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Well, the truth is out. Not that most careful readers didn't know it anyway because the facts were all there and unmistakable for years. JT LeRoy-- the abused gay teenager and author of the cult novel Sarah (2000), the collection of stories The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2001) and Harold's End (2004) an illustrated novella-- doesn't exist. "He"-- as recent articles in New York magazine and the New York Times have disclosed-- is actually Savanna Knoop, who has been impersonating the reclusive 20-year-old gay youth for the past five years, as part of an ongoing fraud perpetuated on editors, readers, a host of queer writers such as Dennis Cooper and Mary Gaitskill, and showbiz celebrities such as Courtney Love, Madonna, and Carrie Fisher.

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The back story here is that "JT LeRoy" first surfaced as an underground media personality in the late 1990s. He was allegedly a near-psychotic, abused, homeless, possibly transgendered gay teenage street kid/hustler whose mother was a truck stop prostitute, and whose life of abuse, drugs, rape, and AIDS was a virtual catalogue of gay teen oppression. Indeed "LeRoy" became the poster-child for the sufferings of gay youth. "LeRoy" contacted openly gay writers such as Cooper looking for support and contacts. "LeRoy's" novel Sarah-- which endlessly details the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother's tricks and the rest of the world. The story was that "LeRoy" had been saved and adopted by a couple-- failed rock musicians Laura Albert and Geoffrey Knoop-- who were helping "LeRoy" find a voice and outlets for his story. Savanna Knoop, who makes reluctant appearances as "LeRoy"-- wearing a wig and sunglasses-- is Geoffrey's Knoop's half-sister. Current speculation is that the novel and stories were written by Laura Albert, and that the trio came up with the idea in order to gain access to publishing and A-list celebrities.

Channeling reality

In one way, the manufacturing of "JT Leroy" is just another instance of literary impersonation. In the mid-1700s, 17-year-old Thomas Chatterton fooled many of Britain's noted authors with the writings of Thomas Rowley, a 15th-century monk who was his literary alter-ego. In the same time period, James McPherson managed a similar feat after "discovering" lost poems of a Gaelic heroic poet Ossian. But the "JT LeRoy" scam is quite different from these precedents because so much of the impact of the book-- and almost all the literary impact-- rests entirely on the biographical facts of "LeRoy's" life.

The reality is that Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things are pretty terrible-- overwritten, overdone, cascades of pain that are tossed at us in an almost "top this one" fashion. A less-than-persuaded reader gets through these books with the attitude "Come on, how bad can this kid's life get?" Yes, bad things happen to people, but not these many, this often, in a short story.

The core readership for "LeRoy's" autobiographical fiction responds more to the pain of "his" life than the literary quality of the books. A typical reader posting on Amazon.com-- from 2001, just after Heart was published-- notes: "The book is so beautifully written, it's hard to believe J.T. has only been writing for such a short time. It's very mature, lyrical writing for a writer so young. This story is like a bad nightmare you can't wake up from, it's that shocking. All of the sexual abuse, torment, suffering, and cruelty from his mother should have never happened. This is a book you'll never forget! One good thing that came out of all of this, we now have one of the most promising new writers to look forward to in the future."

Twice bitten

The "LeRoy" saga seems simply a replay of the publication of "A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story by Anthony Godby Johnson-- another horrific, what-else-can-happen-to-this-child-AIDS memoir that hooked writers such as Paul Monette (who wrote a forward to the book) and Armistead Maupin. This book turned out to be a fraud as well. Maupin wrote a terrific novel-- The Night Listener about his experiences with "Anthony Goldby Johnson," and turned a nasty bit of literary fakery into a moving and deeply felt work of art.

But the fakery here is the least of the problems. The real question is not how does this happen-- it happens because there is a market to be exploited-- but what is it about our culture that makes the selling of hurt, abused, even dying gay teens to be so marketable?

Sure, in a sense they are survivors. But the potent aspect of this fantasy is not that they are surviving, but that they continue to suffer. The dying child has always had a strong appeal in modern literature. Think of Dickens's Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop and we can see how exciting-- emotionally and probably sexually-- the dying child can be to readers.

Preying on this image, as the creators of "JT LeRoy" have, is a nasty business-- not to mention possibly criminally fraudulent. To invent and market the image of "JT LeRoy" as a damaged and hurt gay teen insults people who have lived through this life. And it insults readers by exploiting their empathy and their imaginations.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com