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JULY 1976

A relationship between two males is beautiful, really. There's something that I see between two males that I can never see between a male and a female. I think that comes from the fact that they're so sensitive to one another, so sensitive sometimes that it hurts. They respect what makes each other feel good. We all think individually and we all have our own minds and goals, but I think that males have something that makes them different from females, not only physically but spiritually. I'm thankful for same-sex relationships.

HG: Outside of the bars -if you couldn't get in, what would you do? What do you do to entertain yourself, to enjoy your self?

J: My first love is the theater. If I can't go to a bar, if I can't get into the baths, I come home and read a play. Or I'll go see a performance. It's so fabulous. In fact, that's how I spend most of my time. I don't spend much time in bars.

HG: Do you feel that people -society in general -are so obsessed with life roles of all types that reality is theater to them?

J: Someone turns on the lights and they don't know how to perform. They're asked to perform but they can't. They don't even know the difference between an actor and an entertainer. They're asked to act and they entertain. Themselves, mostly. Eventually, when it comes to the end, they look

around and try to weigh emotions, feelings, experiences -and they're not there.

Theater on the other hand, is realistic because it observes as well as exposes. It's constantly taking everything in. All experiences are so beautiful. I spend more time in bars, on buses, at the movies, watching people than watching the scenery, the dance floor, the

screen.

But I used to spend a whole long time being someone else. HG: Who else were you?

J: I was trying to be the knowit-all little queen, telling everything to everybody. When I walked into a bar I'd have to strut my little behind and peddle my wares. I was running around with older people and trying to look very impressive, wearing older clothes and talking big words and trying to fill in all the blanks. Until I finally found something that was there, that was REAL. And that was Benjamin. That's still inside of me. It's part of my life which I'll never forget.

HIGH GEAR

you want the gay community to provide for you? And is there any difference between that and what you expect to get?

J: It's a new generation coming up into gay society. We really don't expect much. But we do expect compassion and love from other gays. It's this generation that will make it happen, not yours.

HG: How would you compare your forecast for your generation with the present gay society or community? What would you add to, what would you delete from what is typical of gays?

J: Minorities are important. They're decision-makers. We make up the world. We're gay. We know what we're doing. Let's not try to fool ourselves or the people around us. Give them us as human beings, not as homosexuals.

What makes us a minority is just a small part of what makes us part of the majority. We should stop trying to define what makes us better than anyone else. We're all important. HG: Do you have other gay Every man has the right to fuck friends your age?

J: That's a strange situation. Most of the gay friends my age are women, lesbians. I have one or two gay male friends, I have only one I really considered to. be a close friend, once.

HG: What do you and these other young people want when you reach the age of consent? How do you want to live, how do you want to be treated, what do

another man even if he doesn't have the inclination.

HG: You're not a gay activist. J: No, but I'm proud of being gay.

HG: How would you and your young friends react to a gay community services center that provided not only advice and counseling and other life services medical, food, clothes, etc. but also a social center?

What would the reaction be?

J: think it would be fabulous. I'd love to see them take groups of people who know who they are, and groups who don't know who they are, and sit them down and talk.

There's something that's building in every homosexual. There's so much frustration and so much castration and so much sadness and melancholy about who they are, and what they are, and what they are all about, and why they have a right to live, and why they were born. Some people take out their frustrations by galavanting around a barroom. That's not the way to solve this problem.

I'd like to see a center where people can meet. We need it. We'd support it. You don't have to ask us. We'd be drawn to it.

The biggest problem for young gays today is twofold. It frustrates me. Older gays should give others a chance to come out, by respecting who they are and their feelings for males (sic) -others who have never had a sexual experience, who haven't been in among other males.

But then, on the other hand, coming out is something that has to be experienced. It's as important as being. It's an opening of so many things, and it's nice if there's something or somebody to help you get through it. The experience is nothing unless you can depend on someone to help you get through it.

We have to have seminars,

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programs showing what being gay is all about. Not saying, "Come on out. Come with us, but saying, "These are the advantages. These are the disadvantages."

HG: You've said that gay people should give others a chance to come out. Are you suggesting that this doesn't happen now -that there is a kind of impatience among gay people that doesn't allow others to behave naturally?

J: The biggest thing that bothers me about this is the rise of the joke about the closet queen. He's standing over there. You taunt him. You tease him.. You give him pushes and nudges. That's got to be abolished. It's got to be left out.

HG: But on the other hand, you don't want the developing person to be left completely in isolation.

J: No. Treat them as a friend. You're new. Give me your hand and I'll show you, but I won't push you.

HG: Do you believe that a painstaking, helping relationship can develop in an entirely non-sexual way?

J: Not at all. Besides, sex is the whole point of coming out as a gay person. The thing is that people have a great way of taking advantage of you when you're new to anything, very wide-eyed and open. You don't always know whether what's going on is proper or not. What it needs is slowness, sensitivity, tenderness.

THE SHAKER CLUB AT SHAKER SQUARE

PROUDLY PRESENTS THE FABULOUS EMORE RETURNING IN AUGUST

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