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Out

on the Town

HIGH GEAR

by Aaron Ross

Our gay life style is changing so rapidly it's hard to keep track of it. All of a sudden TV has gone gay. All the way. It seems that hardly a night goes by without there being something on the gay experience on that boob tube.

From special one-time dramas, like the one on the Family, to a continuing series with a "regular" gay like the Nancy Walker Show, to frequent gay episodes on shows like Phyllis, All In the Family, Maude, etc. I personally am disturbed by some of the "gay shows" i've seen. Entertainment has discovered "gay" as a dramatic or humorous device a shocker or stinger to titillate the straight squares in Oshkosk or Podunk for the same reasons they used to use alcoholics, dope addicts,, compulsive liars and thieves.

We're "curios" deviations from the so-called “norm” on which to hang a series of obvious dramatic situations or equally

obvious laughs. Sometimes I feel that TV has just dusted off some old script changed the character from a drunk to a gayand passed if off as "comtemporary" broadminded slice of what "life" is today. After seeing the horrific shock of "the Family" when they discover that their son's former best friend has "got it" (as if it were leprosy), I yearn for those old days when gays recognized their own (not by name, title, sneer or laugh) but by their unique acting style, sophisticated dress, or sardonic (and cool) demeanor.

Who could forget Vincent Price's gay portrayal in "Laura" -or James Dean's "sensitivity" in East of Eden or Clifton Webb's so-gay baby sitter in Sitting Pretty or Charles Laughton's Herod or Nero in many a biblical spectacular likewise Peter Ustinov's elegance in similar epics or the urbane gentlemen's gentlemen portrayed by Eric Blore, Franklyn Pangborn, Arthur Treacher or Edward Everett Horton. I'd rather see a Wally Cox as Mr. Peepers than to peep condescendingly at a "boy who has gone wrong." Or Montgomery Clif unconvincingly wooing an Elizabeth Taylor (because WE always knew our own). Or the late Sal Mineo following a "different drummer" as Gene Krupa.

Yesterday TV viewers were "shocked" by relationships between blacks and whites. Now Gays are the objects of "tolerance" and "understand ing" on so-called liberal and well-meaning plots.

Well I for one don't want to be tolerated or understood, or explained or justified on TV shows that pander to the tastes of bigoted, prejudiced narrowminded viewers. My sexual

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preference doesn't make me a freak, an object of pity, a source of degeneration, a symbol of deprivation, a butt of jokes, a reason for scorn, a device of cliched melodrama. I, like the many writers, producers, directors, actors, editors of TV shows, am gay so I don't understand why my gay colleagues stoop so low and cater to the leering, sneering few that look upon them as some strange human beings. What's the alternative? Let a gay figure prominently in a drama like Rich Man, Poor Man without making that gay an object of conflict, sadness or sickness.

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Let TV dramatize the lives of

Leonardo DaVinci, Alexander the Great, Michaelangelo, Tchaikovsky, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and William Inge as genius men with the drama hinging on their success and failures in their art -

and not in their sexual preferences.

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Imagine if society was given more credit for their acceptance of Gay we would see man-toman friendship and love as an ordinary occurrence (likewise woman-to-woman ) and not as a subject of tragic drama. And the straight society DOES accept us even copies us at times and that's why rock devotees couldn't care less that Bowie, Elton John, Cooper, The Tubes, Patti Smith, Lou Reed and many, many more are admittedly gay or bi-sexual.

They don't give a damn. And why should they? And why should others? Because deep in everyone's psyche there was or is a feeling for one's sex at one time or another. It's natural. It's normal. It's prevalent in more And if TV (and the movies) people than you can imagine. would admit to this, they would not single out Gays as a dramatic or humorous device. They would treat gays as they do straights with emphasis on the overall story and not on the character's sex tastes. Soon I hope no more "Norman Is That You" or "The Ritz." But more

Sunday Bloody Sunday" flicks and more "Satyricon" classics by Fellini (which by the way is Theatre on January 31st.) The coming to the New Mayfield 1970's will go down in gay history as the time when the old gay stereotypes vanished. Instead of swish we have the butch look and manner, instead of prissy effeminate types we have the charisma of a Manilow, the charm of a Paul Lynde, the greasy punkness of the Fonze (Mr. Winkler of course). Gays are out of the closet. It's about time.

