What Homosexuals Want From This Old World

( The author is a gay lib activist in San Francisco. )

SAN FRANCISCO is a refugee camp for homosexuals. We have fled here from every part of the nation, and like refugees elsewhere, we came not because it is so great here, but because it was so bad there. By the tens of thousands, we fled small towns where to be ourselves would endanger our jobs and any hope of a decent life; we have fled from blackmailing cops, from families who disowned or "tolerated" us; we have been drummed out of the armed services, thrown out of schools, fired from jobs, beaten by punks and policemen.

And we have formed a ghetto, out of self protection. It is a ghetto rather than a free territory because it is still theirs. Straight cops patrol us, straight legislators govern us, straight employers keep us in line, straight money exploits us. We have pretended everything is OK, because we haven't been able to see how to change it-we've been afraid.

In the past year there has been an awakening of gay liberation ideas and energy. How it began we don't know; maybe we were inspired by black people and their freedom movement; we learned how to stop pretending from the hip revolution. America in all its ugliness has surfaced with the war and our national leaders. And we are repulsed by the quality of our ghetto life.

Where once there was frustration, alienation, and cynicism, there are new characteristics among us. We are full of love for each other and are showing it; we are full of anger at what has been done to us. And as we recall all the self censorship and repression for so many years, a reservoir of tears pours out of our eyes. And we are euphoric, high, with the initial flourish of a movement.

We want to make ourselves clear: our first job is to free ourselves; that means clearing our heads of the garbage that's been poured into them.

It should also be clear that these are the views of one person, and are determined not only by my homosexuality, but my being white, middle class. It is my-individual consciousness. Our group consciousness will evolve as we get ourselves together.

Orientation

What homosexuality is: Nature leaves undefined the object of sexual desire. The gender of that object is imposed socially. Humans originally made homosexuality taboo because they needed every bit of energy to produce and raise children: survival of species was a priority. With overpopulation and technological change, that taboo continues only to exploit us and enslave us.

As kids we refused to capitulate to demands that we ignore our feelings toward each other. Somewhere we found the strength to resist being indoctrinated, and we should count that among our assets. We have to realize that our loving each other is a good thing, not an unfortunate thing, and that we have a lot to teach straights about sex, love, strength, and resistance.

Homosexuality is not a lot of things. It is not a makeshift in the absence of the opposite sex; it is not hatred or rejection of the opposite sex; it is not genetic; it is not the result of broken homes except inasmuch as we could see the sham of American marriage. Homosexuality is the capacity to love someone of the same sex.

Bisexuality: Bisexuality is good; it is the capacity to love people of either sex. The reason so few of us are bisexual is because society made such a big stink about homosexuality that we got forced into seeing ourselves as either straight or non-straight. Also, many gays got turned off to the ways men are supposed to act with women and vice-versa, which is pretty fuckedup. Gays will begin to turn on to women when 1) it's something that we do because we want to, not because we should; 2) when women's liberation changes the nature of heterosexual relationships.

We continue to call ourselves homosexuals, not bisexual, even if we do make it with the opposite sex also, because saying. "Oh, I'm Bi" is a cop out for a gay. We get told it's ok to sleep with guys as long as we sleep with women, too, and that's still putting homosexuality down. We'll be gay until everyone has forgotten that it's an issue. Then we'll begin to be complete.

Heterosexuality: Exclusive heterosexuality is fucked up. It is a fear of people of the same sex, it's anti-homosexual, and it is fraught with frustrations. Heterosexual sex is fucked up, too; ask women's liberation about what straight guys are like in bed. Sex is aggression for the male chauvinist; sex is obligation for traditional women. And among the young, the moderit, the hip, it's only a subtle version of the same. For us to become heterosexual in the sense that our straight brothers and sisters are is not a cure, it is a disease.

Women

Lesbianism: It's been a male dominated society for too long, and that has warped both men and women. So gay women are going to see things differently from gay men; they are going to feel put down as women, too. Their liberation is tied up with both gay liberation and women's liberation.

This article speaks from the gay male viewpoint. And although some of the ideas in it may be equally relevant to gay women, it would be arrogant to presume this to be a manifesto for lesbians.

We look forward to the emergence of a lesbian liberation voice. The existence of a lesbian caucus within the New York City Liberation Front has been very helpful in challenging male chauvinism among gay guys, and antigay feelings among women's lib.

