When Eric Wynn viewed the images of 16 of the men and boys murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer in a local Milwaukee newspaper in the summer of 1991, he reportedly fell to his knees in sorrow.
Wynn, now 59 years old, recalled travelling to homosexual bars in Milwaukee when he was 18 by driving from his Illinois hometown across Wisconsin. In addition, he claimed to be one of the few consistent Black drag performers at the homosexual club Club 219, which Dahmer attended.
After his appearances at the club, he claimed to have developed a small "fan group" of young Black men with whom he would hang out. One of them, Tony Hughes, who is deaf, taught him to sign his ABCs, according to Wynn.
He referred to these young men, saying, "They used to come in there to see me because they truly had representation."
Then, however, some of them stopped showing up. Wynn claimed that although he didn't give it much thought at the time, it suddenly made sense to him when he saw the front page of the newspaper on that summer's day, more than three decades ago.
They were all Black boys, and he had captured each and every one of them, Wynn stated. "It tore my heart apart."
Wynn and other Black queer people who were born or resided in Milwaukee when Dahmer was apprehended in July 1991 claim that 30 years later, a new dramatised Netflix miniseries about the killings is causing them to relive traumatic events. The streaming behemoth's Halloween selections include "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story," which launched on Sept. 21.
Some people found the show to be too upsetting to see, while Wynn stated that he thought the show's director, Ryan Murphy, owed the LGBTQ community and the families of the victims an apology. Murphy is gay and almost always incorporates queer representation in his projects.
Wynn exclaimed, "Ryan Murphy has simply been so fantastic for the community," and he added that he loved the programme "Pose," which Murphy also directed and which is about the late 1960s ballroom scene in New York City, which was founded by queer and trans people of colour. And then to simply smack us like this for business and sensationalism left me feeling let down.
