I read with extreme interest your 3 SNAPS column of June 25. I am sure that you intended it as your true feelings of Gay Pride. But part of it comes across as claptrap: i.e., pretentious nonsense!
The beautiful people who make up our worldwide Gay Community have NOTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM EXCEPT THE EXPRESSION OF THEIR SEXUALITY! We are born and we die exactly like the non-gay world. (I have grown to abhor the use of the word "straight" as it implies that the opposite is "crooked" or "bent", an archaic word resurrected by a play.)
We have no special " 'reality' of life and relationships" as you state. The same trials and tribulations that afflict our Gay Community are the SAME as afflict the non-gay community.
We do NOT have "a communality that is unlike anything the straight world has seen or experienced." Have you heard of the Black Community? And the strides they have achieved by the use of "common purpose and needs"? And our Native Americans and a small plot of ground called Wounded Knee? Or any of the many groups of our total community of which we are part of who fought for their rights?
Our Gay Community learned from the civil rights movement of the early 60s how to organize and achieve the successes thus far. And now newer groups who are striving for their rights are learning from us. And future groups will learn from them and us, etc., etc., etc.
There is a misconception that our battle started with the protest at The Stonewall bar. That's not quite true! Yes, the patrons protested and there was trouble. But the real insurrection came on July 3, when the Gay Liberation Front organized a march protesting the Stonewall arrests.
The march started at Times Square and ended in Greenwich Village, where the hundreds of marchers met police cordons just outside the Women's House of Detention. All traffic was stopped, as thousands at first watched and then many joined in the protest which had now escalated into a full scale riot. Prisoners in the WHD dropped burning paper on the police. Bottles and cans and trashcans and purses rained down on "New York's finest" as WE GAYS FOUND BACK for the right of peaceful protest.
We learned that night that the police would not tolerate ANY peaceful protest against the System...just as they had done against the marchers for civil rights in the South.
AND WHEN WE FOUGHT BACK, FOR THE RIGHT OF PEACEFUL PROTEST, WE BEGAN TO GET THE SUPPORT THAT WAS ESSENTIAL TO BECOME A MOVEMENT.
The closet door would no longer close!
I realize that you have only been out in the Gay Community for about 5 or 6 years. And I am glad that you have "found God" and that he is with you, but you make it sound like you find him best when partying. And that's not only sad, but sign of your immaturity.
I strongly suggest you get out of being one of the "Circuit Boyz" and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the full scope of our wonderful GAY WORLD...and it has NOTHING TO DO WITH PARTYING AND DRINKING AND BEING "SEEN AT ALL THE RIGHT PLACES!"
Have you ever picked up your address book and flipped through page after page filled with the notation "deceased"? Or stood amongst the panels of The Quilt and knew too many names around you? Have you stopped to think that the people you see about you when you go out are but a very small part of our community? And that thousands NEVER go to ANY bar! And that Drag can be easy, but there is an ART to doing Female Impersonation! Our history is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR WORLD, for from it comes the heritage we pass on to the future.
We are all the same, gays and non-gays, Christians and Atheists, Blacks and Chinese, Democrats and Republicans.
Gays are NOT a special "race". Nor are non-gays or any other group of "people bonded together by a common drive." That is an archaic definition, long out of use.
One final complaint. NEVER, NEVER again refer to our older generation as "elderly"! That is as offensive to those of us in our prime as any word can be. I am in my prime (past 650) as is my Life Partner and I can guarantee you that you have only just begun to know our GAY world.
The struggle has not been won. The struggle has just begun. And BOY! do current times proves it!
--Roger C. Nelson
Dear Rip & Marsha,
I would like to first start by thanking you both for your publication. It has been a great source of information for myself for many years. I do appreicate the exposure Ambush has given the Leather Community one that is very dear to myself.
You have one of the best staff members one can ask for. He is a true friend to the entire Gay Community. He was the first person in Baton Rouge to make me feel welcome and treated me as an individual when I relocated my home to Baton Rouge. This person will go way above what one expects as a friend . He has given me great exposure in the Leather Commmunity via Ambush and for this I thank you. I can not say enough about this person but that he is the greatest person could ever meet and have as a friend. This person is the one and only Brad Benedict. Sincerely,
--Lord King XIV, Lord Gregory
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