Everything you read is the opinion of one man yours truly Aaron Ross and does not reflect the opinions of the editors of High Gear. Many readers may take exception to some of what I've written. And that's fine. But let us all know your thoughts. Write us what you think about ....

1. Mixed bars that cater to and welcome gays and straights

2. TV and movies that portray gays as odd balls, strange ones, "queers."

3. Clubs and theatres specifically for gays? or for gay orientated entertainments?

4. Gay Bars exclusively for male gays.

5. More admissions about their gay preferences from famous entertainers.

6. More good books, plays, movies, songs and tv shows about the gay experience.

7. Positive or negative views about Cleveland (and vicinity) gay life.

8. News and views about

upcoming attractions of interest to gays.

If you want to remain in the closet, you don't have to give us your real names, but do write

and share your thoughts with other High Gear readers. If my column has acted as a catalyst to make you "open up" and get some things off your chest, I am pleased. High Gear is YOUR newspaper. Let's make sure it reflects what YOU think and

want.

Before I sign off a few comments that are sure to arouse controversy.

On my recent visit to New York I encountered a relatively new development in the Gay lifestyle back room gay bars, and book stores. These gay establishments vary only in the openness and the activities of those back rooms.

The most OPEN and most active is The Toilet a large loft

on the 4th floor of what used to be a meatpacking plant in the food

warehouse district of New York's 14th street and the docks. Here the back room is the entire room or a series of rooms where men of every description, every age. every vocation (and avocation) indulge in every sexual act openly, in full view of everyone.

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The uniqueness of The Toilet (and what gives this place its name) is the emphasis on Toilet sex or to be more explicit (within bounds of the editor's squeamishness) sex that involves excrement (urination) or defecation) as a basis for getting "turned on". There, near urinais and toilet bowls, sit and stand naked bodies waiting for

someone to heap their excrement upon them. If you really gotta go but you can't do it "that way" you're forced to hold it in until you find a regular "toilet" outside.

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If this toilet happening is not your style you can get it off through any of dozens of glory holes, on the floor on tables, on or near the dance floor, where naked youths gyrate to disco tunes or swing on trapeze ropes. Entry is by "membership" other words, if you have a few dollars you're a member. Another place is the Anvil, two streets away, where fist-fucking is the show, atop a bar in the midst of everything, and where gay movies are shown in an adjoining room to stimulate the standing bodies pressed tightly together. Feel literary? A book store on Christopher Street

charges you 50c to enter their back room which has various levels of sitting or lying space for the viewers (and doers) who some time watch the gay movies on the screen. After visiting these permissive places one sometimes yearns for an "ordinary" bar where the only contact made is verbal (not oral or anal) with clothes on and zippers up. A place that combines it all is the Galaxy Two on 23rd Street in Manhattan. Four floors with everything for everyone. A bar and a disco dance floor on the first level. A blue room (dark) for groping and making it in the dark. A pink room (not so dark) for making it to soft lights and sweet rock music. A restaurant to replenish ones energy. And the Penthouse where straights and gays listen to jazz and rock groups. I discovered this place by reading the New York Times. That's right. So don't be surprised to look up from what you're doing and see peering eyes from some straight couple who find it "kicks" to see what the other half is doing. For a more complete list of these N.Y. places, their addresses, etc. send me a self-addressed postage-paid envelope. And please indicate the "extent" of your sexual preferences so I can direct you to your particular activity spot. And if you have any comments on the above (pro or con) write!

Tarky Shakespeare?

"Rather proclaim it, West-

moreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put into his purse."

"Give me the glass and therein will I read-

No deeper wrinkles yet? hath

sorrow struck

So many blows upon this face of mine,

And made no deeper wounds?."

"Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o'nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."

"By Jupiter, an angel, or, if not, An earthly paragon! Behold divineness

No older than aboy!"