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COMMUNITY

NOT UGLY

By Paul Vassar

VOICE

Leon Steven's article "You Are Ugly" (August High Gear) angered me so much that I feel compelled to do something that I haven't done in years-protest. I protest his thesis that "looks are everything" and that we all should think of ourselves as being ugly. For as long as I have been gay, I've read, experienced and discussed the physical emphasis in our lifestyle. Well Leon

dull, dull. When he told he had a degree my jaw hit the floor. How could this stunning man be such a zero in the personality department? Needless to say Rick and I never got it on but I wouldn't be seen with what he sometimes is.

The point of all of this is that looks are not the determining factor in who sleeps with whom. Every guy decides long before he enters a bar what he is out for (a quick trick, a conversation, a marriage or whatever). He also decides what he wants in that person (intelligence, compassion, friendship, etc).

HIGH GEAR

smiles and big shoulders. But do the guys with the cutest smiles go home with the chicks with the biggest boobs? Of course

not.

Comparatively, do the best looking guys in the bar always leave with each other? I think not. Really, ask yourself, how many times have you seen that very gorgeous thing with a average looking guy?

Fellows, the point is it's not the outfit, the hairstyle, the biceps, or the smile that lands that man in bed. It is the verbal and mental communication or "vibes" to use the vogue term. It is that "I'm o.k. -you're o.k." syndrome that gut feeling that tells you that something is clicking; that magnetism that attracts the two of you together. This sensation is what binds. friends and lovers, gay or straight. This is the cement of any relationship whether it be for one night or one decade. Leon wrote of you the biochemist and the moose. Your analogy was that two very diverse personalities could have a steady realtionship. But Leon, without this mutual attraction that moose will get thrown out along with the broken test tubes after about one week.

I believe that much too often blame we unsuccessful our cruising on "looks" which is really a sourgrapes excuse for the real fact that finding your kind of person is not an easy task. It is a task which requires much creativity, courage and a pinch of bon chance.

One Saturday about a month ago, I had my hairstyled in the morning, bought an entirely new outfit in the afternoon, and went to one of the fashionable bars in a nearby city that night. Once again I drove home alone. The next afternoon I poured my heart out to my friend Gary. At the end of my story he said with a snide grin, "It's not how you look, it's how you beam."

LIKES

and friends, I think you're According to your standards, CARTER

wrong. Admittedly looks are a key part of cruising but in my book, it's what's in the sack that

counts.

Quite honestly, I think I'm kind of a hot number. Yet I can say without any exaggeration that I come home with a new trick only one in every ten trips to the bars. And frankly, some nights I really work my ass off trying. I will never forget the time I saw this big bodybuilder type and nearly melted right on the bar. stool. I started cruising and conversing with him and got nowhere. Later in the evening I saw him pick up this thing that looked like a 1967 Chevy! (With rust!)

Then there is Rick. Rick is, in my eyes, the most beautiful male I've ever seen. I got to know him. a couple of years ago and for days thereafter I was just agasp over this person. Rick was outstandingly handsome, no two ways about it, but he was dull,

Leon, a guy only needs "to look decent and seem responsible enough not to strangle you or throw up on you that same night." Well Leon, I think most of

us are much more discriminating. After all he may look decent and not throw up but he may not be any fun either.

Granted there are people. whose primary emphasis is on physical appearance and I've had the unpleasant experience of knowing a few. As a group I've found these people to be pushy, insecure, and usually unenjoyable. Granted, too, there is an over-emphasis on physical appearance in our society. However this emphasis is by no means an exclusive characteristic of the gay lifestyle. I have frequented many straight bars in which the guys cruise chicks with the big boobs and shapely asses. Likewise the chicks cruise guys with ute

te

Dear Editors:

The apathy of the gay community toward the Presidential election is astonishing. Here we have a choice between Jimmy Carter who has spoken out repeatedly for gay rights and Gerald Ford who is hostile, uncomprehending and silent-and very few gays seem interested.

