CHAPTER 9 Wanna Have Fun?

Lesbians and gay men have been accused more than once of taking ourselves too seriously. And while there are hundreds of ways for people to take time out from the daily grind, many of those traditional avenues require that gay men and lesbians put on “protective armor” or a second set of eyes before venturing out for an evening of activities as simple as going to the movies or dancing.

But gay people are nothing if not resourceful. And that’s really what this chapter is all about: ways that lesbians and gay men have devised to put fun in our lives, to have, as the song goes, “a gay old time.”

Whether it is reading the funnies, going to comedy or dance clubs, playing a sport, or going on vacation, gay men and lesbians have created a whole world of recreational activities. This chapter shows just a few of the ways we cut loose. Have fun!

art “I think gay people are like blondes; there’s fewer of them, but they have more fun.”

RITA MAE BROWN ON THE MAURY POVICH SHOW

LAUGHING AT OURSELVES

Comedy, in the many forms it takes, is one of the strongest day-to-day sources of empowerment that lesbians and gay men possess. When we laugh, we take a little of the sting out of the homophobia we deal with every day. When we can laugh at ourselves, we remember not to always take ourselves quite so seriously. And while issues like AIDS, sexism, and racism within our communities are hardly laughing matters, there are moments of humor which unexpectedly surface because of all of them. Being able to acknowledge laughter reminds us of our humanity, and lets us celebrate our differences through humor.

Humor also has a very serious side. Because it seems less threatening than angry speeches, overtly political essays, protest marches, or confrontational art, comedy can inform people both within our communities and in the society-at-large about aspects of our culture that some might ignore or otherwise avoid. Camp, for instance, is a mainstay of our culture precisely because of its irony. It pointedly exposes and challenges gender assumptions while laughing at them. For lesbians and gay men, as for people of color and women in general, comedy is powerful.

Comedy takes different forms. Lesbians and gay men have created comic books and comic strips; we have gay funny men and women on the comedy circuit who are an integral part of our communities; and, of course, we have our own day-to-day humor. Hopefully, this section will provide you with a smile, and maybe even a little laughter.

Lesbian and Gay Comics

Lesbian and gay comic artists have long struggled to draw comics about their lives and reach people with their work. In the earliest days of the medium, depictions of gay men and lesbians were limited to lame jokes at our expense, in such publications as Brevities, in the 1930s and 1940s; to illegal “Tijuana Bibles” (sexually explicit chapbooks) featuring popular comic strip characters; and to sexually explicit material such as that drawn by Blade, which appeared as early as the 1940s, and circulated in the gay underground. Comics historian Maurice Horn suggests that gay people (identified mainly by their effeminacy) appeared in early comics such as “Dick Tracy” and “Terry and the Pirates” in the 1930s and 1940s. These were usually one-note jokes trading on stereotypes.

There are no overt drawings of gay people in early comic books thanks to the attitude of the times. The Comics Code Authority, set up by the comic book industry in the 1950s following Senate hearings investigating comics as a cause of juvenile delinquency, prohibited the portrayal of homosexuality and was a powerful tool of censorship for decades.

The Comics Code lost its teeth in the 1970s, and by the 1990s it was regularly circumvented via alternative distribution systems, allowing comic books to more directly address issues of homosexuality.

Since the 1980s, gay men and lesbians appeared as occasional supporting characters in mainstream comic books. “Green Arrow,” “Legion of Superheroes,” “Swamp Thing,” “Sandman,” “Blood Syndicate,” and “Zot!” are just some of the mainstream titles that have featured gay characters.

But it fell to the gay community to represent itself in force. The underground comics movement, emerging as part of the counterculture of the late 1960s, opened up possibilities of gay representation. But the underground was often about shock value, and the earliest examples tended to be drawn by (presumed) heterosexuals simply for this purpose. “Captain Piss Gums̵ and “Ruby the Dyke” (both by the outrageous S. Clay Wilson) fit into this category. In contrast, (straight) feminist cartoonist Trina Robbins wrote and drew about effeminate boys and lesbians that were not considered authentic. Responding to the dearth of true lesbian imagery, even in the (straight) feminist “Wimmen’s Comix” Roberta Gregory published the first lesbian comic book, “Dynamite Damsels,” in 1976, which featured the motorcycling Doris, a self-described “tough old dyke.” The first sexually explicit gay male underground comic book, Larry Fuller’s “Gay Heart Throbs,” also appeared in 1976. Subsequent issues appeared in 1979 and 1981. Mary Wings released “Come Out Comix” in 1977. The year 1980 saw the publication of “Gay Comix” from Kitchen Sink Press, under the editorship of Howard Cruse. Since turned over to Robert Triptow and now Andy Mangels, the recently rechristened “Gay Comics” has continued as an important source of exposure for cartoonists from the underground and the mainstream. From the start, “Gay Comix” eschewed gratuitous sex and strived to present political or personal narratives. Mangels has moved “Gay Comics” away from its underground roots, trying to act as a bridge to the mainstream, providing a showcase for the superhero or fantasy creators to do work with a greater gay inflection. For example, Roberta Gregory was an early portrayer of bisexuality in “Gay Comics” #2 (1981), and debuted her angry (and all-lesbian) character Bitchy Butch in “Gay Comics” #15.

A strip from Howard Cruse’s heartfelt graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby (Paradox Press, 1995). (Howard Cruse)

Today, gay people are represented in all the various comics formats. There is a sense of potential from the inroads that have been made and the barrier of invisibility has been cracked. Ivan Velez, who gained prominence in the gay community for “Tales of the Closet” (1987–present), works gay characters into his more mainstream titles for Milestone and DC. Diane DiMassa (“Hothead Paisan”) and Tim Barela (“Leonard and Larry”) released new anthologies of their work in 1994. Alison Bechdel has taken home three Lambda Literary Awards for her “Dykes to Watch Out For” series. Andrea Natalie (“Stonewall Riots”), Eric Orner (“The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green”), Jennifer Camper, Joan Hilty, and Kris Kovick all continue to produce work in various newspapers and magazines, as the distinctions between the mainstream and the recognized underground, and between the gay press and queer ’zines, continue to erode. The queer ’zine revolution has produced dozens of strips and low-circulation publications, which may launch their creators into the wider prominence of the gay mainstream. Consider that “Stuck Rubber Baby” is a personal, heart-felt chronicle of gay life, supported by DC, one of the largest comic book companies in the country. Things have never looked better for queer comics.

