HIGH GEAR/NOVEMBER 1977

U.S. ACCEPTS GAY LIFESTYLE?

By S. Howard

Yes, this could very easily happen, if the gay community bonds together and stands as one for what it believes. There is a force within us all which will not be overcome if it is used in unity with determination.

Let us view a normal weekend night, the bars are all packed, the baths are filled and have waiting lines stretching into the early morning. This is not just one isolated city, this is true in every major city across the country. Confirmed estimates supplied by Dr. Kinsey stated that it is expected that 10% of any population can be expected to be gay. Even with this conservative estimate, this places our number over 20,000,000 and I would estimate that this figure could be upgraded many times in the next few years.

Men's shops are beginning to tailor to their preferred customers, including the gay clientele some even exclusively. New resorts are opening their doors to us daily, and more and more businessmen are coming to realize that the gay culture controls a buying power to be recognized.

Suppose we examine this trend to gleam why this is taking place now. For the past decade, gays have fought a long and hard struggle to escape from the closet of oppression in which society has placed them. We have finally said we would fight the oppression and withstand the persecution no more. Many of our supporters have been in positions of influence and power. In our present day, much publicity towards the gay community has essentially put us in the spotlight while the world awaits what will happen next.

What will happen next? A campaign to follow Ms. Bryant to all her campaign stops in order to harass and embarrass her and to lay waste to her claims...a just cause by all means, but also one which consumes much time and energy that could be put to much better use. Perhaps all her tactics are just a ruse to gain time and wear us down before the real issues come to play...gay rights, the freedom of our teachers and businessmen to acknowledge their lifestyles and live in peace, and the knowledge that we are free to live our lives as we wish. Evelyn Hooker, a hopelessly heterosexual psychologist at UCLA, laid strong foundations for the gay rights movement recently when she published the results of a battery of tests which she took using both heterosexual and homosexual men. The tests were taken under normal everyday conditions and the results proved that there was no significant differences. Tests designed to diagnose mental illness showed the average homosexual was as healthy as the average straight.

While we continue to gain Support from reliable straight Sources, we are slowly losing

the hecklers who would have us "stoned and flogged for our sins against society," the Bryants of the world. Perhaps our dream of a brighter future will finally become a reality.

In order to fully realize the power which we control, let us look at ourselves. It is nationally recognized that when disco is mentioned, we are the leaders. We are responsible for over thirty per cent of the disco market and these studies are being constantly updated.

Quoting from Blueboy Publisher Donald Embinder, "The Blueboy reader is a man between the ages of twenty-five and forty, with an annual income of between $15,000 and $24,000. He is a college graduate, carries up to five credit cards, owns his own car and takes two to three vacations each year. He drinks beer, liquor, wine and/or champagne, usually by brand and spends between $1,000 to $2,000 per year on clothing and stereo equipment."

Blueboy, one of the newest gay magazines, very probably is the most successful to date to tap into the gay market. It sells 135,000 copies nationally (25,000 in metropolitan New York area) and surveys indicate a readership of six times this number.

Donald Embinder, publisher of Blueboy and a former advertising man says, "the most potentially profitable untapped market in this country today is the male homosexual."

If the gay culture were organized effectively, our sheer number could and would demand great clout in the business world as well as the political world, however we continue to progress slowly in every way. The reason for this is the lack of a cohesive gay leadership. Everyone is afraid to get involved and as a result, the number of effective leaders and activists dwindles instead of growing. I seriously wonder what would have happened if during the Jerry Lewis Telethon, a group from the National Gay Task Force came up with a donation from gays from around the country, a donation which would have served a multiple purpose.

Robert Livingston, special assistant to Senator Moynihan and head of a recent gay voter registration drive that added 12,000 names to the rolls, stated that the gay community could easily elect the next mayor of New York City, if only we voted together as a bloc. The same could easily apply to a consumer bloc, which would divert millions from the operations of the so-called straight businessmen.

There are 707,000 registered voters in Manhattan. Ronnie Eldridge, a gay-rights proponent and a candidate for Manhattan .borough president, estimates that only 150,000 people vote for this office. Applying Dr. Kinsey's standard that 10 percent of any population is gay, Mrs. Eldridge

has a potential gay voter bloc of 70,000 which spells success.

New York City probably has the greatest concentration of creative talent in the country, but the size of it's gay population will remain elusive until gays raise their heads high. Only a few people in the business and financial worlds have seen that gay power can be as valuable to them as it is to the politicians.

"The history of assimilation and integration in this culture shows us that we've got to be identified as a community." And gays are beginning to take this reasoning seriously when doing business.

San Francisco's estimated 120,000 homosexuals have long established their roots and now interact with straights in a variety of forums towards a variety of mutually desired goals. They have formed an alliance with the teamsters, while other labor unions are also "toying" with the same idea because of the immense number of homosexuals.

Evidence suggests that San Francisco gays have achieved an open life-style which is at once acceptable and integrated in the community. It is further suspected that wealthy gays in New York may control as much as $20 billion.

If gays would pull together, choose a leader or many leaders, they would probably gain sufficient clout to control legislation. If we finally massed together and demanded an end to oppression and supression of our life-styles, we would have the freedom which we long for so dearly.

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(Continued from Page 14)

no timid references to penis, rectum and vaginas. It's cock and ass and cunt ... and what to do with what we have and like. It's beautifully and tastefully illustrated with ART (not photos)

graphic ... frank... bold... yet not PORN. If any of us still have hang-ups about gay sex activities or are just coming out...these books are a must have. Crown Publishers put it out. Coventry Books has ordered a supply of both volumes. They must be good. They sold out of all the inventory they had in stock. Other books of note: Monty, Hidden Lives, Cole, I can go on and on books about gays are coming out of the closet in every-increasing numbers. Now the job is to get them, read them, and pass the info around. See you next month.

NOW WHAT?

MIAMI, Fla.--"Now What?," a new book for the parents of gay women and men, has been published by the Center for Dialog, a church social-action agency in Anita Bryant's hometown.

The author is Bill Hutchinson, a former Miami Herald reporter who is himself gay. His warmly supportive book, to help parents understand what their gay children have gone through, draws on expert advice from professionals in psychology. pediatrics and the law, as well as a chapter by the Episcopal bishop of Florida. Gay women and men themselves also contribute, out of their own periences.

Page 15,

Adele Starr, a leader of the Parents of Gays chapter in Los Angeles, has already hailed the paperbound volume as "a little gem of a book."

in

The publisher of "Now What?" is an agency which grew out of St. John Lutheran Church in Miami, a Lutheran Church American congregation which now leases its building to Metropolitan Community Church/Miami. The Rev. Don Ellert Olson, the Center for Dialog director and an LCA pastor, wrote the introduction to Hutchinson's book.

The 106-page book is available by mail for $3.50 from ex-..Center for Dialog, 2175 NW. 26th St., Miami Fla. 33142.

LUTHERANS CONCERNED OHIO

Seeking understanding, justice and acceptance in our Church For details write LUTHERANS CONCERNED/OHIO

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