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THE BARB - 2 Editor’s The Stonewall Riots of 1969 will be commemorated during the month of June by gay people all across America. New York. Los Angeles and San Francisco will have the most visible celebrations with large parades. Many cities and colleges campuses will be the scene of smaller com* memorations. There will be no large parades in the deep South commemorating this im- poratnt event. Miami’s GAA has folded its door, Atlanta’s GLF died two years ago; Tampa and Jacksonville never had one and Charlotte’s Gay Activists are just organizing. The Triangle Gay Alliance in North Carolina and gay groups in Nashville and- Knoxville have never opted for such public ventures. No parade. no Gay Liberation? Not so! The national media both gay and straight may give you the impression that gay people are doing nothing but sitting on the veranda with their mint Juleps but nothing could be further from the truth. GAA Miami may not be operating anymore but the Gay Business Owners Association is strong and active with growing com munity support. The BOA Miami pjresident Jack Cam pbell recently announced his candidacy for the Miami City Council and their Hot Line is open 24 hours. Woody Slappey of the Jacksonville <^CC has w m been active in the gay civil rights area; testifying recently before the . Jacksonville Community Relations Com mission and organizing the Wes Fortner Fund to^ptsist Mr. Fortner’s legal effort to remain in the Navy as an openly gay person. • . Charlotte and the Triangle Gay Alliance; Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill have had continuing gjiy community support sincel970. Campus gay organizations abound in the south from Florida’s myriad number of community colleges to Chapel Hill’s large complex. . The University of Georgia recently elected a past Committee on Gay Education Chairperson President of the student body. Atlanta also has a strong gay community. The Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance has a rich history of community Where Gibson W. Hi Aging The continuing basis for writing this column is to provoke your thinking. Whatever your beliefs, 1 hope to challenge them. I see myself as a prophet trying to awaken you to thoughts of* a new age: one of your qwn making. The future is ours, to use poorly or well, as we see fit. What this town needs is some good old police op pression. The gay community doesn’t actually exist aSd enough oppression could be the catalyst for creating it. A community is a political entity, and sexuality'in itself is not political. There is no freedom* ' but that of in visibility. Older gays are “secure” in whatever closet they have created for themselves, and younger gays are too busy chasing each other with what freedom they have, but what is there 'besides sucking and fucking? W^at is it that a person gets or gives in a quick trick? Physical pleasure in some cases. A sensitive, interested person who takes the time and trouble can send you into ecstasy. But the other kind is still there-biff, bam, thank ya. man. What did he do?? 9 Give me back my what??? £ We use one another and A discard the result as con taminated. We are sick we have been told, so we purge ourselves of guilt feelings by avoiding any kind of feelings at all. A hot new one, that’s all I need. He makes me feel good (that is, he makes me feel momentarily better about myself) so why not get together? 1 can chase all of my blues away . True, if I was honest, 1 would admit to myself that it will be over in a few days, but it fulfills something until then. Fulfills what? A roller coaster cycle careening out of control with highs and lows. Some in society say that divorce is a normal outcome when in dividuals grow so much that they sometimes jure no longer suited for another. Perhaps, but for an entire relationship to last only days or minutes is insanity , particularly when that is the only kind ever entered. In that length of time you barely know a person’s name. You meet them physically, but even there full knowledge takes time and familiarity in other respects. One aspect of the so-called sexual revolution is the in creasing acceptance of casual sex. Don’t ask for sociological proof, but it just may be that it fulfills definite humanaj|eeds - as long as it is kept’ tyrthin bounds. Within The Barb is published monthly by Wesjir Enterprises. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pend ing at Atlanta,. Georgia; Subscriptions are $4.00 for one year (12 issues). Letters and manuscripts are welcomed. Please enclose stamped, self-addressed envelope for return of manuscripts, photos, etc. Opinions expressed by our columnists do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Barb management. Editor . . . . Associate Editor Barb Staff: Gibson Higgins Kathy * Phyllis Killer; Glen Long S2§§ f Advertising Representatives: ^Atlanta: Billy Jones POB 7922 | Atlanta, GA. 30309- (404) 872-6068 ! . . . . . . . . . . Bill Smith Richard Evans Lee Telephone (4042 874-3232 Bob Salo Peter Thomas Steve Warren Michael Young Ft. Lauderdale: Peter Thomas 3801 N. Ocean Blvd. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. 