Hothead Paisan, the militant, kick-butt dyke character, with her cat, Chicken. (diane dimassa)

Start and Sputter—Gay Characters Who Didn’t Make it

Where gay men and lesbians did appear in comics, they were often candy-coated, briefly alluded to, and quickly vanished. Here are some attempts, wholehearted and halfhearted alike, to portray gay men and lesbians in mainstream comic strips.

1950s

Brenda Starr’s very butch co-worker Hank was often mistaken for a man before she was suddenly married off.

1976

Garry Trudeau introduced Andy Lippincott, a nonthreatening gay character who failed to become a “Doonsbury” fixture. He faded and reappeared in 1989, addressing the AIDS issue, only to die of the disease a year later.

1977

Hearsay has it that the artist of “Winnie Winkle” proposed a coming-out story line that the syndicate vetoed in favor of the same character’s heterosexual marriage.

1980

The Incredible Hulk’s alter ego. Bruce Banner, is almost raped by two sterotypically gay, lisping young men in a YMCA. Marvel was reamed so badly for their homophobia that they decided to back away from this issue. Subsequently, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter weakly declared there were no gays in the “Marvel universe.”

1982

Marvel’s “Captain America” #270 alluded to the homosexuality of a friend of Captain America’s so cautiously that the point was probably lost on most readers.

Late 1980s

A few “Superman” comics contained some oblique references to police chief Maggie Sawyer’s lesbianism, but it was all innuendo that could be denied in case of political backlash. “Superman” #15 (1988) told her coming-out story without using the words “gay” or “lesbian.”

With little fanfare, a longtime DC character, the Pied Piper, casually mentioned his homosexuality to his former nemesis, the Flash. He receded into the background about a year later without much character development.

Successes—Queer Strip Characters

Not all gay characters in comics are stereotypes or one-dimensional write-offs. Here are some comic strips that have lifted veils of gay invisibility and given meaningful identities to gay and lesbian characters, by gay and straight comics alike.

Howard Cruse’s character Headrack came out in “Barefootz Funnies” #2 (1976). This was the first phase in Cruse’s personal coming-out and began his plunge into full-time gay cartooning. His strip “Wendel” ran in the Advocate from 1983 to 1985 and late 1986 to 1989, and has been collected into book form, as have other of his comic strips and stories. “Stuck Rubber Baby,” Cruse’s meditation on racism, homophobia, and individual responsibility, set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in the 1960s South, was published in 1995 under the Paradox Press imprint of DC Comics.

“Cathartic Comics,” by Rupert Kinnard, first appeared in the Cornell College newspaper in Iowa in 1977. The Brown Bomber came out in 1979 and the lesbian character Diva Flambe Touche followed in 1981, making them the oldest continuing African American gay and lesbian characters.

Jerry Mills’s (1951–1993) strip “Poppers” ran from 1982 to 1986 in In Touch, and then from 1986 to 1991 in Advocate Men. Mills’s command of humorous graphic vocabulary reflected the sexual mores of the time while staying away from the purely sexual content that is the mainstay of gay male porn.

“Dykes to Watch Out For,” by Alison Bechdel, first appeared in the feminist paper Womannews in 1983. Now collected into books, the biweekly strip has been self-syndicated since 1985 and is now seen in over forty-five papers internationally, making if the most popular gay comic strip of all time.

Since 1986, Leyland Publications has released sixteen volumes of “Meatmen,”an anthology of sexually explicit gay male cartoons and comics, following in the tradition of chapbooks and Tijuana Bibles.

Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez’s “Love and Rockets” is a bonanza for queer Latino representation. Maggie and Hopey from Jaime’s “Locas” storylines have a long-standing on-again, off-again lesbian relationship. Gilbert has portrayed not only gay characters such as the lesbian couple Riri and Maricela, and activist Mike Niznick, but individuals—sometimes confused and conflicted, sometimes category-defying—willing to experiment with their sexuality.

“Hothead Paisan,” by Diane DiMassa, stalked on the scene in her own series in 1991 and the “homicidal lesbian terrorist” has racked up more than fifteen issues since.

Akbar and Jeff are an unusual gay couple in Matt Groening’s quirky “Life in Hell” series, which began in the early 1980s.

In the 1990s, DC finally admitted that some of Wonder Woman’s Amazon sisters were indeed lesbians.

Marvel Comics published the much-ballyhooed coming-out story of its Canadian hero Northstar in “Alpha Flight” #106 (1992), in a storyline featuring a fight over custody rights for an infant with AIDS. There had been many subtle hints about Northstar’s orientation since 1984, but this story signaled a change in Marvel’s official policy of no gay characters.

“For Better or For Worse,” by Lynn Johnson, began a breakthrough five-week sequence on March 22, 1993, by revealing that Lawrence, a longtime character, was gay. He gradually came out to friends and family, and in June 1994, took his boyfriend to the high school prom.

A Quick Look at AIDS in the Comics

Mainstream comics were slow to take up the representation (or mention) of AIDS. “Strip AIDS USA,” a 1989 compendium of new and reprinted work that mainly served as a public service announcement, featured AIDS-related work by mainstream, underground, and newspaper strip creators. Within Our Reach was a benefit book for AIDS causes, published by Marvel. DC featured Death, one of its characters most popular with older readers, in a special supplement that discussed AIDS and how to use a condom. Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” character Andy Lippincott died of AIDS in 1990. More recently, Image has produced several story lines about the HIV-positive superhero Shadowhawk. “The Incredible Hulk” has made strides since 1980, with a special AIDS awareness issue in 1994, in which a former Hulk sidekick asked for a gamma ray—irradiated blood transplant from the Hulk to conquer his own HIV infection.

art DID YOU KNOW…

• Lea Delaria was the first out (and outrageous) stand-up comic on a late-night network television program when she was featured on The Arsenio Hall Show in March 1993.

