THE "OTHER" HOMOSEXUALS

by Stratton Ashley

Eight young men were at the bar. It was a rather ordinary-looking establishment except for the ceiling which can best be described as dripping dust. The absence of women at "Eugene's" did not raise any questions in my mind at first. This is typical of most New York bars. The men here, however, were all young and well-groomed. On the whole they looked like a bunch of clean-cut college boys. There was a certain pre-occupation with one another-glances darted from face to face and every once in a while a couple of them would leave together.

No, this was no ordinary bar. And this was my introduction into a facet of homosexuality which was to thoroughly contradict my presuppositions of "gay" life.

As a "straight" member of society I had always thought of homosexuals in "sissy-queer" terms. At school the "queer" was always the effeminate kid the boy who carried his books like a girl, walked tiptoed, and always played sick when it came time for physical education. "Sissy" was suspect-"Watch out for him when you take a shower."

Just as surely the big handsome jock was always the lady-killer and a "regular guy." The sissy just had to be queer. After all, no one liked him. He was usually alone and interested in the weirdest things: dramatics, poetry and the flute. I found "sissy" in New York as well. Walk down 42nd Street and there he is with lipstick, enough perfume to preserve a horse, curls, swish and all.

not

No, "Eugene's" boys were queer in the usual sense of the word. No, they were by their own definition "butch". as butch as they could possibly make themselves. As one crew-cut habitue said: "We are most interested in those qualities regarded as masculine in each other. We cultivate those qualities in ourselves and look for them in others. No one is more 'out' in our group than the queen who swishes." Take the crew-cut's apartment as a case in point: heavy leather chairs, guns over the mantelpiece, ship models

. . Marlboro could begin filming their next ad right there. The crewcut works out daily at the Y, plays tennis and basketball basketball regularly, drives a red Corvette, smokes a pipe

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