September 1986
LETTERS LAKE CO. GAY PEOPLE
To the Editor:
I am writing to give an insight into what it means to be gay and to live in Lake County.
First of all, coming out was extremely difficult. When I came out two years ago, it was hard to find a local gay/lesbian support group (or for that matter, any group). During a long personal search, I found no such group.
Next, I looked for any bars or other places where people with my needs could be found. I heard rumors about a bar in Painesville, but now I have learned that this establishment has closed.
Since my quest left me with empty answers, all I could do was venture into the vast unknown area called Cleveland. I did not drive. But even if I had driven, I did not know the people or places to help me on my way.
Eventually I did find them. But this still does not help the gay/lesbian person still in Lake County with no one to help him/her. Of course they can check out the Cleveland scene, but if they don't know what to exay be confused pect, they may or scared off.
A gay/lesbian support-social group would be beneficial to Lake County. This group would also direct a larger number of otherwise closeted gay people to the gay scene in Cleveland.
In a nutshell, let's start such a group!
If you feel as I do, tell me so. If there is enough interest and support, maybe we can get it together. I would like to let you now what my proposal is.
In closing, I found it hard to come out here
in Lake County. I think we can give people who want to come out here, or who will be coming out in the future, enough support and guidance to make their lives a bit easier.
Send your responses to: Edwin J.
Janoch
P.0. Box 1224 Mentor, OH 44061-1224
Gay Peoples Chronicle
JOHN PIERRE RESPONDS
To the Editor:
My Answer to Mr. Morganet
al.
I am a retired Black gentleman who was 63 on July 28. Before World War II 1 danced with the Kathryn Dunham dancers in the United States and Europe. Then I was drafted into the Army and began working for Uncle Sam. After the war I went to college in New York City, where I wrote the Declaration of Self Esteem. I still feel pretty much the same way about getting one's self together before reaching out to really love others.
Mr. Morgan seems to be a very short-sighted person. In writing my Declaration of Self Esteem I was not referring to anyone but myself. This is the way I felt and the way I saw myself, although it could apply to anyone.
I am flattered that I have acquired somewhat of a fan club at the Supprt Group held at the Lesbian/Gay Com munity Center on Fridays. My purpose in sending my writings was to express some of my thoughts and feelings to the friend who has shared them with many others, which is alright with me.
I am again sending you my thoughts as I see and feel them. I trust they make some sense to you. Maybe someone who hears or reads them will identify with them. My writings are not targeted at any particular person, merely food for thought. If anyone received a message from my babblings to their good, I've accomplished some awareness and I am happy.
AWKWARD AND AFRAID 1 REACH OUT TO ANOTHER Awkward and afraid we set out to meet each other. Our first attempts are slow and hard. We make small offerings: at first a word, a smile, a feeling shared.
If they are received with acceptance and warmth, we go
a little further. So it is with all of us who want love. Some are encased in a harder, thicker shell than others, but a human is in there just the same.
I want to tell you who I am. I want to be understood and loved. But I am afraid you won't like me. I am afraid you will not accept my inconsistencies, my feelings, my failures, even my fears of you.
If I am tender, that afraid, how do I begin to share myself with you: What kind of things do I say? What will happen when I start sharing my feelings with you?
I will present you parts of myself slowly if you are patient and tender, 1 You will open drawers that mostly stayed closed and bring out places and people and things, sounds and smalls, loves
and frustrations, hopes and sadnesses, bits and pieces of many decades of life that have been grabbed off in chunks and found lying in my hands. They have eaten their way into my heart.
Altogether--you or I will never see them--they are me. If you regard them lightly, deny that they are important or worse, judge them, I will quietly, slowly begin to wrap them up in small pieces of velvet, like worn silver and gold jewelry, tuck them away in a small wooden chest of drawers, AND CLOSE.
LESBIAN GAY VOTE
86
John Pierre
page 5
POEM
THANKS, ANYWAY
I see you sitting there And I do entertain fanciful notions
About you, about me,
most of all
About us.
but
But I am too old or at least too wise
To involve myself in a foolhearty enterprise.
So I will leave you sitting there
But thanks anyway, the thought was fun!
It may have been just as good as the real thing, Maybe better!
C.C. 1985
WOW!
To the Editor:
I am a mature person, but I must say that you people are not mature. The only thing I get the paper for is the Chineese Horoscope. The paper, reminds me of my high school news paper. Which can only tell me that you people have been given a new toy and just like any other person you don't know how to use it. A news paper should set an example for other people and print the News of people not just Gay People. You people are not american's or mature people. A homosexual is a person that is distinguished from others because of their sex lives. A gay person is a happy person full of cheer. Women, Blacks, and Gays are the people that America trys to down grade but if you really want to know the truth America bullies those who don't know any better, America bullies childish' people, people who do not accept the law. American's don't like stupid people. Until men accept the fact that when two men get together to have that it is a fair exchange action and no one is a woman and no one is a just two people having sex. It's time to grow up it's time to face the real truth. It's time to settle down with one person and stop laying around and to discourage ohers to stop being sluts.
sex
man
Unsigned
gay peoples CHRONICLE
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