Male Chauvinism: All men are infected with male chauvinism-we were brought up that way. It means we assume that women play subordinate roles and are less human than ourselves. (At an early gay liberation meeting one guy said. "Why don't we invite women's liberation, and they can bring sandwiches and coffee"). It is no wonder that so few gay women have become active in our groups.

Male chauvinism, however, is not central to us. We can junk it much cashier than straight men can. For we understand oppression. We have largely opted out of a system which oppresses women daily-our egos are not built on putting women down and having them build us up. Also, living in a mostly male world we have become used to playing different roles, doing our own shitwork. And finally, we have a common enemy: the big male chauvinists are also the big antigays.

But we need to purge male chauvinism, both in behavior and in thought among us. Chick equals nigger equals queer.

Women's liberation: They are assuming their equality and dignity and in doing so are challenging the same things we are: the roles, the exploitation of minorities by capitalism, the arrogant smugness of straight white male middle-class America. They are our sisters in struggle.

Problems and differences will become clearer when we begin to work together. One major problem is our own male chauvinism. Another is uptightness and hostility to homosexuality that many women have-that is the straight in them. A third problem is differing views on sex: sex for them has meant oppression, while for us it has been a symbol of our freedom. We must come to know and understand each other's style, jargon and humor.

We want to begin more intensive discussions with women's liberation. And in any case we must support their demands and understand their viewpoint.

Roles

We've lived in role-creating institutions all our lives. Naturally we mimic the roles. For too long we mimicked these roles to protect ourselves-a survial mechanism. Now we are becoming free enough to shed the roles which we've picked up from the institutions which have imprisoned us.

Marriage: Marriage is a prime example of a straight institution fraught with role playing. Traditional marriage is a rotten, oppressive institution. Those of us who have been in heterosexual marriages too often have blamed our gayness on the breakup of the marriage. No. They broke up because marriage is a contract which smothers both people. And we had the strength, again, to refuse to capitulate to the roles which were demanded of us.

Gay people must stop gauging their self respect by how well they mimic straight marriages. Gay marriages will have the same problems as straight ones except in burlesque. For the usual legitimacy and pressures which keep straight marriages together are absent, e.g. kids, what parents think, what neighbors think.

To accept that happiness comes through finding a groovy spouse and settling down, showing the world that "we're just the same as you" is avoiding the real issues, and is an expression of self hatred.

Alternatives to Marriage: People want to get married for lots of good reasons, although marriage won't often meet those needs or desires. We're all looking for security, a flow of love, and a feeling of belonging and being needed.

These needs can be met through a number of social relationships and living situations. Things we want to get away from are: 1) exclusiveness, propertied attitudes toward each other, a mutual pact against the rest of the world; 2) promises about the future, which we have no right to make and which prevent us from, or make us feel guilty about, growing; 3) inflexible roles, roles which do not reflect us at the moment but are inherited through mimicry and inability to define equalitarian relationships.

We have to define for ourselves a new pluralistic role-free social structure for ourselves. It must contain both the freedom and physical space for people to live alone, live together for a while, live together for a long time, either as couples or in larger numbers; and the ability to flow easily from one of these states to another as our needs change.

Gay "stereotypes": The straights' image of the gay world is defined largely by those of us who have violated straight roles. There is a tendency among "homophile" groups to deplore guys who play visible roles-the queens and nellies. As liberated gays, we must take a clear stand. 1) Gays who stand out have become our first martyrs. They came out and withstood disapproval before the rest of us did. 2) If they have suffered from being open, it is straight society whom we must indict, not the queen.

Closet queens: This phrase is becoming analogous to "Uncle Tom." To pretend to be straight sexually, or to pretend to be straight socially, is probably the most harmful pattern of behavior in the ghetto. The married guy who makes it on the side secretly; the guy who will go to bed once but who won't develop any gay relationships; the pretender at work or school who changes the gender of the friend he's talking about; the guy who'll suck cock in the bushes but who won't go to bed.

It we are liberated we are open with our sexuality. Closet queencry must end.

But: in saying come out, we have to have our heads clear about a few things. Closet queens are our brothers, and must be defended against attacks by straight people. The fear of coming out is not paranoia. The stakes are high: loss of family ties, loss of job, loss of straight friends. These are all reminders that the oppression is not just in our heads. It's real. Each of us must make the steps toward openness at our own speed and on our own impulses. Being open is the foundation of freedom: it has to be built solidly.

