You can also check if it is available from Newtown Library.

Tags: activism, AIDS, Australian politics, Australian writers, Dennis | Altman, essays, gay liberation, Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, personal essays, sexual politics