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by Norm Kent
Did you know that the reason the Lambda sign is the symbol of the international gay rights movement is because it represents the Greek letter that stands for 'Liberation'? But what or whom is it that we exactly need to be liberated from- forces within us or beside us ? Who really locks the door that shuts the closet ?
For the gay person, there are three defining moments in your life: first, when you first realize who you are; second, when you first do it; and third, when you can tell others who you are, and what you did. This, of course, does not include your mother or Mrs. Beasley.
The gay community has created an interesting duality: it is still
sexualized, but we have proudly made it something more than that. We have shown the world
that we are socialized and can be politicized. We have started community centers, run
pride marches, created travel associations, and successfully maintained business guilds.
We are lawyers and doctors, mechanics and craftsmen. We truly are everywhere. We are proud
of who we are and what we have accomplished. We have become part of the social landscape,
and in many places, we are decorating it as well.
We should always understand that we are a part of, and not apart from, the rest of the
society around us. Still, anyone who has sweated shirtless at Salvation in Miami Beach on
a Saturday night knows we are on the cutting edge of that society which surrounds us. Our
sexuality defines who we are. Sex is what gives mortar to our being. I am convinced that
the defining moments of gay life are not when you cast a vote for a gay-friendly
politician, but when you cast your sperm onto the chest of your love slave. The truth is
that as surely as straight men are on pussy patrol, gay men are natural dick hunters.
We are animals. Look, your dog and you go for a walk in the park, and before you know it, Fido is getting it on with another dog he met only seconds before. I have represented a lot of guys who did just that with each other, and not just in Flamingo Park. We are everywhere, okay? It occurs at Balboa Park in San Diego, and on the piers off the West Side Highway in Manhattan It's a cross-continental thing. Gay men are horny even in Cincinnati. We can all be dogs in heat, anywhere. For more information, just check your internet page: cruisingforsex.com, assuming Dwight Lauderdale and Channel 10 have not shut it down yet.
Animals do it on the Discovery Channel, and we do it after a South Beach party. All in all, we probably even use a little bit more discretion than your average jungle creature. We are separated from the animal kingdom only by our capacity to reason thoughtfully and read Plato, although many of us still fail miserably in that regard. If all we had to do was do Plato, it would be another story. On a daily basis though, my guess is more young gay men fornicate then read Hemingway.
Seeking sex does not make you a bad person. There is no rule against having fun, though our laws don't often protect people who do. I can't remember too many cases that I have defended based on the constitutional right to 'pursue happiness.' However, I do believe that after a couple of millenniums of repression, we ought to be entitled to a few decades of hedonism.
Has anyone ever read Al Goldstein's very heterosexual but openly pornographic 'Screw' magazine? After you get past the pussy lust, there is a recognition that sex is natural, that lust is normal, and that making love is liberating. For a long time, in an era before AIDS, that is what gave the gay community its fierce individual identity.
You want to get laid, don't you? So do most straight guys. Trust me, it is not just a gay thing. Just last week, Hollywood cops did an undercover female decoy sting on Federal Highway and netted 45 horny heterosexuals in less than two hours. See, gays and straights really do have a lot more in common than we do apart. It's just that we don't beat up heterosexuals who make passes at each other.
Our concern for sex should not trouble you. As a community, it is important that we be socialized and civilized. As an individual, it is equally important that you get laid. Shirtless and steamy nights at the Saint or Salvation have as much place in our community as intellectual forums featuring renowned authors. The chances are this magazine will have more ads for the former than the latter. Why do you think both Scoop and HotSpots! had Jeff Stryker on their covers two weeks ago? You don't see them asking me to pose shirtless beside my Apple McIntosh.
Look at local gay businessman Mark Possien, who opened up the largest gay and lesbian retail store in the United States, right on top of the largest gay male mail-order catalog in the nation. Today, Catalog X is huge and throbbing, having expanded into a great gay and lesbian department store, with its own line of home-created clothing, leather, videos, sex aides, and a wealth of other gay-friendly products. How did Mark become so successful- I mean, besides my legal help? Mark had the courage to sell to us our sexuality. Today, he is being rewarded for it. And we are rewarded too, by having access to a department store that could not have existed a decade ago.
The moral is simple: Be yourself. Be open. Be sexual. Be gay. I have to tell you that when Mark Possien first opened his store I was frightened by his world of mechanical masturbators and latex cockrings. But there are a whole wealth of guys out there who like metal clamps on their nipples, jelly on their belly, and vibrators in very unusual places. If we are going to be free to be, we ought to be free to say sex is okay, gay sex is okay, and pride is saying and doing both without apology. Don't worry, you can always buy extra cum cloths at Catalog X.
Next month go to the gay Disney Days. Go to Amsterdam and to the Gay Olympics. Go to Hotlanta. Have a goddamn good time. Do a foam party. Sleep safely, with two or three other guys at once. Do the kinds of things that define your identity as an independent, 'free to be you and me', kind-of- guy. Swim naked. Tell the protesters from Operation Rescue that you don't need them or their rescuing, and that they should take their mission to the Cayman Islands where you have a sting ray to shove up their ass.
Of course, there always is an Of Course, a However, or a But. We live in the Age of Aids. We must be safe, be sensible, and stay within a consciousness that prevents carelessness. If we are cautious today, we will not have to be sorry tomorrow. That does not mean that you can't still make your gay life a pleasant, contented, happy, sexual one.
The Gay Sea Scrolls specifically ordain in the Book of Wet Leathers: "No greater courage hath he than the flea who sits on the butt of a tired elephant." Except maybe that flea is stupid too. So go have fun, but don't be a stupid flea. By the way, it is Mother's Day this weekend so don't forget to phone home and ask for money!