Newspaper Page Text
October 1976, THE BARB 2
Editor’s Notebook
The advertisement says
rf^The National Tea Dance is
coming. It isn’t!
I suppose this is my
month to eat '"row. At this
point it is doubtful there
vrill be a NGTF Tea Dance
in the south. Possibilities
exist in Miami, Houston,
Knoxville, and Chat
tanooga. The liquor laws
of Alabama and Georgia
dmost preclude a Sunday
Tea Dance. The Carolinas
may come through and
certainly New Orleans will.
What’s a Tea Dance?
The idea came from the
afternoon dances held on
Fire Island around tea time.
The reason to have a
National Tea Dance is the
remendous success of the
NGTF tea dance at the
Eagle’s Nest in New York.
This famous leather bar
turns disco once a week on
Sundays and allows the
National Gay Task Force to
collect a two dollar cover
charge and provides disco
music for their patrons.
The income has been an
important boost to the work
cf the National Gay Task
Force.
Hopefully the South will
do it’s part to participate in
the Tea Dance program.
Five Southerners now sit on
the board of directors of
NGTF and Southern
membership in NGTF is
growing. Where ever you
live talk with your local bar
owner about participating in
die National Tea Dance
Program. If you need more
hformation on how it works
to benefit our communities,
write to National Tea
Dance, c/o NGTF, 80 5th
Avenue, N. Y., N. Y. 10011
or call us here at THE
BARB.
Coming Out In The
Unreconstructed South
By Lyn Bray
It’s the early-to-mid
1%0’s. You’re an im
pressionable 13-year-old
living in a small Southern
town, complete with a town
square and tell-tale Con
federate monument.
Until recently, your life
was basically uneventful.
^ You were pretty much like
other boys in your age
group: smoking cigarettes
an the sly, wishing you
could spend your remaining
high school years in some
faraway boarding school,
and actively participating in
mutual masturbation.
But that’s where the
schism with “most boys
jour age” begins to widen.
You discover the boy
next door is into mutual
masturbation, too. He
invites you into the nearby
woods for a cigarette and
whatever. But vou’re onlv
half-way done with your
Winston when he suddenly
Hurts out: “I’m a queer!
Are you one too?”
A queer!
Your whole body seems
to freeze,
“Queer,” you think to
jourself. “Queer”! You
are absolutely horrified.
Once your mother had
warned you against
“strange men” who might
“want you” for immoral
purposes. But, being la
proper Southern lady, she
couldn’t get overly graphic
once she had made heir
point that these “strange
men” like to “do things”
to young boys. That was
about as explicit as she
could ever allow herself tb
get, but her purpose had
been achieved: you were
forced to realize &
“seamier” side of life
existed. And, since that
time, a “queer” was
synonymous with vague,
grotesque things like
vampires or giant
grasshoppers that attack
Tokyo.
“Queer,” you think,
still stunned, but too in
nately polite to show this
preconditioned repulsion.
“I guess I’ve never thought
about it,” you honestly
answer. Suddenly you
remember the tremors that
shoot through your body
everytime you see photos of
George Maharis without his
shirt on.
Of course, the boy next
door isn’t really a queer.
He just likes sex any way
he can get it and is making
the most of what wall be a
phase.
But you’re the sincere
type. The patsy. The
latent brownie queen.
You discreetly change
the subject, finish your
Winston and get your dick
sucked for the first time.
Being the nice person you
are, you feel genuinely
touched by this person -
whom as a child you ab
solutely detested - but he
did just manage to make
jou feel so good. He
pleads for you to
reciprocate but you aren’t
quite ready for that yet.
The sexual incubation
for a gay person (as op
posed to queer) living in
the South is somewhere
between two to four days,
depending upon when you
and what’s-nis-name get
together for more
cigarettes, etc.
By this time, you’ve
found yourself masturbating
over - of all people, places
and things - the boy next
door. Just why, you aren’t
so clear, but you know
yourself well enough to
taiow your needs.
