COMMUNITY VOICE

A GAY WEST SIDER

It's not just the west siders to ⚫ whom I am directing this article. After all, we know what it's like. It's everyone, especially you Clevelanders who live east of the beautiful Cuyahoga River, with whom I am concerned. And, least anyone begin to think that this will degenerate into a trite east side vs west side debate, I promised to avoid that pitfall. My interest is in presenting as objective a picture as I can about a topic that has been muttered about but not forthrightly discussed, inferred about but not positively stated, joked about but not seriously analyzed. It may affect only the west siders directly, but it involves the entire greater Cleveland gay community, due to the importance of unity in achieving our goals as gay people and of the vital role that mutual understanding plays in developing and maintaining that unity.

The west side is a different world no matter what the sexual preferences of its inhabitants. The homes are newer, the land is flatter, the people are more conservative. There is a sense of isolation from the city; violent crime is virtually nonexistent and the people want to keep it that way. Taverns and bars of any sort are limited by the extensive "dry areas" that have been established by local referendums. In many ways the west side is pleasant, serene, and beautiful; property values are high and continue to rise. But it can also be sterile; the conservative attitudes can be stifling and, especially for us, the lack of gay social alternatives is often depressing.

Even obtaining a copy of High Gear can be troublesome: people like myself must drive 25 miles or more each way to the nearest location where journals such as this are regularly available. When we decide to go out, we have a choice of going where we want and spending 1 1/2 hours traveling in one evening, or going to some local spot where we must watch our actions and control our feelings. Needless to say, those of us who are "out" enough will opt for the first choice, bearing high fuel costs and frustration all the way. And when we return to our bucolic neighborhoods we again become victims of our own oppression and that of where we live, knowing full well that there must be the same portion of the community that is gay here as there is on the east side of town.

And yet, leaving this part of the metropolitan area would be much like a surrender. Gay alternatives notwithstanding, I like it here, as do so many of my gay brothers and sisters. We should try to make the west side more responsive to its gay inhabitants, rather than taking the easy way eastward past Public Square. To be quite frank I'm not sure how this can be done. Aren't there any businesses on the far west side that would be willing to carry

gay journals such as this one? Isn't there the potential for gayoriented bars on the west side? If so many of us are now driving such great distances to go where we feel accepted, why aren't we willing to work to encourage a more responsible atmosphere so that gay enterprises closer to our homes can be established?

I don't doubt that, with the proper effort and sufficient time, we can remove this stigma that oppresses us by its omnipresence. Cleveland is far too metropolitan and cosmopolitan to continue to allow itself to remain so sectionalized. Projections for Cuyahoga County indicate that the gretest future economic growth will occur in Cleveland's west side suburbs. I fee that the potential for the growth of gay life exists here, too, and we will have no one to blame but ourselves if we allow this potential to go unrealized and undeveloped.

HIGH GEAR/MAY 1977

HYPOCRITE?

In three years of publication High Gear has waged a consistent campaign against sexploitation. I include myself among the most vocal individual combatants against sexual discrimination. Various people in our local community have accused me of hypocrisy. They assert that I maintain an "athletic, sexploitative" image; replete with "butch" paraphernalia, form-attuned apparel, etc. while proselytizing against this mode of appearance as a sexual ideat.

The truth is I do, in fact, attempt to cultivate my own appearance in accordance with Madison Avenue sexploitative rules while attacking the proliferation of idealized types. in the gay community at large. The reason for this is that as an individual, I am subjected to the same pressures, the same preferences, the same illusions, and the same general conditions as any average gay male. Sex-

George Rusnak ploitation is so powerfully all

RACISM

Editors:

I would like to relate a recent experience which happened in a popular Cleveland gay

club. On my first visit to this club, I found the atmosphere and decor to be in good taste and well suited to an enjoyable evening of dancing and fun. However, on my second visit, I observed a practice of the management

that greatly

changed my opinion of the club. I had been waiting in line to be admitted when I saw in front of me that several people were being denied entrance to the club because they did not have membership cards. During the next several minutes, I noted several more persons denied entrance for the same reason. I also noticed that all these persons were black. I continued to wait in line and when I got to the door I was asked only for a dollar and not a membership It is very disturbing to see an institution which exists to serve gays, an oppressed group of people to turn around and become the oppressors themselves by ostracizing blacks. It has no moral legs to stand on. What is perhaps even more disturbing is that although the racist nature of the club's admission policy was plainly obvious to everyone standing in line, no one else chose to act or speak out against such outrageious and backward

behavior.

Personally, I will not support racist behavior with my patronage of the club. Such an outdated practice is intolerable and I urge ail Cleveland gays to ask themselves if they can in good conscience support such institutions, ones which are taking a giant backward step in the cause of human liberation.

Ed Rawlings Cleveland, Ohio

pervasive in the gay male community that I would find it difficult as a "civilian" to survive if I did not kow-tow to. sexploitative standards.

Like anyone else, I have become acclimated to the sexual goals and conventions of our culture. I have worshipped the same TV. heroes and brainwashed myself with the same literature and cultural "models" as my peers. Although I agree that old, unathletic or currently "unattractive" men should be considered just as sexually appealing as young "studly" men, I doubt that I shall be able to undo more than two decades of the effects of propoganda. I am left with no practical alternative but to compete with other men for scarce sexual objectives.

Co-editing High Gear is, however, another matter. Here I function in the capacity of a culture producer. Instead of being at the receiving and of a propoganda machine, I am a manufacturer of ideals and a shaper of opinion. Consequently, the editors of High Gear and the staff have a responsibility to disrupt the oppression from which we as individuals suffer. Some of the most vocal spokespeople for drug rehabilitation are former drug users who are still addicted to their particular "jones." The fact that their addiction is perhaps lifelong and inescapable does not preclude their right and obligation to struggle against the expansion of heroin use.

In my day to day interactions with other gay men, I have found that many men do not usually take sexploitation seriously.. What is more, these men embark on a complex game of sexual "Monopoly" but ignore the rules and cheat disgracefully. Sexploitation is a game of both skill and chance. It revolves around one's ability to work hard (exercise) and the good fortune not to have extensive facial scarring, baldness or other points-losing "disabilities."

Having sex with "unappealing" individuals will not change sexploitation. It would only mean giving someone unfair advantage. Giving someone free utilities, free Boardwalk, free Park Place and some hotels only puts a player ahead temporarily. It does not abolish the game. The issue is to obliterate the entire sexploitative "Monopoly" competition, not individual moves within the context of the game.

It is the obligation of wishful, but disadvantaged cruisers to demand that their media desist from furthering sexploitation. As contrary to custom as it may seem, the gay press MUST state that baldness is beautiful, that old age is succulent and sweet, that big ears and large noses are sexually arousing and so forth. At the same time it MUST withdraw its patronage of the Aryan youth cult. There is no other solution. Culture makers are culture breakers.

Sexploitation is not as easy to explain as racism and other forms of oppression. Like cancer, few people realize that it af-

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fects them until it's too late. My own experience in debating the subject has been that after lengthy discussion, many people still do not understand that phenomenon, or they understand sexploitation and feel it is too well entrenched to dislodge or they recognize it and cherish it, potential frustration and misery notwithstanding.

I know what sexism is and I fight it by the most effective means I can deploy, but as an isolated unit in a crowd I make the best of it, like anyone else. Is that really hypocritical?

Leon Stevens Cleveland, Ohio

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