Closet queen is a broad term covering a multitude of forms of defense, self-hatred, lack of strength, and habit. We are all closet queens in some ways, and all of us had to come out-very few of us were "flagrant" at the age of seven! We must afford our brothers and sisters the same patience we afforded ourselves. And while their closet queencry is part of our oppression. it's more a part of theirs. They alone can decide when and how.

Oppression

It is important to catalog and understand the different facets of our oppression. There is no future in arguing about degrees of oppression. A lot of "movement" types come on with a line of shit about homosexuals not being oppressed as much as blacks or Vietnamese or workers or women. We don't happen to fit into their ideas of class or caste. Bull! When people feel oppressed. they act on that feeling. We feel oppressed. Talk about the priority of black liberation or ending imperialism over and above gay lib is just anti-gay propaganda.

Physical attacks: We are attacked, beaten, castrated and left dead time and time again. There are half a dozen known unsolved slayings in San Francisen parks in the last few years. "Punks" often of minority groups who look around for someone under them socially, feel encouraged to beat up on "queers" and cops look the other way. That used to be called lynching.

Cops in most cities have harassed our meeting places: bars and baths and parks. They set up entrapment squads. A Berkeley brother was slain by a cop in April when he tried to split after finding out that the trick who was making advances to him was a cop. Cities set up "pervert" registration. which if nothing else scares our brothers into the closet deeper.

One of the most vicious slurs on us is the blame for prison "gang rapes." These rapes are invariably done by people who consider themselves straight. The victims of these rapes are us and straights who can't defend themselves. The press campaign to link prison rapes with homosexuality is an attempt to make straights fear and despise us. so they can oppress us more. It's typical of the fucked-up straight mind to think that homosexual sex involves tying a guy down and fucking him. That's aggression, not sex. If that's what sex is for a lot of straight people that's a problem they have to solve, not us.

Psychological warfare: Right from the beginning we have been subjected to a barrage of straight propaganda. Since our parents don't know any homosexuals. we grow up thinking that we're alone and different and perverted. Our school friends identify "queer" with any non-conformist or bad behavior.

Self-oppression: As gay liberation grows. we will find out up tight brothers and sisters, particularly those who are making a buck off our ghetto, coming on strong to defend the?status quo. This is self-oppression: "Things in SF are OK": "gay people just aren't together."

Institutional: Discrimination against gays is blatant. Homosexual relationships are illegal, and even if these laws are not regularly enforced, they encourage and enforce closet queencry. The bulk of the social work/psychiatric field looks upon homosexuality as a problem, and treats us as sick. Em players let it be known that our skills are acceptable only as long as our sexuality is hidden.

The discrimination in the draft and armed services is a pillar of the general attitude toward gays. If we are willing to label ourselves publicly not only as homosexual but as sick. then we qualify for deferment.

Sex

What sex is: It is both creative expression and communication: good when it is either, and better when it is both. Sex can also be aggression, and usually is when those involved do not see each other as equals.

I like to think of good sex in terms of playing the violin: with both people, on one level. seeing the other body as an object capable of creating beauty when they play it well; and, on a second level, the players communicating through their mutual production and appreciation of beauty. As in good music, you get totally into it-and coming back out of that state of consciousness is like finishing a work of art or coming back from an episode of an acid or mescaline trip.

To press the analogy further: the variety of music is infinite and varied, depending on the capabilities of the players. both as subjects and as objects. Solos, duets, quartets (symphonies, even, if you happen to dig Romantic music!) are possible. The variations in gender, response, and bodies are like different instruments. And perhaps what we have called sexual "orientation" probably just means that we have not yet learned to turn on to the total range of musical expression.

Objectification: In this scheme, people are sexual objects, but they are also subjects. This use of human bodies as objects is legitimate (not harmful) only when it is reciprocal. If one person is always object and the other subject, it stifles the human being in both of them. Objectification must also be open and frank.

Gay liberation people must understand that women have been treated exclusively and dishonestly as sexual objects. A major part of their liberation is to play down sexual objectification and to develop other aspects of themselves which have been smothered so long. We respect this. We also understand that a few liberated women will be appalled or disgusted at the open and prominent place that we put sex in our lives: and while this is a natural response from their experience, they must learn what it means for us.

For us, sexual objectifictaion is a focus of our quest for freedom. It is precisely that which we are not supposed to share with each other. Learning how to be open and good with each other sexually is part of our liberation. And one obvious distinction: objectification of sex for us is something we choose to do among ourselves, while for women it is imposed by their oppressors.