• Comedian Bob Smith, one of the group Funny Gay Males, was the first openly gay comic to appear on NBC’s Tonight Show, in July 1994.

• Kate Clinton was the first out lesbian/gay comedian on public TV when she was on the KQED Comedy Tonight program in 1991.(Kate did not identify herself as a lesbian per se; she mentioned in her routine that she had broken the Tenth Commandment: “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”)

• Suzanne Westenhoffer was the first openly gay person to have her own comedy special when, in July 1994, she appeared on HBO’s One Night Stand series.

Queer Comics’ Queer Comments

We’ve asked some of the lesbian and gay comics from around the country to give us some of their favorite lines on the life. Here’s what they had to say:

Tom Ammiano

Homophobia: The irrational fear that three fags will break into your house and redecorate it against your will.

San Francisco is so gay, it has it’s own patron saint, Saint Francis the Sissy. For his miracle, he changed breakfast into brunch.

Suzy Berger

My lover asked me if I wanted to have children. I told her I didn’t know, but we should keep trying.

According to People magazine, 70 percent of the women in prison are lesbians … GET ME A GUN!

Kate Clinton

I love softball. I play third base. You would love my team. Women, who are, like, not into competition—now tell me, aren’t those usually the women who come with the brand-new two-inch cleats on the first day? On my softball team, there are also some women who just can’t get into the coach-player dynamic. They cannot deal with the hierarchy of that. So we do a lot of processing on our team. Velveeta should be our team sponsor.

Lisa Geduldig

I come from a very typical Jewish family—a doctor, a lawyer, and a lesbian comic. When I decided to come out of the closet to my family, I thought I would do so where I felt most comfortable, in a Chinese restaurant … where I rigged the fortune cookies. I invited the whole extended family and sat my parents down at opposite ends of the table, and they got the same fortune: “Your son-in-law will be a turkey baster.”

Doug Holsclaw

They say there is a gay gene. I think there are lots of gay genes. For instance, I didn’t get the decorating gene or the opera gene or the neatness gene. I did, however, get the hair-obsession, multiple-sex-partner, and vicious-put-down genes. So I’m not complaining. I think I fared pretty well.

I remember when I was twenty and I had this fantasy of my ideal man who was older, maybe in his late thirties or early forties and really cute with a lot of money and a nice house, nice car, likes to travel.… Now I’m in my thirties and I find I’ve really changed. Now my ideal man is someone who is twenty—and really cute with a lot of money and a nice house and a nice car and likes to travel. Some things never change.

Marilyn Pittman

I was a teenage lesbian. And there was one thing we gay teenagers could do that our straight friends couldn’t. I could say to my mom, “Mom, Michelle’s coming over to spend the night Friday.” She’d say, “Okay, honey.” Johnny couldn’t come over, but Michelle could!!

Ever since Milton Berle put on a dress in the fifties, people have thought fags were funny. But “lesbian comic”? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Everybody knows that lesbians are mean and ugly and hate men. Well…

Bob Smith is a gay comedian from New York who has appeared on a number of nationally televised programs, including HBO’s One Night Stand.

Karen Ripley

I tell gay and lesbian jokes because I don’t ever want to be rich and famous … It’s working. Mom wanted a girl, and Dad wanted a boy—now they’re both happy.

Bob Smith

It wasn’t easy telling my parents that I’m gay. I told them at Thanksgiving. I said, “Mom, would you please pass the gravy to a homosexual?” She passed it to my father. A terrible scene followed. In college, I experimented with heterosexuality, I slept with a straight guy. I was really drunk.

Danny Williams

If gay men and lesbians can’t serve in the military, then straight men shouldn’t be allowed to be florists, and straight women can’t work for UPS.

In the town of Alamo, California, the residents living on a street named Gay Court were so embarrassed that they changed the name from Gay Court to High Eagle Court. I guess the name Homophobic Idiot Boulevard was already taken.

Letter From Home

I don’t know if this happens to any of you, but I write a letter to my parents and talk about all kinds of thoughts, feelings, emotions, suggestions, certainties, uncertainties … and I get a letter back from them, addressing absolutely NOTHING that I wrote to them about. So, I decided on a new tactic. From now on, I write a letter to them and enclose a copy of the letter I’d like to receive from them, ask them to sign it, and send it back in the enclosed, self-addressed stamped envelope. Let me know what you think.

We were just telling some of our friends in our P-FLAG (Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) group how happy we are for you that you came out of the closet. We are just so proud of who you are. “My daughter is a lesbian!” I just love to hear myself say those words.

How are you since your recent breakup? Are you seeing any nice Jewish girls? Our neighbor has a daughter … we’d really like you to meet.… And she’s a doctor!

We put a lot of thought into what you wrote in your last letter, and you have a really good point. After over thirty years of being a noncommunicative family, we’re also very glad that we collectively decided to work on interpersonal relations within the immediate family. We’d love to come visit you in San Francisco and see your life there. We support you in everything you do, sister.

P.S.: What do you think about the current wave of censorship and conservatism in this country? We’d love to hear your opinion.

OUT ON THE TOWN

Sometimes you just have to get out of the house and out loose. The work week was exhausting, your mother has been on the warpath, and your cat seems even more surly than usual. Or maybe you’re just bored. In any case, lesbians and gay men have a number of gathering places to choose from for community, fun, and cruising.

Whether in small towns or large cities, lesbians and gay men are coming together in a variety of ways just for fun. Bars and social clubs are an important part of our communities. By carving out our own spaces to dance and socialize, we create communities based around more than simply our sexualities—they reflect the diversity of ways in which we shake our tail feathers and have a good time.

