G. Luther Whitington was an arts and entertainment reporter for UPI's L.A. bureau. He also served as a magazine editor at The Advocate. He died on November 10, 1992, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 35 years old.

He died of complications from AIDS, his family said.

Mr. Whitington, who was graduated from Georgetown University in 1979, was the senior features editor at The Advocate, a national gay magazine, and had been a contributing editor of Art & Auction magazine. Earlier, he worked as a Moscow correspondent for United Press International.

"While Luther's obituary tells just brief surface facts about him, I learned more from this obituary than I have from my family. I do not remember going to his funeral. He was a specatular journalist and my mom tells me many attended his funeral in Los Angeles. I found two of his pieces on the internet, one featured in the "100 Years of Journalism Excellence" for United Press International from 1907-2007. He wrote an article as a journalist in Russia entitled "Chernobyl Reactor Still Burning." He reported in a dangerous area on the radiation effects of Chernobly, and wrote that the radiation should not reach the U.S. He also quoted a Kiev woman on the disaster. The article provides an insight into hig writing styles: very reportive, to the point, and informational.

I also found a story in "The Sun Sentinel" entitled More Clubs Catering to Cut-ups. The story discusses comedy clubs and the struggle of the comedian. This article, which he collaboratively wrote with two other journalist, shows me his interest in improv comedy and the "boom in the funny business, attribuable to Baby Boomers" that was apparently happening in 1987, when the article was written. Recently, I have attended several comedy shows at Rooster T. Feather's on El Camino.


AIDS Quilt

I have heard people call SCU, "The Georgetown of the West Coast," whether our school is as highly qualified as Georgetown is debatable, but I do not find it a coincidence that Luther went to my sister school. I believe we would have had a lot in common as I reflect on his journalistic accomplishments, and possibly shared a few comedy shows together if he were alive today. Asking my mom more about his personality and what he liked to do, I learned a lot about the man he was beyond his occupation and lifestyle. He was caring, funny, insightful, and curious about the world. My grandmother currently has in her possession the diaries he wrote since he was in highschool, however insists no one read or possess them." --Tribute to Luther by his nephew, SCUProfessor Marc Bousquet

Source: http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/mwhitington/whowasluther.html

Further Readings:

Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture (Series Q) by Corey K. Creekmur and Alexander Doty
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Duke University Press Books (April 28, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0822315416
ISBN-13: 978-0822315414
Amazon: Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian and Queer Essays on Popular Culture

Out in Culture charts some of the ways in which lesbians, gays, and queers have understood and negotiated the pleasures and affirmations, as well as the disappointments, of mass culture. The essays collected here, combining critical and theoretical works from a cross-section of academics, journalists, and artists, demonstrate a rich variety of gay and lesbian approaches to film, television, popular music, and fashion. This wide-ranging anthology is the first to juxtapose pioneering work in gay and lesbian media criticism with recent essays in contemporary queer cultural studies.
Uniquely accessible, Out in Culture presents such popular writers as B. Ruby Rich, Essex Hemphill, and Michael Musto as well as influential critics such as Richard Dyer, Chris Straayer, and Julia Lesage, on topics ranging from the queer careers of Agnes Moorehead and Pee Wee Herman to the cultural politics of gay drag, lesbian style, the visualization of AIDS, and the black snap! queen experience. Of particular interest are two "dossiers," the first linking essays on the queer content of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, and the second on the production and reception of popular music within gay and lesbian communities. The volume concludes with an extensive bibliography—the most comprehensive currently available—of sources in gay, lesbian, and queer media criticism.
Out in Culture explores the distinctive and original ways in which gays, lesbians, and queers have experienced, appropriated, and resisted the images and artifacts of popular culture. This eclectic anthology will be of interest to a broad audience of general readers and scholars interested in gay and lesbian issues; students of film, media, gender, and cultural studies; and those interested in the emerging field of queer theory.

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