On positions and roles: Much of our sexuality has been perverted, and warped from self-hatred. These sexual perversions are basically anti-gay:

"I like to make it with straight guys."

"I'm not gay, but I like to be 'done.' "

"I like to fuck, but don't want to be fucked."

"I don't like to be touched above the neck."

We strive for democratic, mutual, reciprocal sex. This does not mean that we are all mirror images of each other in bed, but that we break away from roles which enslave us. We already do better in bed then straights do, and we can be better to each other than we have been.

Chicken and Studs: Nice bodies and young bodies are attributes, they're groovy. They are inspiration for art, for spiritual elevation. for good sex. The problem arises only in the inability to relate to people of the same age. or people who don't fit the plastic stereotypes of a good body. At that point, objectification eclipses people, and expresses self-hatred: "I hate gay people, and I don't like myself, but if a stud (or chicken) wants to make it with me, I can pretend I'm someone other than me."

A note on exploitation of children: kids can take of themselves, and are sexual beings way earlier than we'd like to admit. Those of us who began cruising in early adolescence know this, and we were doing the cruising. not being debauched by dirty old men. Scandals such as that in Boise, Idaho blaming a "ring" of homosexuals for perverting their youth are the fabrications of press and police and politicians. And as for child molesting, the overwhelming amount is done by straight guys to little girls: it is not particularly a gay problem,. and is caused by the frustrations resulting from anti-sex puritanism.

Perversion: We've been called "perverts" enough to be suspect of any usage of the word. Still many of us shrink from the idea of certain kinds of sex: with animals, sado/masochism. dirty sex (involving piss or shit). Right off, even before we take the time to learn any more, there are some things to get straight:

1) We shouldn't be apologetic to straights about gays whose sex lives we don't understand or share;

2) It's not particularly a gay issue, except that gay people probably are less hung up about sexual experimentation.

3) Even if we were to get into the game of deciding what's good for someone else, the harm done in these "perversions" is undoubtedly less dangerous or unhealthy than is tobacco or alcohol.

4) While they can be reflections of neurotic or self-hating patterns, they may also be enactments of spiritual or important phenomena. Sex with animals may be the beginning of interspecies communication; some dolphinhuman breakthroughs have been made on the sexual level. One guy who says he digs shit during sex occasionally says it's not the taste or texture. but a symbol that he's so far into sex that those things no longer bug him. Sado/masochism, when consensual, can be described as a highly artistic endeavor, a ballet the constraints of which are the thresholds of pain and pleasure.

Our Ghetto

We are refugees from America. So we came to the ghetto-and as other ghettos. it has its negative and positive aspects. Refugee camps are better than what preceded them, or people never would have come. But they are still enslaving, if only that we are limited to being ourselves there and only there.

Ghettos breed self-hatred. We stagnate here, accepting the status quo. The status quo is rotten. We are all warped by our oppression, and in the isolation of the ghetto we blame ourselves rather than our oppressors.

Ghettos breed exploitation. Landlords find they can charge exhorbitant rents and get away with it, because of the limited area which is safe to live in openly. Mafra control of bars and baths in NYC is only one example of outside money controlling our institutions for their profit. In San Francisco the Tavern Guild favors maintaining the ghetto, for it is through ghetto culture that they make a buck. We crowd their bars not because of their merit but because of the absence of any other social institution. The Guild has refused to let us collect funds or pass out gay liberation literature in their bars-need we ask why?

Police or con men who shake down the straight gay in return for not revealing him; the bookstores and movie-makers who keep raising prices because they are the only outlet for pornography; heads of "modeling" agencies and other pimps who exploit both the hustlers and the johns-these are the parasites who flourish in the ghetto.

San Francisco: Our ghetto certainly is more beautiful and larger and more diverse than most ghettos, and is certainly freer than the rest of America. That's why we're here. But it isn't ours. Capitalists make money off us, cops patrol us government tolerates us as long as we shut up, and daily we work and pay taxes for those who oppress us.

To be a free territory, we must govern ourselves, set up our own institutions, defend ourselves, and use our own energies to improve our lives. The emergence of gay liberation communes, and our own paper is a good start. The talk about a?gay liberation coffee shop/dance hall should be acted upon. Rural retreats, political action offices, food cooperatives, a free school, unalienating bars and after hours places-they must be developed if we are to have even the shadow of a free territory.