The Ins and outs of Gay Bars

Unless you find yourself dead center in the Mojave Desert, you’re never probably more than a few hours’ drive from a gay bar. Oddly, outside of major cities they tend to be on the average larger than the typical New York or San Francisco bar. Bars in gay meccas tend to be extraordinarily specialized: leather bars, serious leather bars, dance bars, chicken/chicken hawk bars, hustler bars, yuppie bars, sing-along piano bars, bars that attract a Black or Latino or Asian American clientele. But outside of cities with very large gay populations, the bars are more like “one size fits all.” In Heartland, USA, you can find bars featuring drag shows in one room, a piano player in another, and posturing leathermen in a third—a combination that attests to the diversity of the gay community throughout the country.

Though bars are a staple feature of American gay life, they aren’t centers around which most gay people build their lives. For a certain percentage, the bars function as extended living rooms. For others, the bars could as well be on other planets. Most of’ us are somewhere in the middle—attending bars, say, once or twice weekly or monthly, or when going out with a particular group of friends.

After the thousands of hours I’ve spent in gay bars, it would be unseemly for me to write negatively about them. I really do think your chances of finding a lover for the rest of your life (if that’s what you’re looking for) are probably as good in a bar as anywhere else. And your chances for finding a trick in a bar are somewhat better than that (though in this age of AIDS, casual tricks ain’t what they used to be).

In some bars it is perfectly correct to accost a complete stranger and introduce yourself with a detailed description of just what sexual activities he should participate in with you to make you happy. (In a few bars it is/was perfectly correct to accost a complete stranger and introduce yourself with a detailed description of just what sexual activities he should participate in with you right then and there to make you happy.)

Since gay bar-going is a social activity, bring comfortable in gay bars is not unrelated to being comfortable with one’s gay identity. Most gays live their daily lives “acting straight”; even gays who are out to cu-workers and family conform to varying degrees to heterosexual norms. Paradoxically, gay may therefore find it more difficult to relate to other gays than to straights. In gay bars they may feel overly intimidated, or, fueled by alcohol and/or other drugs, some gays may use bars as stages to act out new heights of obnoxiousness.

Every primer on meeting new friends arid winning lovers steins to intone “Be yourself.” I’m not sure that’s such good advice. Better to go to a gay bar being the person you want to be. Don’t be afraid to initiate conversations; you can talk with people you have no sexual interest in. Have a positive attitude. If you keep whining about not having a lover, you’ll never have a lover. Enjoy yourself. Be gay, damn it. Gay. Look it up.

Gay bars are not a metaphor. Though sad, self-destructive alcoholics and giddy, amoral disco bunnies are found in gay bars, these people do not epitomize the gay bar system. Neither do gay bars symbolize the decadence of society. The Jerry Falwells see gay bars as evidence of the decline of Western civilization, but gay bars are simply not that good. Gay bars are a phenomenon. They are there in the same way that supermarkets, laundromats, and movie theaters are there, as places to frequent if you find they fulfill a need.

Bank Shot Cruising—The Lesbian Bar Scene

Pool playing and lesbians: genetic mandate, or socialized behavior? Maybe it’s the idea of getting to knock a bunch of balls around with a stick. Maybe it’s having a great excuse to watch a lot of women constantly bend over a table about the dimensions of a full-sized bed. Whatever the reasons, pool seems to be an integral part of the lesbian bar scene no matter what area of the country you’re in. And every kind of lesbian you can think of participates in some aspect of the game. As a rule, the femmes tend to lend ornamentation to the contest while the b-girls and butches brandish the cues. Although I did once have the pleasure of witnessing a femme resembling Christie Brinkley knock down trick shots like the second coming in a Virginia Beach queer bar. Needless to say, my andro-butch colleagues and I were stunned out of our neochauvinist minds. Who knew a femme could play like that?

The ritual goes something like this: You and yours arrive at the joint around eight o’clock if you want a snow-ball’s chance at the table. Sign your name on the little chalkboard provided and head to the bar for your beer or club soda. (These are props to be used for swigging to maintain cool after blown shots.) When your name is called, play like the fate of the world depends on it, so all the cute girls can see what a shark you are. And (sorry to all my fellow nonsmokers) the Marlboro dangling from the corner of the mouth greatly enhances one’s pool-pro image. It gives you that added squint through the smoke so it really looks as though you’re sizing up the shot-as-quantum physics. That’s about it.…

What? Were you expecting some sordid insider scoop on the lesbian cruising that takes place around pool tables? Well, the sorry fact of the matter is this—lesbians don’t cruise in any practical, get-the-damned-thing-done sense of the word. Despite the recent progressive trends in lesbian sexual behavior, in large portions we are still just a tad slow to jump on the sex-positive gravy train. If we want to achieve and maintain proper cruise control, we should take a few tips from our queer brothers (with a grain of salt):

2. Turn around to friend and squeal, “Ohmygod!theoneintheblackvestis SOO HOT!”

4. Drag hapless friend around the whole place in trick’s wake until you both catch her staring in ten different parts of the bar.

Lesbians make it all the way to about Step 5 and stall dead in their tracks. Mind you, Steps 5 and 6 can last the duration of one evening or continue over a weeks-long series of “next times” and near misses. It’s stupid. Everyone knows clubs are meat markets. Who really goes to these places in search of friends and profound conversation? Only the clueless. So just talk to that hot honey who’s been staring at you for the last half hour. You want her, go ‘n’ get her!

Wait a minute. It just dawned on me why lesbians take forever to talk to a chick they dig. They’re deeply scrutinizing her potential for domestic partnership! In the course of one evening a lesbian must decide beyond a shadow of a doubt if the scopee is the woman with whom she wants to spend the rest of her natural life. Well, in that case, one cannot be too hasty.

You might want to bear in mind one variable, however—if you meet her in a bar, you’ll probably spend more time staring at her than you will actually dating her.

