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The Boys In The BindGay Power Openly Flexes Its MusclesHomosexual No LongerIn HidingBy BERNARD GAVZERAP Newsfeatares WriterTwenty-six, ex-Marine, high school football player, B.A. in education.“That’s about my resume, condensed,” says a husky young man. ‘’'One day, when I’m brave enough, m add another word. Homosexual.”'When he does, it’ll probably happen in s small Midwesttown.“I’ve dreamed of living in a place like that, and teaching there,” he says. “If I did, I wouldn’t hide any more. I’d go to the people and tell them I’m gay and, that I don’t want to seduce their 8-year-old sons or turn them into flaming faggots.”To parent of schoolboys, having a third or fourth grade teacher who is homosexual seems to be a prospect that will be achieved over their dead bodies. In Arizona recently, the mere fact that a teacher invited a homosexual to speak to a high school class led to the teacher’s ouster.But to this young man, and •to growing numbers of homosexuals, the fact that they have unconventional sexual preferences should not determine whether or not they can have any occupation.These are the homosexuals who, under the impetus of nationwide ferment on many civil rights fronts, are determined to make an issue of homosexual civil rights. As more and more opt to quit a double life, the prospect is that the issue will confront Americans in small towns as well as big cities, in town councils as well as federal agencies..While the number of vocal, public homosexuals is very small, polls indicate from 4 million to 15 million persons are homosexual by preference, practice or proclivity.Today’s mffitancy grew from a very modest, uncertain band of six California homosexuals who founded the first openly homosexual organization in the United States in the early 1950s. They called it the Mattachiae Society, a name taken from the Biddle Ages court jesters who, behind masks and under the guise of humor, spoke the truth to the king.The society was a sort of American Civil Liberties Union for homosexuals. Its goals then were to aid homosexuals through advice on how to behave themselves in pubBe and how to avoid blackmail or arrest.“Getting invited to appear at a meeting was next to impossible then,” recalls a 50-year-old Philadelphia homosexual, who was in the movement in the late 1950s. “Program chairmen would have former drag addicts, prostitutes, reconstituted Communists, ex-convicts, but perish the thought of a gay person.”A significant change occurred. at the beghming of the 1960s. The society, headquartered in San Francisco, had financial problems as well as problems of geography and communication. Separatechapters were cut loose.“At that time, we became the sort of NAACP of gay life,” says Dr. Frank Kamey, a' World War H veteran and founder in 1961 of the Washington, D.C., MattachineSociety; Kameny’s doctorate is in astronomy from Harvard University.“We decided not only to enlighten the public through education programs and publicity, but to address ourselves through mail campaigns to all congressmen, and dozens of other federal officials. We provided legal counsel for homosexuals arrested or discharged from employment.Mind you, this was not easy for at that time it was very difficult to get people to become involved in public suits. ”In 1962, Kameny was able to log two public appearances. By 1964, he had 14. Today, he and his New York counterpart, Dick Leitsch, a ,12-year-old Louiseville native, appear frequently on radio and TV and address college and publie and private groups.The Washington Mattachine has been considerably involved in court actions challenging constitutionality of bans against federal employment, firings and discharges;*»v■TA'V*:'MS*.:MlmMsm.; Vm.y»’‘Vv£y.mm:v;AC.....c-'Ms-r•*spmj,,.■v,:Si*mmmWri•a*• x;vS:.':v;¥;i:5Smmvir.■XfKv.\WwmwXU-vlttv.SB88S■XX-i•WV *■ ■■■«V. .V.m: ■» «fcg -.vis: * ■■ •H : j/3f vuri: \■*;!'x:v v..:■.% '..r-vy-‘yv’-V*'«lt;:wXv? •■:wV.y •' *■ y: v;y y-’: V •■ '-ivv•:+ S8• •' ■ '.i . i - • , w.V. .-”1 - v. •» .V.y •• y /._•• ■“ X-.- ■ S v% • a.'V ' ’v.C' ‘»;v t'ir’vX a-.sj’-vvV.' ’• ..’ '.A-i •• ^. „.SryV-.-s-ryfS:kpkSS■•vJvX-r.NvA'' 'v!vav»^xvy-'ix:.. j;.;*. -A*. .IV.V.Yl•xcys'yAj;yrMv!1 vlXv.y;' ' .•.■yXvyX'V 'WV^W.,vM Xiv■x-v: -• ;.-'.\v.y-.-.v y .v v ■ *v y.-A- 7 - -y^jy-w.-v’v-yXy ’K\v:X;;;• •'/;;S’■A*.1 ..M,■■■■y«v'V-y.X-’X--V- V--•. . , ...swwyw--y,:-o;XvyXw: • y :y‘yy:'xfiyVx--.V'Repressive Laws Protested. Demonsfrafors march in front of New York's City Hall Park, calling for an end to discrimination and what they feelare repressive laws. Members of the Gay Activists Alliance sponsored the demonstration.from the armed services. The chapters have not initiated suits in their name, but have acted as advisers or friends of the homosexual defendant or plaintiff.In Miami, they were behind a former cab driver’s suit claiming homosexuals have a constitutional right to congregate and foe served in bars. They lost. In Washington, they challenged the Civil Service Commission’s discharge of the NASA budget analystA Federal District Court ruled the commission could not fire him. But in 1970, the Supreme Court turned down tests of the government’s authority to fire homosexuals and to withhold security clearance from them.