The Carter record is specific and clear. His views have not

been expressed in ambiguous terms by some anonymous campaign assistant, but by himself on national TV and in nationally covered press conferences. For example, he told media reporters at San Francisco on May 21st: "I don't think that the government at the local, state or federal level should single out homosexuals for abuse or harassment or

prosecution under the existing

laws. As President, I can assure you that all policies of the federal government will reflect this commitment." At the same time he expressed his support for the Federal Gay Rights Bill originally introduced by Bella Abzug.

Some gays are concerned because Carter has said, as in his Playboy interview, that he. considers homosexuality a sin. What else could he say? Which organized religious sects, even among the most liberal, take a different position? Does a candidate have to march in a Gay Pride parade or shout "Gay is good" in order to be acceptable?

The real question is what the candidate believes the government and the laws should do about homosexuality. And the whole point of Carter's Playboy interview is that he will never allow his personal religious convictions to influence his commitment to the civil rights of everyone-including especially those whose lifestyles differ from his own. "We are taught not to judge other people," he said in Playboy and elsewhere.

Thus, he can sincerely proclaim, as he did on the NBC TOMORROW show, that "I favor the end of harassment or abuse or discrimination against

homosexuals."

Maybe a gay person should not vote for a candidate solely on the issue of gay rights, but to the extent that gay rights are important to him, he should certainly vote for--and tell his friends to vote for Carter.

OCTOBER 1976

METROPARKS

Dear Sirs:

(Re: The Citizens League of Greater Cleveland recently endorsed Issue 9, the 41 mill county levy for Cleveland Metroparks. As reported in the August issue of High Gear, undercover park agents have launched a harassmententrapment policy against gays in many Metropolitan Park Districts.)

Look who needs money now our favorite GESTAPO METROPARKS SYSTEM. As a real estate owner may I urge all your readers and their friends to get out and vote against these Bastards who sit behind secret doors and make their own laws. All of us, whether we are property owners or not should help keep bounty money out of their hands. Please pass this news to your sister newspaper East Ohio News and hang it in every bar and bath in the State. While we are at it, let the Citizens League know we will start backing them when they back us. These people will not accept us so let's ALL start hurting them where it hurts them most in their greedy pockets! Yours truly, Bo Simms P.O. Box 44253 Cleveland, Ohio 44144

AGAINST

Jimmy RACISM

Fraternally, Richard Haber Cleveland, Ohio

OTHERS

Sisters and brothers,

I read your magazine often and I've noticed your election coverage of the candidates from vice-presidential candidate Tyler (Communist Party) to presidential candidate Carter (Democratic Party). I think you give good coverage of men running for the presidential and vice-presidential offices.

However, I have not seen any news in your newspaper of the candidacies of Margaret Wright and Benjamin Spock (People's Party), don't you think that the candidacy of a militant Black feminist is newsworthy?

I hope that you will correct this oversight. I think that people have a right to be informed of all candidacies so that we can make a choice for the person who we feel is the best candidate.

Dear G.W.:

G.W. McIntire Columbus, Ohio

Please see our article this month on minority political parties. We hope you find it to your satisfaction Eds.

Dear Editor:

I appreciated your editorial on ending racism especially in the bars, as I have also seen blacks turned away from a bar because they didn't have three I.D.'s or a membership card.

Recently, I too, have experienced discrimination and now ! know what it feels like. I was, as a white male, denied entrance into a well known gay bar with a friend, because he didn't have a "membership card." Most other people, interestingly, were admitted without even checking their ID's. It seemed as if the bars 'policy' was one of random discrimination.

I would like to see this form of fascist discrimination end immediately, particularly within the gay community. Incidences like this only hurt the formation of a positive and stable gay community which we're all desperately trying to develop.

Any further incidences that occur to me or others I know will be investigated and possible boycotts, demonstrations, and legal action will be initiated. We have the support of a large group of people who will not tolerate any more discrimination, white or black, and we urge all complaints to be called into the Gay Switch Board hotline (216696-5330). We have the service within the community, so let's make good use of it. Consciously yours, David, a gay brother