Shake Your Groove Thing

Whether or not you know it, the club scene is as big now as it was in the seventies. Nowadays, young queers, both men and women, flock to dance clubs around the country, where lesbians and gay men can often be found dancing together. Here, two young people, Don Romesburg and Arwyn Moore, share their conversation about why they find dancing so integral to their lives.

SONGS THAT MOVE QUEERS

Following is a list of the songs played in mainstream gay and lesbian clubs guaranteed to get those lavender booties shakin’ every time.

Gay Men

Any Village People hit

Any Madonna song

“It’s Raining Men”—The Weather Girls

“Supermodel (You Better Work)”—RuPaul

“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”—Sylvester

Lesbians

“Express Yourself”—Madonna

“I’m Every Woman”—Whitney Houston

“I’m Gonna Get You”—Bizarre Inc.

“Respect”—Aretha Franklin

“Bad Girls”—Donna Summer

Everybody

Any dance remix of a queer-popular song (like k.d.’s “Constant Craving”)

“Don’t Leave Me This Way”—Thelma Houston

“Enough is Enough”—Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand

“I Will Survive”—Gloria Gaynor

“A Deeper Love”—Aretha Franklin

“We Are Family”—Sister Sledge

“I’m Coming Out”—Diana Ross

DR: Is dancing in a gay bar revolutionary? Maybe it was a decade or two ago. But I’m a young white queer boy living in San Francisco—the Castro, no less—and I’m HIV-negative (at least according to my last test). Pretty much the only time my dancing in a gay bar is revolutionary is when I spin around.

AM: Why the fuck should everything he political? Being a Black lesbian in the queer community makes me very tired of politics! I don’t do politics while I’m dancing—it’s just about the only time I don’t feel guilty for not being conscientious.

DR: I won’t even start about my white liberal guilt. Nobody—including me—wants to hear that song anymore. But how about something by Madonna circa late 1980s? Turn that beat around. When I’m moving my body and pumping my legs until sweat drips off my face—that’s what the dancing’s about. The passion. The pulse.

AM: I won’t even start about Madonna. That’s what DJs play when the scene is beat and they need to get folks on the dance floor. I can’t get behind that—I need music I can throw my whole self into without thinking about the words or who’s singing them. Dancing keeps us in touch with our bodies and our instincts, which we tend to neglect in everyday life. You can’t dance with your intellect.

DR: Dancing is trying to push past feeling self-conscious about what I think and what I look like. It’s a crazy mixture of feeling a little uncomfortable with myself and liberating myself from feeling self-conscious. I explore the space, including the bodies in motion that surround me. When I forget myself—that’s when I dance best.

AM: Your body knows what it’s supposed to do; the point is whether you let it or not. It shouldn’t matter what other people think your body ought to be doing. But being queer is so much about image, and that carries over to dancing. When I dance, I try to be outside myself. But if I’m with someone who makes me all paranoid ’cause she can’t let go, I can’t enjoy myself to the fullest.

DR: Dancing isn’t really about talent or command of certain steps. It’s about finding a groove that works for you. And if a person lets go of that mental control and lets their body do its thing, it’s very sexy. Okay, so dancing is also about sex. Big time.

AM: Dance and sex are synonymous because they’re both about primal instinct. It’s not so much about how someone moves, but what’s moving them.

DR: I know. I hate to sound New Age-y, but dancing is also spiritual—it cleanses the soul. It’s a kind of euphoria; that joy and invigorating exhaustion. I move in ways I wouldn’t normally, using both physical and spiritual muscles I didn’t know (or forgot) I had.

AM: I heard that! Don’t tell me nothin’ after I’ve just torn up the dance floor, honey. I’m so high! Sometimes I dance so damned good I embarrass myself. It’s like I’m showing off. When I’m dancing. I’m immortal.

Dr: It’s all about that person, sexy, sweaty, and sly, who is just on top of the beat tasting the music, and riding the energy of the room. It doesn’t matter what that person’s gender is. That’s who I want to be when I’m dancing. I want to reach that place where it all intersects, and I’m not only dancing in a crowd, but I am the crowd. I am the energy. That’s when dancing is love.

Two-Stepping for Beginners

Around the country, in large cities and small towns, lesbians and gay men are going to their local gay bars to two-step and line dance to country-western hits from Wynona, Garth, and Lyle Lovett. And if you’ve ever been out on the dance floor in a gay country bar, you know that when Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achey Breaky Heart” comes on, you’d better not be trying to two-step, because the line dancers doing the “Achey Breaky” will run you flat.

In Round Up: The Gay Western and Rodeo Magazine, Chris Hochmuth spoke to the panic that sets in when line dancers and two-steppers collide: “Imagine the chaos created on the dance floor where the ‘Achey Breaky’ is not taught, but almost everybody does it. The song comes on, a group of line dancers forms out in the center of the floor with couples trying to two-step shuffle around them. Break out the body bags.”

Cowboys line-dancing at the Rawhide, a gay country-western bar in San Francisco in 1985. (Rink Foto)

Welcome to the country side of town in queer America. Country-western dancing is a fun and exciting way to get close with that cowboy or cowgirl you’ve had your eye on. Once you’re over at the bar, you’ll find that the county crowd is one of the friendliest, most open groups you’ve ever encountered. The age, of the patrons van from people in their early twenties to those in their sixties and seventies, though the majority are between the ages of thirty and fifty. Most of the dancer; are men, although the women hold their own, and most are white (though happily that is changing). Unlike up the thumpa-thompa-boom clubs and pickup bars, you’ll notice that people are smiling, talking, and haying a good time. The only attitude you might find here is on the dance floor.

art DID YOU KNOW…

Maile and Marina are probably the hottest lesbian two-stepping duo around. They teach both two-step and country-western line dancing all across the country, using only music by female performers in their live shows and instructional videos. Their stylish dress, quick wit, and warmth have earned this longtime couple widespread fame throughout the country-western community. Devotion to each other and building community (as well as just putting on a great show) make these women both inspiring and entertaining role models to their thousands of fans.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, take a few of the lessons most bars provide before you stumble out onto the floor. Those whirling, twirling couples don’t take too kindly to a slowpoke when the floor really gets moving. And wait for a few bars of a song before you get out on the floor, or you may find yourself in the middle of an “L.D.C. Express” line-dance scuff ’n’ scoot without a clue whether your next move should be a grapevine, a left step forward, or to get the hell off the floor and buy yourself a stiff drink. Don’t worry; nobody starts out as a pro, and your will get better. Even over the course of a single evening you’d be amazed how much better you can negotiate the footwork.

