SEPTEMBER 1976

tionaries within the organization (Continued from Page 1) who wanted to cut off funds to the Office of Gay Affairs which they felt was a bad influence on all young people. As I listened to their speech I became angrier and angrier and took the podium in response. I told everyone there that I had four children and my oldest son was gay. I explained that in no manner was my son's lifestyle a bad influence on his younger siblings and that, he in fact, protected them from choices undesirable. I knew then that gays were not out to convert straights or proselytized their way of life. After my speech, one young man came up to thank me for it. He said he was gay and that his mother had not spoken to him for six years since he had informed her as such. That got to me, for he shared that he still had faith his mother might change her mind. I hope she grows up. High Gear: Do you have any speculations on the causes of homosexuality?

psychologists, lawyers, teachers, even bartenders. Said Apuzzo: "The key is organization."

"Fundamentally, it will come down to this crowd. Look at each other. It's got to be done by us. There is no phantom person or group who will do it for us... We don't have enough rights, you know it. This can be another gay rally or it can be the beginning Gay women and men do have problems; we need to discuss them between each other; but ultimately, we need a coalition; we must be active.

Ms. Stevens: I have none at all, and I don't consider myself an authority on the subject. Possibly fools can give you reasons but wise men never try.

Irene: I don't know how to answer that really. As I've said, I think it's born in a child: I don't believe it develops from your early life experiences. Gay people have existed for centuries and their home life probably had nothing to do with their sexual orientation.

Ms. Baroush: I think the answers are way beyond our understanding at this point... I don't feel I was a masculine person, nor my son's father a 'henpecked' husband. I am a strong and independent woman, but I know many women like that who have heterosexual sons. I feel when we're young we have possibilities of sexual relations with both sexes. As we get older, maybe socialization moves us more in one direction than another. If we're honest with ourselves, we'd all admit to having had homosexual thoughts or experiences. We should accept that. The person who has the most trouble with homosexuality is the one who I denies that those parts exist in him or her.

High Gear: What advice do you have for other parents of gays?

Ms. Stevens: Do nothing. Give yourself enough time to think things over in a rational way. We all are familiar with the maxim, "Time is the great healer."

Irene: If you know your son or daughter is gay, help them adjust to their own lifestyles. If children can't get support from their parents, who else is there to help them?

Ms. Baroush: Love your children a lot, because they're going to get a great deal of crap from society...

...

"No one can register to vote for us, or lobby, or solve our unification problem or pick us up when we're tired. It's time we stopped reacting and started initiating."

After Ms. Appuzo's exhilirating remarks, the current President of the Columbus G.A.A. and an MCC representative who announced a forth-

coming chapter of the gay church in Columbus related short speeches. A statement was also issued by the Gay

HIGH GEAR

Caucus of the Youth Against War and Fascism supporting mass demonstrations which have resulted in "a gay woman in Maine winning custody of her children and compelled the government to release Terri Turgeon, Ellen and Jill Raymond who had been jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury about rebolutionary Susan Saxe."

YAWF also said; "We can learn much from the Black people's struggles which preceded and inspired our own. The civil rights movement forced the government to grant Blacks many legal rights, fair housing and the right to equal employment... It is, the strength of our movement that causes certain politicians to come out in support of gay rights. We must depend on our own strength and the commitment to keep fighting in order to win more of our rights and to defend the gains we've made."

And that's what we, gay Ohio, did here in Columbus, Labor Day 1976. It was a beginning. And we will not be discouraged.

J. R. HOOK

Page 11

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