"Have You Heard the One about the Lesbian Who Goes to the Supreme Court?": Holly Hughes and the Case Against Censorship

Abstract

These words conclude the introduction to Clit Notes, a 1996 collection (or "Sapphic Sampler" as the book's subtitle puts it) of the plays and performance scripts of Holly Hughes. Hughes assumed her "role in the Culture War" in June of 1990 when John Frohnmayer, then chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, rescinded four solo performance grants that had been unanimously recommended by the NEA's panel of peer reviewers. Each of the performers whose grants were rescinded--Hughes, Karen Finley, John Fleck, and Tim Miller--dealt explicitly with issues of sexuality in their work and each, save for Finley, was lesbian or gay.

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