“There will be . increased militancy because there is increased Impatience with our lot,” says Kamey. “We will continue the challenges in courts and through legislation, but we also are determined to become involved in direct and lawful action, such as picketing and demonstrations.”Now, there has arisen a sort of SDS in gaydom — the Gay Liberation Front, which finds itself turned on to a variety of dvxi rights causes, from the women’s liberation movement to the Black Panthers cause. More tightly focused on issues of gay life, but still militant, is the Gay Activists Alliance.They, are put for confrontation.While the MattachineSociety, at least in Washington, had publie picketing four years ago, it apparently lacked the impact of a recent picketing at New York’s City HaH, where some 50 homosexuals (including women) had a brief shoving match with police.One 58-year-old homosexual, who hides his homosexuality, sees encouraging signs that the public will be more sympathetic about homosexuality, as a result of plays and movies such as “Boys in the Band,” and the report of the Hooker Task Force, which made an intensive study of homosexuality under government auspices.“The fact that the federal government was involved in a genuine attempt to study homosexuality is a landmarkin itself,” he savs.. J *But, another homosexual, insisting on anonymity, bitterly opposes the militants as irresponsibly frightening heterosexuals. He says: “It is wrong to make them think that homosexuals truly want to remake the entire society. It is evil to speak of extremes of marriage and joint legal status. To talk of adopting children is to deal in lies because homosexuals know better than anyone that their union could not tolerate the responsibility. It is simple-minded and foolish for anyone to argue or propose that there will ever be anything more than a very small minority who would prefer to be exclusively homosexual.“What homosexuals can legitimately and honestly seek is the end of repression and sanctions.”The Hooker Task Foree report, perhaps one of the most thorough investigations of homosexuality, observed that the subject of homosexuality is “often viewed with either disgust or anxiety, emotions which interfere with an objective understanding of the problem.”It made these comments:“Homosexual individuals can be ’found in all walks of life, at all socioeconomic levels, among all cultural groups within American society, and in rural as well as urban areas.“Homosexuality presents a major problem for our society largely because of the amount of injustice and suffering entailed in it not only for the homosexual but also for those concerned about him.”It estimated that “there are currently at least three or four million adults,” who can bedescribed as homosexual- Others place the figure at 15 million.The tenor and temper of the militant homosexuals is measured in things the gays cati “Super Gay”: organizations such as GAA, GLF, Homosexuals Intransigent and the Student Homophile League (which includes non-gay members who support gays in demands for civil rights); maga-zrnes and newspapers, such as the slick Queen’s Quarterly (now published bimonthly), Gay, Gay Power, Los Angeles Advocate; dating services such as one which offers computer selections; exclusively gay foal's, of which there are about 70 in New York City7 alone, gay dances at the University of Minnesota and Cornell, as well as other schools.The militants take no charitable view of a film such as “Boys in the Band,” alluding to it as an Auntie Tom film.George Desantis, publisher of Queen’s Quarterly, says: “It fits the cliche of what people call faggots, all adither about Judy Garland records and French, poodles.* Basically, it caters to the straight world’s belief in the stereo-tyPe-”Desantis, who was captain of his weight-lifting team at college and whose father is a doctor, was a school teacher and was fired when it was learned he was gay. He considers Ms publication a service magazine.The thought of being actively involved with recruiting young members was abhorrent to the founders of the Mattachine Society.As Leitsch relates it: “There was a conscious at-Party For GaysTwo men, silhouetted against a doorway in this bigh-contrast photograph, dance together during a party for homosexuals sponsored by the Gay Activists Alliance in New York. The alliance is only one of several super gay organizations appealing for more militancy. (AP Newsfeatures photos)tempt to stay away from young people because no one wanted to have to deal with the myth of child molestation. I feel somewhat the same way now, that we ought to concentrate on areas where we could have people deal with issues rationally, if that is at all possible on the subject of homosexuality.”Child molestation, in fact, lies at the root of most modem laws and attitudes proscribing homosexuality. There appears to be no decisive evidence to demonstrate that active homosexuals commit a substantial amount, abnormal amount or even significant amount of such offenses.A significant question as it relates to young boys is whether it is possible to determine whether a boy of 5 or 6 has already been fixed upon a path which inclines him toward homosexuality'.