Be careful, honey, because this stiffs addictive. Ken Smith, who now teaches two-stepping at the Rawhide II in San Francisco, went the first time thinking, This could be neat, but I hate the music. A few months later, he had his car radio preset to the country stations. Now he can be found five nights a week dancing his hears out. Lesbian and gay county regulars always talk about the incredible sense of community that two-stepping provides, and how in nearly every state the country bar crowds are about the same: open, friendly, and fun-loving. Don’t knock gay country-western bars till you’ve tried ’em. You may just find yourself a new family, if, that is, you can survive the dance floor.

Square Your Sets!

art “We work hard to keep the club at a fifty-fifty mix. If a new class is predominantly one gender, we target our advertising to the other gender for the next class. We try very hard to make sure that the club board is evenly split. We support each other, even in small things: At the Miami convention, when the Wilde Bunch women were asked to join in the “all-woman” tip, the W.B. men came to watch and show their support. We are very sensitive to each other’s needs. Our men dance gently, and our women try to learn what a red bandana in the right back pocket with the third button of the fly open and a banana in the left ear means.”

GRACE CUMMINS, THE WILDE BUNCH SQUARE-DANCE CLUB, ALBUQUERQUE, NM

Square dancing offers the gay and lesbian community a unique social outlet. It is excellent exercise, and traditionally, smoking and drinking are not permitted in a square-dance hall, so it is a thoroughly healthy endeavor. Men and women meet on grounds different from the ones they are accustomed to, and find that the things that bind them are greater than the ones that divide them.

For the men, square dancing allows an opportunity to meet far from the ever-present sexual pressures in the usual bar scene. When a man asks you to be his partner in a square, you don’t have to worry: “Oh, God, is he my type?” All you have to do is dance with him and say “thank you” at the end of the “tip.”

The result is that prejudices such as those usually displayed in the personal ads—“Seeking: WM, age 32 to 33 1/2. Greek passive, French active, into Florsheim wingtips; no fats or fems need reply”—become immaterial. You get to know the people behind the stereotypes, and find out that—horrors!—you actually get to like some of the fats, ferns, or whatever category it was you thought you wanted nothing to do with. Your square-dancing friends become the people you go out with to dinner, the movies, or the theater; the ones you call when you are blue; the ones who help lift your morale when a love affair goes sour; the ones by your bed-side when you are ill.

Does gay square dancing differ from straight square dancing? Straight callers who call for gay events will tell you that there are some significant differences. Straight square dancers come, of course, in biologically identifiable couples, with each person dancing his or her biologically correct role (and don’t even think of switching!). Aside from that, straight square dancers follow a rigid dress code, which usually results in “color-coded” couples, where the man wears a shirt the same color as his partner’s dress.

Among gay square dancers, the only dress code seems to be that you have to wear something while you are on the dance floor (well, even that rule is not always observed), but that “something” can be a pair of leather chaps with nothing covering your derriere. As far as the biological sex of the dancers is concerned, a gay square may he composed of five men and three women, but the three women may be dancing the men’s parts! It could be a caller’s nightmare, since any series of dance movements is supposed to end with original partners back together again, but callers who adjust to the challenge will tell you there is nothing like calling for a gay event.

The reason, they tell you, is the incredible energy that gay square dancers display and the way they respond to a caller’s challenging choreography. Why is the dancers’ reaction so different between a gay and a straight event? Some observe that straight square dancing is, for the nest part, an activity of older, married couples, whereas gay square dancers are significantly younger on the average.

That does not account for Stan and Bill from the Sacramento club, however. Roth are in their seventies now; they have attended all nine annual convention; since the first one in Seattle. They celebrated their fortieth anniversary together at the Vancouver convention in 1990, and were the first two people to register for the tenth anniversary convention coming this Jul in Seattle. Once again, you’ll find them on the dance floor there with everyone else.

A well-known straight national caller, who is black himself, has a different theory about the energy of gay dancers. He says that the only place he has found a similar response from the dance floor has been when he has called for all-black square-dance events. In his opinion, the energy is that of people who have been held hack their whole lives through but hays finally found some-thing they really enjoy doing. With the feeling of repression lifted in the activity, the pent-up energy just comes noshing through. Maybe he is right.

JOCKSTRAPS AND SPORTS BRAS

Sports in the lesbian and gay community are about far more than just the competition. We play in a variety of ways, from the butch lesbian softballer to the nellie queen who is a whiz at Ping-Pong; from the all-dyke bowling team to gay male cheer-leading squads. Many of us enjoy the camaraderie, recreation, and, yes, competition that lesbian and gay athletics bring.

Queer sports are also about gender-bending and breaking stereotypes. Butches, femmes, and a variety of other dykes can and do participate in any number of sporting events. And gay men, from fey fags to gym bunnies, compete with enthusiasm on everything from wrestling mats to soccer fields across the United States. It isn’t simply that lesbians (as women) and gay men (as not “real” men) shatter societal expectations of athleticism and machismo, though that in itself is revolutionary. Gay people also revitalize sports by adding to them a sense of camp, acknowledging the erotic value of athletics, and using sports as a powerful form of building gay communities.

Some people living with HIV and AIDS are finding empowerment through sports. Healthy living, including physical fitness, can increase both physical and emotional well-being. In addition, by excelling athletically, people with HIV and AIDS show the world that being positive doesn’t have to mean being inactive. These are individuals like Rick Muñoz, a thirty-six-year-old marathon runner from Los Angeles who, after discovering he was HIV-positive in 1987, tightened up his training schedule, sharpened his focus, and reached his personal best of 2 hours 44 minutes in 1992.

