Halsted Cancels Himself: (Ab)Use Value in Overlooked Histories of Fred Halsted

Abstract: Fred Halsted has long been a legendary fixture in queer media history. A transgressive filmmaker in the early gay pornography industry, Halsted has been widely celebrated as a latter-day Kenneth Anger and a precursor to the anti-assimilationist dissent of new queer cinema. Yet all but unremarked in Halsted scholarship is the resounding fact that Halsted, time and again, admitted deplorable acts of sexual assault and made political commitments to unconscionable reactionary politics. This article develops the concept of “abuse value” to interrogate the scholarly silences on Halsted’s indefensible acts and expressions. It calls for an archivally rigorous reckoning in queer media history to address and uproot the vaunted status of reactionary figures like Halsted.