CAY BOB

Gay Bob stands 13 inches tall, wears an earring, a flannel shirt, and jeans.

Associated Press

Gay Bob doll steps out of closet

and into homosexual controversy

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NEW YORK (AP) He stepped off a plane from Hong Kong a few days ago just 13 inches tall

―

he's a star and a stir.

and already

Gay Bob. An acknowledged homosexual doll who totes around his very own closet. He's been hounded by the media, denounced by anti-gay groups and baffled department stores.

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And through it all, Bob has remained unruffled his blond crewcut neat as a pin, his blue earring shining bright, his California tan flashing.

"It's a real giggle and kind of fun,” said Bruce Voeller, executive director of the National Gay Task Force. "I think we should deal with it lightly and enjoy it."

Protect America's Children, an antihomosexual lobby, on the other hand finds nothing amusing about Bob.

"It's another evidence of the desperation the homosexual campaign has reached in its effort to put homosexual lifestyle, which is a deathstyle, across

to the American people," said Edward Rowe, the Miami-based organization's executive director. "I can only hope that the children who are given these Gay Bob dolls will not comprehend the meaning and intent of the campaign that is behind their manufacture and distribution."

Bob is the brainchild of Harvey Rosenberg, a 37-year-old inventor.

In the past two months, he's sold 2,000 dolls. This week, Gay Bob will come out in boutiques in San Francisco and New York. But Rosenberg has not yet received commitments from department stores.

Rosenberg spent $10,000 to create

Bob.

"I'm not gay," he said, "but we had something to learn from the gay movement, just like we did from the black civil rights movement and the women's movement, and that is having the courage to stand up and say 'I have a right to be what I am.'

Rosenberg has also created a family for Bob.

Heavy Harry and Fat Pat are Bob's parents. They come in a refrigerator with a diet book. Marty Macho is a brother who lives in a garage with a four-wheel drive truck. Executive Eddie, another brother, comes with an attache case and cordovan shoes. He has two martinis every day. Straight Steve is a brother who lives in the suburbs in his baby blue leisure suit.

Then there are the sisters. Fashionable Fran comes with a pocket book filled with credit cards. She spends her day shopping and having beauty treatments. Liberated Libby reads Cosmopolitan and expresses herself through sexuality. Anxious Al and Nervous Nelly, the youngest members of the family, have been through every type of therapy and self-help program.

Bob is being sold for $14.95 through mail order ads in gay periodicals.

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