Page 8 HIGH GEAR

By

DENNIS HIGHLAND.

Now that 1979 is here, with many of us laboring under the constraints our new year

resolutions have placed upon us, I think it an appropriate time to evaluate where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. Since our lives are, for the most part, far too short quanititatively, we ned to make our lives as qualitatively full as we can to compensate for our biological shortcomings.

opinion

which will not cause ourselves to become overly structured, but still allows us to make adequate

provisions for a more productive

future.

This planning extends beyond mere resolutions every new year. It means keeping promises you make to yourself. It means investing those extra few dollars in a bank rather than in a clothing store. Most importantly, it means investing time into developing good friendships rather than

flitting from acquaintance to acquaintance or trick to trick.

Just as a solid building cannot be built without a good foundation, a fulfilling life cannot be developed without plans or a sense of purpose. Some type of personal management is a necessary part of the "gay responsibility" which is so important to this fulfilling life. The enjoyment of youth must be tempered with a sense of what the future will bring.

Mail Bag

The article in the December issue on Dull Sex is, it seems to me, and article presuming litle faith in both one's selective and appreciative natures. After all is said, and, most importantly, done, if one has fallen victim to the wretched specter of Dull Sex, one is more to blame than one's trick.

Based upon the attitudes of many people I have met, planning one's life to obtain the Dear Editor, most worth and enjoyment out of it is definitely not a strong point of many gay men and women. Stereotypes of the "flipant faggot aside, there are quite a few individuals who live their lives strictly on a day-to-day basis: they pick up some menial, low-paying job in a restaurant or shopping center which enables them to subsist, but nomore. No plans are made for the future when parents and friends may

not be around to loan those needed extra few dollars until the next meager paycheck arrives.

Furthermore, the small amount that is earned isn't saved or invested, but often squandered on overpriced, tacky baubles or poorly-made clothing purchased at "boutiques" whose outrageous profit margins are notorious. Entertainment consists of barhopping with all its attendant covercharges and overpriced drinks.

Additionally, this lack of planning pervades many social lives as well as economic ones. Many of us don't try to make friends we're afraid of divulging our innermost thoughts to others. As someone I know put it

so well, there are too many people who are "deep as a dime" and who live by the "trick a night" philosophy. No concern is evinced over past acccomplishments of future opportunities, or lack of them. Life is strictly in the present, as though time stood

still.

But time is progressing continuously; it waits for no one. And a great deal of our future depends upon our past accomplishments and present plans. We must maintain a semblance of order in our lives; there needs to be some sort of pattern we can adopt to our lives

Mitchell is to be commended for pointing it out, and for brandishing his subtly significant humor to persuade us of its guises. And he should be forgiven for needling the point too heavily that Dull Sex walks among us flesh and blood, hoping for another trick.

Since sex in the late 1970's can be more of an easy-come, easy-go fling than it used to be, then finding Good Sex can increasingly seem difficult. Anything being only difficult ceases to be difficult, and Dull Sex can amount to nothing more than a surfeit of its opposite.

This makes moot the question: What is good sex? And this in turn exacts the questions of one's personal selection and appreciation. I can only answer these that, thankfully, all men as thinkers have been taught thay they should never attempt to judge anything for themselves.

To The Editor:

Thank God for Anita! To many self acknowledged gays, the effect of Anita's activities has been increased hardships and persecution.

To many more of us, they have had the opposite effect. For years we denied our own desires, telling ourselves these were unnatural, vile and of the worst type of sinfulness. We hid from our identified with those queer low selves. We did not want to be class individuals. We all knew one or two individuals were almost always pictured as undesirables.

Anita's noise has brought many more out and we find them to be well educated, healthy, interesting people in all the every day walks of life. The homosexual is no longer the over weight, pink skinned, prissy older man with a high pitched voice. He's a farmer, a trucker, a lawyer, a doctor a clergy man, a draftsman, a machinist, an engineer, an actor a sportsman, a clerk, a hair stylist a politician.

---Constance Abernathy He's young, he's old, he's middleaged, he's thin, he's fat, he's tall, he's short and he's human.