The next time you “go
all the way” and, for the
subsequent few months,
experience just about every
kind of sexual act you’ll
ever experience in your
entire adult life, with the
possible exception of
rimming.
All of a sudden, your
droll, common-place
existence takes on color,
lust and a sort of earthy
glamour. Your un
suspecting parents might
even notice the difference,
privately wondering why
jou aren’t more cranky like
most adolescents entering
“chickenhood”.
But nothing lasts forever
and you, being well-
rounded for a 13-and-a-half-
s? 'Ha&Slh i
what
want.
We've got everything you
expect in a really great
vacation. And then some.
Ocean beaches. Sparkling
pool. Tea Dances. Famous
Poop Deck Disco. Gourmet
foods. Beautiful people.
Stay with us 7 days/6 nights for $99* including
welcome cocktail, breakfast or lunch daily, pool
mats, disco admission and more. Send for our
Package Plans brochure or call us toll-free.
year-old, realize the need
for a complete relationship.
The boy, next door - sexy
as he might .be - simply
doesn’t fill that bill.
Personality-wise, he’s
tfill as obnoxious as he
ever was. Besides that, as
the month’s continue to
flitter by, you notice he’s
fucking you more than
you’re fucking him.
Sometimes you get the
feeling he fancies himself
to be some sort of
heterosexual trainee.
“Jesus,” you think,
listening to the “Chapel of
Love” for the twentyfifth
consecutive time, “Next
he’ll be painting nipples on
my shoulder blades!”
Naturally, you’re too
nuch of a hypocrite tobreak
it off entirely, but that
unavoidable question is first
realized: “ARE THERE
OTHER PEOPLE LIKE
ME?”
The logical step, at this
point, is to visit your local
bus station, where they
undoubtedly have the best
magazine rack in town.
Trying to be ever so cool,
you grasp a copy of
“Sexology”, head for the
.cashier - who’s played
poker with your father since
the Spanish American war -
and brusquely throw it
down onto the counter,
demanding, “How much
will that be?” as if the “25
cents” wasn’t dominating
the top half of the
publication’s cover.
Later on, sitting
breathlessly in your room,
jou eagerly re-read the
table of contents until you
find the article entitled
‘‘Homosexuals in the
Cities” or some such gunk..
Here, you obtain your first
basic knowledge of what
you will later learn to be
known as the Gay Life.
Reading about the bars
and parks, you fantasize
about that perfect lover
jou’ll be getting - just as
soon as you finish high
school! But then you
realize that you’re barely 14
and have years - years! - to
go before that “One Fine
Day” comes along.
The months roll on and
jou become more and more
sexually prolific. At this
point, you realize the
meaning of the old axiom:
“All Dressed Up and No
Place to Go”.
Here you enter the most
difficult phase of your life.
You realize that, like it
or not, you need gay
companionship a hell of a
lot more than queer sex.
And there are those people
in school, most of them
unrepentant sissies, the
ones whose reputations are
“ruined”. ,
Atlanta • His identity
protected by a federal
judge’s consent, a 25 year
old Georgia man who
claims. “I am a woman”
has sued the state and
federal governments,
seeking to force them to
pay for recommended
transsexual surgery through
Msdicaid.
The lawsuit, filed in
US. District Court here
under the fictitious name of
“Carolyn Rush” maintains
in part that the state’s
policy to deny funds for
transsexual surgery
amounts to unlawful sexual
discrimination against
transsexuals. The Georgian
who is the son of a
Bahamian mother and a
Japanese father, said that
the operation is “the only
treatment which will make
it possible for (me) to live a
They get yelled at,
laughed at, beaten up and,
like you, secretly laid.
They could never win any
class elections or popularity
polls, but, being a true
child of the sixties, you
realize that as a human
being, you have one base
obligation in life: to have a
good time. And, for all
their persecution, they do
seem to be doing just that.
