JANUARY 1976

HIGH GEAR

GAY BLESSING

On December seventh Rodger and David Burchette received a blessing in a ceremony at the Metropolitan Community Church conducted by Art MacDonald. The blessing signifies that both men are committed to a special relationship with each other for an indefinite period of time and is preparatory for a union.

A union, analagous to but not identical with "marriage," symbolized the decision of the pair to continue a permanent, binding relationship. This lasting commitment does not necessarily imply monogamy or any other rigid pattern of living. It merely finalizes a unique emotional and spiritual bond between two people.

on

Mac Donald Named Chairperson

The Worship Coordinator of the Fellowship MCC has recently been named as the chairperson of the U.F.M.C.C.'s Task Force Handicapped Ministries. Art MacDonald began his involvement with MCC as a minister to the Deaf in the Los Angeles Church, and has been responsible for much of the education concerning handicapped people in the gay community, in the Universal Fellowship. Mr. MacDonald's

goals as chair of the Task Force is:

"To raise the consciousness of the gay community, and especially of the Universal Fellowship, to the needs of the handicapped within the gay community. We tend to think that there are no handicapped gays, but there are, and they have a special need to be able to identify with people of their own sexuality. You don't see these people in the bars because they

Radio Free Lambda

5:30 pm Mondays

WRUW 91.1 FM

Cleveland's only gay news and information program

Rodger and David are native Clevelanders. They have been together for quite awhile and maintain a good, stable relationship. Following their blessing, they elected to have the same last name and to share fully in each other's life experience.

The two are presently residing in Tucson, Arizona where they plan to receive a union shortly. Their move to Arizona was prompted by pressure and harassment from their families and others who opposed their blessing and subsequent union. All reports indicate they are well-established and happy in their new surroundings, and we at GEAR wish them the best!

feel out of place, and undesirable. But they do exist, and its time for the gay community to become concerned with their needs."

Mr. MacDonald was appointed to his new position by the Board of

Elders of the Universal Fellowship during their Fall meeting. The local congregation has had an interpreter for the deaf available at their services, but they could get no response at the time from the local gay. deaf community.. However, part of the projected goals for the new year include plans for an active ministry to the blind, deaf, and other handicapped people. in the Cleveland area.

Page 21

P.S. YOUR CAT IS DEAD

(P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, by James Kirkwood, Warner Paperbacks, 1972, $1.50)

"It's New Year's Eve. Your best friend died in September. you've been robbed twice, your girl friend is leaving you, you've just lost your job...and the onl one left to talk to is a gay burgla you've got tied up in the kitchen P.S. Your Cat Is Dead."

So reads the cover of the paperback edition of James Kirkwood's P.S. Your Cat Dead. Originally written a three act play and curren playing in San Francisco as two act play with Sal Mineo as the gay burglar, P.S. is now oui as a novel. And though many of the dramatic elements can only 'be appreciated via the stage. production, the novel will delight the reader until the play arrives in town.

Kirkwood is no novice at presenting the pathos and humor of the contemporary human condition. Good Times/Bad Times, published in 1968 and available in Fawcett Crest paperback, and Some Kind of Hero, published last year by Thomas Crowell, both grip the reader in the squeeze of suspense as totally real characters struggle to find themselves and adjust to the often inhuman vagaries of society. In Good Times it's two high school students confronted by the perverse homosexuality of their headmaster; in Some Kind of Hero it's a returning Vietnam P.O. W. facing the memory of a loved cell-mate in a loveless environment.

There are admitted real-life connections in some of Kirkwood's books, as he recently acknowledged in an interview about Some Kind of Hero. In P.S., the main character is Jimmy Zoole, an unemployedactor-would-be-writer whose professional resume is remarkably similar to biographical data that might be compiled on Kirkwood. (Jimmy's late, lamented cat has the same name as Kirkwood's present cat, Bobby Seale!) So the problems that Jimmy Zoole faces in the play/novel have a truth that seems to go beyond skillful characterization.

And it is not only the surface

problems described on the book's cover that plague Jimmy. As one reads on, it is discovered that Jimmy is thirty-eight years old and as yet has not "made his mark." His one possible hope of making something of himself was a book he had started to write. But the gay burglar now in his custody was the same thief who robbed his apartment twice before and on one of those excursions stole the manuscript for the book!

So in an often disoriented state of mind, Jimmy must decide what to do with his burglar he has tied down to the top of the free-standing kitchen sink counter. Vito Antenucci is almost immediately a lovable character. He is a young thirtyone with the dramatic hand and head movements that seem to always be attributed to Italians. And his sense of humor and his smooth ability to handle Jimmy as a straight-man makes Kirkwood sound like another Neil Simon.

that

But more than Vito's looks or sense of humor, is his streetwisdom and profound simplicity confront Jimmy as imponderables in his rather futile attempts to wage some sort of vengeance of this one. cause of his problems. Even though he literally has Vito by the ass, his strategies for getting even fall flat or backfire.

Backfire? What else would it be called when Jimmy slowly comes to realize that Vito is precious as precious and loveable as his late cat Bobby Seale. And to compound matters, a growing affection for Vito is met with an interesting (and tempting) proposition by the gay burglar!

During the course of their verbal encounters, Vito relates the rather moving story of the loss of his lover Ben, to Jimmy's surprise, a noted writer. Vito doesn't like being alone. And he is beginning to take to Jimmy: "Wanna make it with me?" How Jimmy responds to the invitation doesn't completely reveal his feelings. Does he or doesn't he? The current stage production leaves the answer up in the air. The novel version goes a bit further.

The humor of the play is muted by the narrative of the novel, but the dialogue is still crisp and rich enough to make P.S. a very funny book. At the same time Kirkwood's view of life comes through Vito's philosophy and Jimmy's reformation from a loser to a winner. The book is well worth reading for both its understanding of human problems as well as its humor -to say nothing of the many surprises that keep the reader glued to the story.

And having recently seen the play in San Francisco, I strongly suggest Greater Clevelanders clamor for a booking in their town!

Marc Lewis

0000000