Langston Hughes On The DL By Andrew Donnelly: An Analysis

Beginning in the 1980s, there has been a debate among many literary scholars and biographers over the speculation of whether Langston Hughes was gay. Although there is no hardcore evidence to verify this, there is a possibility he may have been “closeted.” Hughes lived during a time when homosexuality was being embraced among intellectuals whom permitted him to enjoy its culture even if he chose to do so in secret.

Aside from one brief heterosexual relationship, Hughes remained single and never married, refusing to designate a sexual identity. In his article, “Langston Hughes on the DL,” Andrew Donnelly argues, “What’s truly queer in Hughes’s writing is his and his persona’s refusal to identify within a sexual category” (32). Donnelly goes

on to argue, “Hughes had too much interest in sexuality to commit himself, either in his life or his work to one single category or label, identification or orientation, bearing or practice” (32). Arnold Rampersad, one of the many biographers of Hughes, expressed his opinion on the matter in the biography he wrote on Hughes on the specifics, certainty, and situation by which to elucidate Hughes’s personal life. Rampersad writes “No one could recall any concrete evidence for his reputation as a (homosexual). No one could offer the name of a man who had been involved with
Hughes, or recall an incident, even at second hand, involving Langston’s presumed homosexuality” (398). According to Marlon Rachquel Moore of “Black Church, Black Patriarchy, and the ‘Brilliant Queer’: Competing Masculinities in Langston Hughes’s Blessed Assurance,” he argues “his personal life remained shrouded in mystery, presumably to maintain his respectable position as folk laureate of black America” (496).
Hughes chose to present his past life as strictly facts and not with an inventive past. In his autobiography entitled “The Big Sea,” Langston Hughes does not confess or give any real evidence of his past. According to John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar’s book entitled “Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes,” “the results are unanswered questions, speculation about the unaddressed spaces in his life, or simply ‘silences’” (57). With the use of new theories and crucial forms, Hughes’s literary critics have put some meaning to the silences of Hughes by attempting to justify him for political reasons. With the lack of evidence and eyewitnesses, Arnold Rampersad points out rifts in awareness in Hughes’s sexual aspirations to be an absent of impulse. In the article “Closing Time: Langston Hughes and the Poetics of Harlem Nightlife,” Shane Vogel writes “without verifiable proof of homosexuality [Arnold Rampersad] advanced the thesis that Hughes was basically asexual, his sexual desire ‘not so much sublimated as vaporized’” (398). Rampersad’s critics criticized him for denying Hughes’s expected homosexuality and coming to an understanding of Hughes’s flaw.
Hughes being labeled as “closeted,” compelled many literary scholars into trying to bring his queerness to light and make him into a gay symbol. Tidwell and Ragar argue “assigning a gay identity to Hughes, in effect, imposes on him a way of life he did not openly confess, acknowledge, or commit to” (65). Unlike a few of his close friends that had no quarrels identifying as homosexual in the public eye, Hughes had too much at stake to do so. Among many black academics, homosexuality was an acceptable thing, but unacceptable to his normal supporters. Hughes’s supporters were majority black people and the majority of black people shared Christian beliefs and Christian beliefs condemned homosexuality. Hughes could not risk offending his supporters because they were his inspiration, which had a huge impact on the way he saw his literary work. He needed to preserve the respect he earned from his contributors, and establishments that helped him financially.
According to Tidwell and Ragar, “an artist like Hughes, who customarily closed himself off from scrutiny by even his close friends, certainly felt the need to exercise caution in publicly announcing affairs related to sexual habits, especially when his personal predilection might clash with public mores and beliefs” (64).

This particular circumstance forbade him the option to fully reveal his sexual orientation. Because he could not publicly reveal his true desires, literary scholars used the metaphor “closet” to describe his circumstance, or simply labeled him as “down low,” a term that is not acknowledged in the conversation of literary criticism but used in black culture by ordinary people. Tidewell and Ragar continue to argue that, “ the metaphor of the closet is appropriate for describing Hughes’s self-constructed silences. It is an image that supersedes questions of ‘was he or wasn’t he’ and allows a telling discussion of what it meant for Hughes to circle the wagon around his inner self for protection” (63). The metaphor “closet” seems to attract its readers. Donnelly argues that “this is what bell hooks calls Hughes’s ‘complex closeted eroticism’- not that we can get at the erotic appeal of his poetry by dismantling his closet, but that the structure of the closet itself functions as the erotic appeal” (30). In other words, he was considered a much more important symbol in connecting him to affiliations associated with queerness because some of his literary work is geared toward homosexuality at the same time refusing to fully identify as homosexual. Only recently Hughes’s less known literary works have implied some possibility of homosexual impulses. This includes his short stories “Blessed Assurance,” about a father, whom is tormented that his son has turned homosexual, and “Seven People Dancing,” as well as the poem “Café 3AM.” Without a doubt many scholars look to “Blessed Assurance” for proof arguing Hughes’s presumed homosexuality. Moore argues

“Blessed Assurance serves as evidence that he considered black queer manhood an important representation in his dedication to depicting myriad black people and experiences” (493). Homosexuality has always been a taboo and frowned upon in the black community. In the book “Langston Hughes: Short Stories,” this is even emphasized at the very beginning of his short story “Blessed Assurance,” with the word UNFORTUNATELY in all caps followed by “it seemed his son was turning out to be a queer” (231). John, the father of the story, is trying to make sense of his son’s (Delmar) queerness. The story goes on to say “John was more disturbed about his son’s transition than if they had been white. Negroes had enough crosses to bear” (231). Being colored was difficult enough but being gay as well exacerbated the difficulties of life of a black man. Hughes obviously thought that recognizing homosexuality within black society was just as important as anything else blacks identified with.
In conclusion, though the Harlem Renaissance was a time period where many black artists unashamedly expressed their sexual identities through their literary works, there will always be a mystery surrounding the inner life of Langston Hughes regarding his sexuality. There are indeed minute indicators of his intimate life in several of his lesser-known literary works. Hughes knew exactly what he was doing by taking care to remain ambiguous about his sexual preferences and did little to put to rest people’s curiosities. According to Donnelly, “some suggests had he been only a little braver, or more honest, or more progressive, or even lived a bit later, he would have out himself” (30). This is a good possibility but unfortunately may never be confirmed. Hughes remained silent for a reason and those who respect his literary work should respect his private life as well. Instead of trying to dig up private information that he obviously did not want disclosed; his many supporters should be appreciative of his many accomplishments.