Page 6 HIGH GEAR MARCH 1981

CEAR

OPINION

A Publication of the GEAR Foundation VOLUME 7, ISSUE 6

1981 GEAR

HIGH GEAR is a publication of the Gay Educational and Awareness Resources (GEAR) Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio. It is distributed free of charge in any establishment and with any organization that will permit distribution. It is a non-profit, federally tax-exempt publication.

The presence of the name or picture or other representation of an organization, place of business or person(s) in HIGH GEAR is not necessarily indicative of the sexual orientation of such organizations or persons.

All contributions of written materials, art work or photography by members of the gay community are welcome. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editorilization. The return of materials submitted for publication, whether used by HIGH GEAR or not, cannot be guaranteed unless accompanled by a self-addressed stamped envelope.

ALL HIGH GEAR staff members 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, P.O. Box 6177, Cleveland, Ohio 44101.

Business or organizations wishing to advertise in HIGH GEAR may obtain advertising rate cards and other information by writing to the above address.

The deadline for HIGH GEAR publication is the 15th of the month for advertising and written material. News items accepted until the date of publication.

HIGH GEAR will not publish material deemed to be of a racist, sexist or pornographic nature. HIGH GEAR reserves 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. ALL HIGH GEAR work is original unless otherwise noted.

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Printed by THE CALL AND POST

Carl Hammond

Bill Suhay Bob Roehm

...Bob Kovach Jeff Wobbecke

Paul Charles Paul Zimmerman David Kellogg R. Woodward Win Weizer

Gordon Hathaway Dianne Fishman

Barbara Lee ¡Gail Burlee Marcia Perry Lorie Cecelich

Dan Kahn Tracey Ryan Jerry Bores

Wearing

of the green

Published in 1894, The Green Carnation, a novel by Robert Hichens, is the funniest and most effective satire ever written about Oscar Wilde. Hearing about it, however, might prove very disconcerting to some of your nongay Irish acquaintances who intend to wear green carnations on St. Patrick's Day.

Like Oscar Wilde, the novel's leading character Mr. Amarinth wears a green carnation as a deliberately blatant symbol of his high camp life style.

In the paperback edition published in 1970 by the University of Nebraska Press, the text of the novel is preceded by an introduction by critic Stanley Weintraub. Weintraub describes Reggie Turner and Max Beerbohm, two friends of Wilde, reading the novel in manuscript:

"They apparently had no anticipation of its damaging implications to Oscar: Although the green carnation was a symbol of homosexuality in Paris, and worn there to deliberately advertise the fact, it caused no preliminary disquiet in Wilde's two friends, even when Hichens parodied the premiere of Lady Windermere's Fan in the observation of a young

woman new to London:"

"I only saw about a dozen green carnations in the Opera House tonight, and all the men who wore them looked the same. They had the same walk, or rather waggle, the same coyly conscious expression, the same wavy motion of the head. When they spoke to each other, they called each other by Christian names. is it a badge of some club or some society, and is Mr. Amarinth their high priest? They all revolve around him like satellites around the sun HS

Enthralled by Idie superstition, anti-gay types insist that you must spoke to him, and seemed to be a toad because they happen to be covered with warts.

Happy St. Patricks Day to all.

Editorial

HIGH GEAR denies

the rumors

Eager to be scrupulous in all of its dealings with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, HIGH GEAR apologizes for misspelling his name as "FalIwell" on the front cover of our February issue. The individual who prepared the caption says that the mistake was due to haste and the pressures of the last few hours before a final deadline.

Although he does not vouch for his subconscious, the individual who prepared the caption assures us that no deliberate play on words was intended -even if spelling the first syllable of Falwell's name as "Fall" does strike many readers as being an obvious and very appropriate allusion to the Fall of Man.

Rumors we deny

HIGH GEAR also feels that it is its duty to deny two rumors about Falwell which have come to its attention.

As far as HIGH GEAR has been able to determine, these rumors have no factual basis, no matter how true-to-life some readers might find them to be.

The first rumor involves Faiwell being employed by HIGH GEAR. There is absolutely nothing to the rumor that Jerry Falwell is an undercover agent hired by HIGH GEAR to make anti-gay evangelists look ridiculous.

It is nothing more than a coincidence that the news broke across the United States of Falwell acting like a Pharisee just as the February issue of HIGH GEAR was being distributed with his photograph on the cover with a caption beneath it which read, "Pharisee Fallwell smiles smugly."

The news, which broke during the first week of February, was that of the March issue of Penthouse nationwide because it contained an Falwell tried to get a federal judge in Virginia to block the distribution interview with him.

Falwell claimed that the interviewers, free-lance writers, had promised him that the interview would not appear in such a publication. Evidently Falwell was so busy thinking and expressing pure, heavenly thoughts that it did not occur to him to get the promise in writing.

Falwell did not claim that the interviewers had misquoted him or that they had taken any of his words out of context. His chief concern was that damage might be done to his earthly reputation by the appearance of his pious words in the midst of such wicked company. Those familiar with the New Testament will no doubt recall the anecdote related in three places, in Matthew 9, in Mark 2, and in Luke 5, in which some Pharisees chide Jesus for dining with publicans and sinners and Jesus replies that it is not those who are whole who need the physician, but those who are sick, that he has not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

(Those who like to count their blessings from time might want to include in the next count this: If you or any of your loved ones should happen to develop appendicitis, Falwell will not be asurgeon.)

The most conclusive evidence that Falwell is not working for HIGH GEAR is the fact that no members of the HIGH GEAR staff are paid for their time and services. All are volunteers, chiefly serving righteousness. It has not been absolutely unheard of for some staff members to also serve their egos, but no one has ever accused members of a HIGH GEAR staff of being as eager as Falwell obviously is to serve

mammon.

A fat camel

A news story by reporter Ed Burke in the February 3, issue of the Washington Post quotes Falwell as complaining about the interview in Penthouse, "The people who support our work stand where we do and if they believe we gave such an interview it will damage our financial standing."

Words of Jesus which mean exactly what they seem to mean and do not have a different meaning out of context are, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

For the good of his soul Falwell owes it to himself to consider Matthew 6: 24. (Luke 16: 9 says the same thing in words which are almost identical.) Says Jesus in this passage, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other; of else he will hold to the one and dispise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

The other rumor

Another rumor which has come to HIGH GEAR's attention concerns Falwell's health.

As far as HIGH GEAR has been able to determine, he is in perfect health, other than being noticably overweight from indulging himself with other nourishment besides manna from Heaven.

As far as we could find out, there is nothing to the rumor that the lower half of his face is now paralyzed due to the extreme strain on his jaw muscles of trying to keep his face from having a smug expression. incitsolmo ong vfits R. Woodward