He's black, white or yellow, he's Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Athiest or Pentecostal, Democrat or Republican. He's emotional and hungry to express his emotions, to share to want and be wanted. He's average in. all respects as the world sees him. His only difference is in attraction to others of the same gender.

He is fearful of expressing his desires for fear of condemnation, but he is learning he is not alone. Thanks to Anita and others he's learning his feelings are shared by millions and as the Christians won out over the Romans, as the inquisition only fueled the reformation, so the Gay persecution will free all of us from our fears of aloneness.

Thank God for Anita, we will overcome ignorance and prejudice and our fears and we will be free.

Fraternally Peter Cologne

Editorial

The staff of HIGH GEAR wishes all of its readers a Happy New Year. As it does so, it would like to take a few moments to describe GEAR and the groups connected with it, to say what these groups do and why they do it.

The Gay Educational and Awareness Resources Foundation (GEAR) is a non-profit organization formed to help gay people understand themselves and to help them realize their own strengths. Part of doing these things is making the general public better informed about what being gay is.

To make its educating more efficient and thorough, GEAR has three suborganizations, the Gay Hotline/ Switchboard, the Gay Community Center of Cleveland (GCCC), and HIGH GEAR.

The Gay Hotline/ Switchboard provides quick information for callers who want immediate answers to specific questionseither about being gay in general or about gay activities in the Northern Ohio area.

GCCC provides local gays with a place to meet and socialize. To those who wish to see it as such, it gives an alternative to churches and bars.

HIGH GEAR, sponsored by GEAR but written and edited by staff of its own, is a monthly news journal. Although meant to be of interest to any reader anywhere, it is especially concerned with covering local gay news and with providing local gays with a printed outlet for their "opinions.

GEAR and these groups connected with it exist because ignorance hurts. The American landscape teems with people badly informed about homosexuality who deem themselves founts of wisdom in judging it. Carelessly and thoughtlessly these people judge, condemn, and at times reach out to strike back. Their knowledge of being gay does not extend beyond idle superstition.

People who are gay must understand and be able to say what is true about themselves and what is not. They must provide eachother with ideas and information and must be able to explain and argue. Selfdefense is a responsibility that gays cannot afford to shrug off themselves and each other they must arm with knowledge.

CEAR

A Publication of the Gear Foundation VOLUME 5 ISSUE 52

HIGH GEAR journal is a publication of the Gay Educational and Awareness Resources (G.E.A.R.) Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio. It is distributed free of charge in any establishment and with any organization that will permit dis tribution. We are a non-profit, federally tax-exempt publication

The presence of the name or picture or other representation of an organi zation, place of business or person (s) in HIGH GEAR is not necessarily in dicative of the sexual orientation of such organizations, businesses, or per

sons

We welcome all contributions of written materials, art work, or photography by members of the gay community. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editorialization. We cannot guarantee the return of materials submitted for publication, whether used by HIGH GEAR or not, unless they are accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope

All HIGH GEAR staff are volunteers. Anyone interested in working on the staff of HIGH GEAR should inquire by calling (216) 621-3380 or by writing to HIGH GEAR. PO Box 6177, Cleveland, Ohio 44101

Businesses or organizations wishing to advertise in HIGH GEAR may obtain advertising rate sheets and other information by writing to the above ad dress

The deadline for HIGH GEAR publication is the 15th of the month for ad vertising and written material News items accepted until the date of public-

ation

HIGH GEAR will not publish material in which graphic or verbal represent ations of an ideal or idealized human body appear except in the case of a performer or work of art which is the subject of the material We also will not publish material of a racist, sexist, or pornographic nature. We reserve the right to alter and or edit material to conform to the above standards, in the case of display advertising, after notifying the advertiser

HIGH GEAR is copyrighted under federal law Reproduction is granted to all other gay publications so long as credit is given to HIGH GEAR A HIGH GEAR work is original unless otherwise noted

Dan Miecznikowski, Steve Jobe, Akron

Rob Davis, Columbus Advertising:

Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor

Jim Lewis, Michael Prunty

Distribution and Subscriptions; Mark Kinsley, Tom David, Jeff Ramsey

Layout: Billy Hawk, Robbie Robinson, Carl Howard, R. Woodward, Rick Cureton.

Circulation 11,000 throughout the United