Dykes, Diamonds and Double-Plays

Softball is the unequivocally correct response. The girls of summer are everywhere: “Country dykes, city dykes, dykes with four-year degrees, dykes who are feminists, dykes who aren’t, dykes of different races and classes, dykes who have been athletes all their lives, and dykes who are just discovering, or rediscovering after years, the value of athletic endeavors—there are softball players among all their ranks.” according to Yvonne Zipter, author of Diamonds Are a Dyke’s Best Friend.

It is a lesbian institution that began as an unofficial place to meet other lesbians. Dykes enjoy the bonding and mutual support that go with the game, but the real attraction of softball is social. Its a place to meet other wooden, to fall in love and have fun all at the same time.

One of ten pro teams in the Women’s National Football League during the seventies, the Columbus franchise was owned and operated by a a lesbian majority. Unlike their professional counterparts in golf and tennis, these women were not required to wear make-up and “dress fashionably.” (Courtesy of Linda Stamps)

Several lesbians shared their experiences with Zipter. Fran found love. “I met my first lover through softball … I think softball is a good place to meet people and probably always will be.” Valerie bypassed the bar scene, reflecting that “There are so few places for women to go and meet apart from bars.… It is an ideal way to get to know other people.” Laurie sums it all up: “Team sports are the main social outlets in my life. I depend on them for emotional support, physical activity, a sense of belonging, a comfortable atmosphere, and an outlet for my competitive nature.”

Other players describe the pleasures of the game—the sound of a ball hitting the fat part of the bat, the feel of sweat, or the smell of a leather glove. Individual teams are as distinct as individual players. Philosophies of play vary widely. Some teams approach the game with a “winning-is-all” attitude, while others seek personal bests. Many just want to have fun. No matter what the approach, the commitment to the game is total. “As with everything else they do, lesbians are a hundred percent invested in softball,” explains Alix Dobkin.

Dykes play in straight leagues, gay and lesbian leagues, lesbian-only leagues, and just about any combination imaginable. Teams are backed by businesses, players, family, and friends. In gay and lesbian leagues, bars tend to be the largest group of sponsors, fostering goodwill, supporting lesbian sports, and seeking exposure.

Softball’s future in the lesbian community remains certain. It is universal, accessible, and fun. It unites the diverse elements of lesbian society unlike any other event. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

art DID YOU KNOW…

The Front Runners, a national lesbian and gay running group, began in the early 1970s when a couple of San Franciscans interested in running met at Lavender U, an experimental gay college, in a furniture restoration class. That 1974 running group became the Lavender U Joggers. In 1978, adopting the name of a popular book about a gay runner, they became the Front Runners. On July 27, 1980, the group’s cosponsor, Advocate magazine, held the first Gay Run. The Front Runners became the first gay club to join the Amateur Athletic Union, which later became The Athletic Congress, the organization that sanctions road races across the nation.

These Gloves Ain’t Sequined, Honey: The Bay Area Boxing Club

Greg Varney first boxed when he was six years old, long before he knew he was gay. In 1976, at twenty-four, he and his lover set up a boxing ring in the attic of their San Francisco home. It was the beginning of what has become the Bay Area Boxing Club (BABC), a pugilist program for lesbians and gay men. Varney coaches and trains his team, which includes several women.

Boxing has been more than a fetish fantasy for these fighters, who are serious about the physical and emotional prizes won by being involved in the BABC. Member Scott McDonald commented in Nancy Andrew’s Family:

“I was told gay men shouldn’t box or couldn’t box. Some of it is that you build up confidence in everyday life. Boxing did that. I’m HIV-positive, and I have been for seven years, and I thought, ‘If I want to start to do these things in my life, I better start doing them now.’” Bruno Kochis agrees, and thinks of the BABC as a community. “It creates a very good feeling between us. It makes us family; it makes us belong.”

The club sponsors two lesbian and gay tournaments annually. The first, held around Memorial Day, is mostly local. The other, normally held in the winter, is the Rainbow Gloves Tournament. Boxers from around the country compete in the ring and enjoy a sense of camaraderie outside of it. But don’t think that boxing is all about fun and games—the competition is stiff and vicious.

Boxing also has an additional meaning to these lesbians and gay men. In a homophobic society, the ability to physically defend oneself can provide real confidence and peace of mind. According to Varney, “Gay people, if they get hit, tend to go away, or run, or use a whistle and hope that somebody will come. You can do anything you want, but until you can stand there and say. ‘Hey, I’m just as good as you, and if you try to push me, I’ll knock your lights out’—until you can actually do that, we haven’t got it.”

The History of Gay Rodeo

art “Each rodeo I entered was more fun because I got to know more and more people. We started helping each other and encouraging each other, even If we were competing against each other. It didn’t seem to matter if you were a guy or a girl, or what events you were in, or if you were winning or not, we were becoming a family. We worked and competed hard, then we played hard, then we would say good-bye until the next rodeo.”

JEANINE TUTTLE, LESBIAN RODEO CHAMPION, IN “A WOMAN’S POINT OF VIEW,” ROUND UP: THE GAY WESTERN AND RODEO MAGAZINE

It would be difficult for a spectator seated in the arena at Dallas or Phoenix or Denver to imagine the long and colorful road down which gay rodeo has traveled. It hasn’t been easy to get from there to here!

In 1975, through Reno’s Imperial Court System, Emperor Phil Ragsdale chose as his cause the Muscular Dystrophy Association and proposed a gay rodeo as a means to raise funds. The Washoe County Fairgrounds was secured as a site and, despite complications imposed by livestock providers upon learning the event would be patronized by the lesbian and gay community, the National Reno Gay Rodeo was born on October 2, 1976, and later added the Mr., Ms., and Miss National Reno Gay Rodeo competition as Mr. Ragsdale’s new fund-raiser.

