OCTOBER 1976

OUT OF THE CLOSETS

By George Richard Holzman

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Anti-homosexual feelings run high in America; but simultaneously there is a great awareness of the movements' struggle possible attainment liberation. Some of America's most popular swear words "shove it up your ass" and "you dirty cocksucker", for example, express at the same moment the straight man's awareness of homosexuality and the repugnance he feels toward it.

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-

The word "homosexual" was an adjective before it was a noun. Those whose desire is to kill homosexuals, and there are many, are the descendants of those who first killed the homosexuality inside themselves. Every single one of us has a homosexual character deeply embedded within souls, yearning to break free and experiment with the outside world. Those of us who are afraid, we are afraid of our own. inner being and afraid to express our innermost desires and wants, we try to suffocate that feeling, to kill it but all we do is really just lock it up in the closet and forget it. But it is there! For those of us who are not afraid of this being, who are not afraid to admit that we are gay, we are the ones that are referred to as "sickies" and the such. Yet we are the ones that are free, because we are not afraid to admit what we are or who we are.

Gay liberation is a struggle by homosexuals for dignity and respect a mere struggle for civil rights not sexual. Gay people want to come out, they want to end their hiding, they don't want to be referred to as faggots, lesbians, dykes or queers. They want to hold down jobs without having to live two lives one gay and the other straight, and to change or abolish those laws which restrict them or refer to them as degenerates.

The worst thing about being gay is experiencing the antihomosexualism of our society. To survive in a hostile environment, most gays have to hide their homosexuality. The result is the fear associated with the possibility of discovery and the shame and guilt, associated with being homosexual, the guilt perpetuated by our straight society. For a minority of gays those who are identified as being such. because they have the mannerisms, clothing, or speech pattern usually "reserved" for the other sex the oppression takes on different forms. Those blatantly gay are often subject to verbal abuse, physical brutality from police and other thugs and. the knowledge that even those who can tolerate discreet. homosexuality will not stand this turn-around of sex-determined roles.

DO YOU MIND IF I TURN ON THE LIGHT?

WHY NOT? I JUST WANT TO SEE HOW YOU LOOK WITH YOUR CLOTHES OFF.

JUST FOR A

HIGH GEAR

GAY.co.

I'D RATHER YOU DIDN'T!

I JUST FEEL FUNNY WITH THE LIGHT ON

FEW MINUTES.

O

ALL RIGHT.

00

L.S.

Now is the time for us to stand We must act now and we must together, to work together towards the elimination of those laws which discriminate against us and which prevent us from doing what comes natural to us.

30 TB GROSS 180 nougimor STOM 10eSA-e88 10 8A08-SEE (STB)

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act together, we are taxpayers and therefore let our voices also be heard we are only asking for what is constitutionally ours.

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Page 7

"I ALWAYS SEE THAT GUY SHOPPING HERE. HE'S SUCH A SHARP DRESSER! I WONDER IF HE'S GAY. HE SEEMS MILD-MANNERED YET HE KEEPS HIMSELF IN SHAPE.

HE'S ALWAYS IMPECCABLY GROOMED. NO BAD OR "MEDICINE" BREATH. HE'S THE KIND OF MAN I COULD SPEND A LIFETIME WITH!"

Q::VM SIMUMI 283JA30

20

LS.