33308 (305) 566-4376 ‘THE VOICE OF THE GAY COMMUNITY” LETTERS activity and is continuing to grow. The recently formed Atlanta Gay Coalition holds hope for unified and cohesive action among the gay organizations and individual ( g^.v activists in Atlanta. \. yThferemay not. be parades in any major southern city but the struggle for gay civil equality is alive and well and growing stronger.. My notebook tells me that Charles St. John will not be in Atlanta for: Gay Pride Week. Charlie moved to Colorado last month ending a four year stay in Atlanta. I Who is Charles St. John? Mr. St. John was one of the Chairpersons of the now defunct Georgia Gay Liberation Front, a prime organizer of the GGLF dances that payed for the legal fees involved in forcing the State of Georgia to allow gay organizations on university campuses, a personal friend, and the first gay person in the South appointed to hold a political office. Charles St. John by virtue of being first holds a little place in history. He worked like hell while he was in Atlanta. In return for his efforts he was fired form his job, thrown out of his apartment and harrased by the police. Charles survived it all with the love of only his political idealism. Gay Pride Week in Atlanta will not be quite complete without him. Hopefully Charlie will come back to visit us maybe during the next year’s Gay Pride Week and perhaps then we can remember to {say thank you Charlie St. John. the life span of any individual there are times when no partner is present. In youth, between marriages (in the broad sense),! perhaps even during prolonged separation. People sometimes find themselves drawn into a casual encounter during such times. In earlier days, self- condemnation and remorse would ensue, but now more likely there would be ac ceptance. Most people also tend to move back into a lasting relationship. The trap for gays is that many of us do not enter such relationships, we do not grow through commitment. The search becomes the way of life, the discovery the end in itself. We cut ourselves off froth much that is worthwhile and satisfying, and we miss a lot after pouring all of our energy into the searching. The burden society has placed on gay people makes us, individually and collec tively, what 1 we are. It is absurd to expect to be able to “zap” people into normalcy within a few years. Social changes are measured in generations. If progress is being made toward liberation of gays and gayness, then we may be just players in roles, to/fhe extent that it takes time. • Alroadty the second “gen0i^t^^ : ..^js\_em e r^ing. There aref' fyast^i$||i r ere'tice3 between ypurige? apdolder gays. Many ypungOr pirieS are effeminate; but many arc Dear Editor: ■ - • -J. ■ ; \ During the recent Southeastern District ^Con ference of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, T had the pleasure of staying at the BelaMar Motel, on: the recommendation of The;Barb. I would like to thank you very much for the recommendation because 1 found the BelaMar to have a most enjoyable and relaxing. •.*: My hosts, Peter and Ed, the owners were most gracious and kind in putting up tyith a number of people ’from throughout the southeast. For some; of us this would Ije the only Vacation we would; have this year and they made our stay most pleasant. Agpin, 1 highly recommend f the BelAMar to any of j your also beyond that stereotype, for they have never felt jsuch pressure to conform ini any sense. The latter group describes itself as “straight acting”, etc. (you do read the persdnal ads). The words “butch” and “fem” have a chance of fading away under the light of freely lived lives. To the extent that personal change can make a dif ference, then we are not players, but human beings with power. The more each of us does with his or her own identity and being, the more difference it will make in the rate of change and ac ceptance. Straight males will never accept gays as equal until they visibly demon strate! themselves to be fully capable, functioning people who do not automatically swallow society’s dictates. Gay! people in the "South have a reputation for being conservative and voting Republican. Like the black middle class, they- un derstandably want to secure their hard worked for j>ains. Discussion of. political ideology is pointless; for arguing only hardens points of view, and the political spectriim is irrelevant tx> gay needs,] except that we require readers and if your other advertisers match up to the quality of the BelaMar they must be hihgly endorsed also. Yout in Christ,. Rev. Jim N. Snow I ’• Dear Bill, This is just a short but sincere note from MCC Columbia to thank the BARB for the privilge of having copies of your paper sent to us to be distributed to our congregation. From the congregation and Board of Directors: Thank you for your support of our Mission. Yours in Christian Love, WILLIAM S. RISE Chairman Interum Board of Directors Columbia Mission MCC basic freedoms to ensure our constitutional rights. There are probably numerous ways to work for such rights, and using priviledged political channels is certainly one of them. Visibility is the secret, however, and how can a person be safely visible while working for the right to be Safely visible? It’s Catch-22, and is the reason that gays can never be successfully “left alone to lead their own lives”. Things will just continue as they have for centuries, with alterating cycles of oppression and more oppression; Full personhood is a power derived from society as well as from self. As long as society (including the law) does not grant that power , the gay person Cannot live a complete life. It’s that sim ple, but don’t expect society to voluntarily confer the privilege' * f° r societies tend to be conservative also, status quo, unchanging unless new forces appear. If gays elect the status quo (a little freedom is better than none) that is all the freedom there will ever be, and sometimes there wm be pone. We tend to Continued on Page 10.