You gradually get to
know one of them.
Although none of the group
turns you on, you
grudgingly realize that sex
could be required to
become a member. At
least, that’s what everyone
in town thinks.
However, you are both
relieved and impressed to
dscover these so-called
“town-queers” don’t spend
all their spare time “doing
things” with each other.
Certainly not of a sexual
nature, anyway.
In fact, a couple of them
are pretty much like you.
They desperately want to
leave that hick burg. They
want to go to a city. They
want to cruise a gay bar.
And, being hopelessly
Southern, they want to find
a lover as soon as it’s
convenient.
For the first time in
your life you feel like an
integral part of something
interesting. Even though
these friendships will not
be carried on through life,
you have your first ex
perience dealing in an
exclusively gay en-
\ironment.
The real test, however,
pomes when you start being
“bra^«” about it. You
start ouhliclv associating
with the ‘"queers”.
I remember the first
time I did so. It was the
ninth grade and my best
friend and I had ridden to
school together. We. were
walking to our lockers,
pretty much a la Leave It
To Beaver, when I became
conscious of heads turning.
I could hear those disap
proving whispers, the
chuckles, the hostile wolf
whistles as we sailed down
that mouldy high school
“breezeway” together.
Though I was damning
rryself in the eyes of my
fellow dassmates, I really
didn’t care. In fact, I
remember to this day how I
instinctively held my head
up and raised my voice in
carefree conversation with
my friend - just so all those
fuckers would be sure and
hear that I was there with
rry friend, my comrade-in-
arms, my fellow, gay man.
more normal life devoid of
frustrations and despair.”
According to court
records, the surgery ac
tually was authorized in
1974 by a program officer
for the Georgia Department
of Human Resources.
“Approval was granted on
the basis of rehabilitative
potential after surgery,”
program officer Cathy
Harbin wrote in a June 4,
1974 letter introduced as
court evidence. The final
determination to deny
authorization for Medicaid
program, Sam Thurman.
Thurman said that the
denial was based in part on
a determination that “there
is no apparent pathological
condition” and that the
Medicaid program
“specifically eliminates
Continued on page 7
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strued as an indication of
sexual orientation. The
publisher does not assume any
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usage of any such material
volunteered and/or submitted
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express the individual viewpoint
cf the writer and do not
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EDITOR -W. E. (Bill)Smith, Jr.
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:
Louie Crew
Gibson Higgins
Jeffrey Lanf
Joel Starkey
Robert Blaine
Mark SMber
BvlTERTAINMENT EDITORS:
Phyllis Killer
Steve Warren
T. C. Wade
Skip Richards
ADVICE & PRODUCTS:
Jeannle Barney
Dr. Francis Dale
Mason Eagan
Robert Kunst
GRAPHICS & PRODUCTION:
Holly Moses
marty Pierce
Jeff Medders
Peter Ruhlman
DEADLINES FOR NOVEMBER
ISSUE:
WRITTEN COPY: October 6th
AD RESERVATION: October 11th
AD COPY DUE: October 13th
CLASSIFIED ADS: October 15th
PUBLICATION: October 19th
(Photography)
Page 1
Jo nn ivicNeill by Skip Richards
Ginny Vida - Courtesy of NGTF
Page 2
Editor by Skip Richards
Page 4
Photos by Skip Richards
Page 6
Phyllis courtesy of Billy Jones
Mr. Backstreet by Skip Richards
Page 7
Roxanne Russell by David Vance
NT. Teenager by Skip Ricnaras
Mcnael St. Laurent oy David Vance
Stephen’s Saloon courtesy of
Billy Jones
Age 8
Miss Rainbow by Scott Young
ivr. Gay Birmingham
dv Skip Ricnaios
Age 10
Photos by Skip Richards
Page 12
Photos courtesy of Steve Warren
Coming in November
Scouting Around
and
Blue Notes
32 Pages of Personal
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Sex Surgery Suit