“The evidence from which we have been examining homosexuality is essentially that of the existing homosexual who reviews his life and seeks what might be the turning point,” explains Dr. John E. Adams, a National Institute of Mental Health expert who participated in the Hooker Task Force. “We have had no continuing studies, for example, beginning with a child and following him through Ms life.”Dr. Adams thinks an answer may one day come from detailed studies of crises and how these shape the lives of humans.Dr. Adams says, in Ms personal opinion, “I remain convinced there is no evidence that being homosexual is a priori evidence of being sick or mentally ill. But I do very strongly believe that being a homosexual increases the risk of mental illness because It is a high risk life due to its many stresses.”To some homosexuals the tragedy of life isn’t being homosexual but in being unable to cope with it and unable to cope with the social stigma and legal prohibitions.The threat of blackmail of sex deviates has been the traditional foundation of prohibition against employing them in sensitive jobs.“So far as is known, there has been no publicized incident of blackmail involving national security because of a person’s homosexuality,” says Kameny.This issue of potential blackmail has been challenged in ways beyond the anticipation of the founders of the Mattachine Society: persons with security clearances ’ have come forth and said they were homosexual, are now homosexual and intended to continue being homosexual.A key case is that of Otto H.Ulrich Jr., employe of a Washington, D.C., firm involved in defense contracts. Ulrich had received security clearance at the level of secret, anti when he sought clearance at top secret his homosexuality was revealed. The Defense Department,through its Industrial Security Clearance Office, beganmoves to revoke Ulrich’s clearance.But the blackmail issue,still has not been resolved in the case, because the Defense Department chose instead to issue a statement of reasons for revocation, citing “criminal conduct and sexual perversion” and noting that hisdetermination to continuebeing a homosexual demonstrated he was “not reliable or trustworthy.”As for the armed services, the opposition to the Vietnam war has created a situation ofconfusion and complexity. If aman or woman in anv branch•of the armed forces is found to be homosexual, there will be, according to a published policy statement, “prompt separation.”If a person is called for service or attempts to enlist and he is found to be a homosexual, he will not be inducted. It was on this basic premise that some young men, opposed to the Vietnam war or the draft, claimed they were homosexuals.Draft boards grew suspicious of people claiming to be gay.“Such a person has to show he has been engaged in homosexual activities over a period of years or have proof that he has been under psychiatric treatment for homosexuality or prove it through other tests,” said Lt. Col. William Tyson Jr., a Pentagon spokesman.The activist homosexuals — in decrying the cold heart with — talk often of “being pushedaround for 3,000 years.There are several references to homosexuality in Mosaic law and the Bible, and except for the warmth in which it is described in the story of David and Jonathan, the word is thou shalt not. St. Paul condemned it, and in Mosaic law the prescription comes from Leviticus: “You shall hot lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”But prohibition, degration, infamy, abuse — even a litany of plagues — has not stopped homosexuality — among either sex.“I would say that in a lesbian relationship there is considerable difference than with males,” says a young lesbian. “We have had it easier in a social sense because the society has always accepted the idea of two maidens living together until they fall over with old age.“As a rule, I doubt that many lesbians will be involved in the activist groups because we really can stay out of it. My involvement is for the same reason that I’m involved with other civil rights causes. I guess the event that did that for me was the Stonewall riot”This was the period of June 28-29 last year when police raided the Stonewall, gay bar on Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street The action went from a holiday adventure to riot proportions when the gays struck back, forcing the raiding police into the bar, which was then set afire. More police came and the Christopher Street area was the scene of continuing pitched battles.“It was exhilarating,” recalls a well muscled homosexual. “For the first time, really, we didn’t just have a peaceful picketing but a real fight. I doubt that people thought we could do it.”As a result, the event has grown into an exploitable rallying cause.Now, through their journals, newspapers and newsletters, the call is for a national day of observance — a sort of Gay Day — to be held June 28.“It max be effective as nub-■ »lieity,” says a homosexual with grave reservations about militancy, “but I think that what counts is what the Mattachine Society tried to do. We have to get people to deal with facts rather than the myth.“Then perhaps all of us will understand what it’s all about.”Opium ProductionKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asiaaccounts for 1.000 tons — 83#per cent — of the world’s illegal production of opium, an . Iranian government official told a United Nations seminar on narcotics control. Turkey is the second major producing area, he said, with some coming from Mexico.
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