The Colorado Gay Rodeo Association was formed in 1981. By 1982, the National Reno Gay Rodeo hosted 10,000 spectators, with Joan Rivers serving as grand marshal. The Golden State Gay Rodeo Association and Arizona Gay Rodeo Association were formed in 1984, while Texas hosted its first gay rodeo that year. This was also the ninth and final year for the National Reno Gay Rodeo.

In 1985, the International Gay Rodeo Association was formed as an umbrella organization to establish uniform rules for the state member associations and to help each work toward producing quality rodeos. IGRA had its first convention in Denver with representatives from California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas.

By 1988, six rodeos were successfully produced annually. The IGRA Finals, scheduled for Reno, did not occur that year due to cancellation of the rodeo’s contract. Two days of legal maneuvering plus a trip to the Nevada Supreme Court failed to stop the homophobic district attorney who was behind the machinations. But he could not dampen the spirit of the lesbian and gay cowpokes, and over the next several years, membership in the IGRA boomed.

By the 1990s, the momentum had proven itself to he more than a passing fancy, and corporate sponsors took notice. Miller Brewing Company in 1991 became the first sponsor of all IGRA-sanctioned rodeos. In 1992, twelve gay rodeos were held in eleven stales, drawing record crowds from Seattle, Washington, to Bethesda, Maryland, with nearly 36,000 daytime spectators and more than double that number attending associated evening functions. The IGRA truly became an international organization with the Northwest Gay Rodeo Association adding British Columbia as a member. Year by year, the IGRA continues to grow in scope, vision, and participation, breaking old stereotypes about gender, sexuality, and the cowpoke way of life.

GREAT NAMES IN SPORTS: GAY AND LESBIAN SPORTING GROUPS

Barnacle Busters (Los Angeles gay and lesbian scuba divers)

Bottom Dwellers (Seattle gay and lesbian scuba divers)

The Burning Butches (lesbian softball team of Bet Havarim in Atlanta)

The Chicago Smelts (gay and lesbian aquatics)

Different Spokes (gay and lesbian bicyclists)

Digging Dykes of Decatur (gardeners; yes, this is a sport)

Equus (Portland, Oregon, gay men’s equestrian group)

Finny Dippers (San Diego gay and lesbian scuba divers)

Front Runners (gay and lesbian runners)

Hortophiles (gardeners and garden lovers)

Lambda Ladies of the Links (lesbian golfers in Chicago)

Lavender Winds (gay men’s kite flyers)

Outriders (gay, lesbian, and bisexual bicycling group in Boston)

Rainbow Skydivers Club (gay skydivers in Dallas)

Stonewall Climbers (San Francisco gay and lesbian rockclimbers)

Someone’s on the Fairway with Dinah

It’s known as Dyke Hill. The 17th hole at the Mission Hills Country Club is a short par-three that plays uphill. For the thousands of lesbian groupies who flock to Paler Springs each spring, it is here that they get a bird’s-eye view of their favorite LPGA stars—Patty Sheehan, Beth Daniels, Pat Bradley—teeing off, striding up the course for their second fairway shot, and tapping their putts into the cup.

If the 17th is Dyke Hill, the Dinah Shore Golf Tournament is Dyke Heaven. Each March, more than 5,000 lesbians pour into California’s desert oasis for what has become the hottest ticket on the lesbian social calendar. With sunshine, golf, and girls, the tournament has become known as “the biggest dyke party west of the Mississippi.”

Little did Dinah know when the tournament was established in 1972 by Colgate-Palmolive (and taken over by Nabisco in 1982) that it would end up as a land-mark of lesbian subculture. Besides the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, and Gay Pride parades, there may be no bigger convergence of butches, lipstick lesbians, and Long Beach blondes in the world. “I’ve been a half-dozen times, and I’m always amazed,” says Los Angeles-based journalist Michele Kort. “I’ve never seen more healthy-looking lesbians in one place—ever.”

I called a friend who had just returned from her first trip to the Dinah Shore. She launched into an enthusiastic description of a benefit golf tournament held on the Saturday before the finals, playfully called the Lina Shore Golf Tournament, the proceeds of which go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Foundation. “You should have seen the crowd… very upscale, very pretty, lots of dough. They’re all lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, real estate tycoons, and their pretty girlfriends. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it. And you can bid on prizes—a foursome with some famous golfer or a golf bag autographed by the girls on the tour.”

Golf, of course, is secondary to many of Dinah’s denizens. By early March, L.A.’s Lesbian News reaches fever pitch with its promotions for events featuring “gorgeous gals” and “luscious ladies.” There is the Desert Palms Bra Party (guests are invited to wear their sexiest and most unusual bras) and an event called Le Moulin Rouge (which promises 3,000 trés chic women), as well as the French Riviera Pool Party.

By Sunday, the gals who gather at the Mission Hills clubhouse for beers are showing the strain of the sun, cruising, drinking, and golf. “It was girls as far as the eye could see,” said my friend. For those few with energy left to burn, there was still the famous whipped cream wrestling night at Daddy Warbucks bar. I asked her if she’d go back next year. “In a heartbeat!”

A History of the Gay Games

If the Stonewall riots is the symbolic birth of the gay rights movement, then the concept of a “Gay Olympics” in 1980 marked the measure of the gay and lesbian community’s character. The brainchild of Dr. Thomas F. Waddell, the idea for the Gay Games was first introduced at a gay and lesbian community dinner in San Francisco. Waddell, an Olympic decathelete, organized a planning meeting just eighteen months before the first Gay Gaines opened at Kezar Stadium. The foundation upon which the Games is built reflected Waddell’s belief that “to do one’s personal best should he the paramount goal in any athletic endeavor.”

The call to compete in the first gay olympics was answered by 1,300 athletes from 179 cities and twelve nations. At this seminal event, called “Challenge ’82,” competitors participated in fourteen different sports.

A second event was planned for 1986. Gay Games II, San Francisco Arts and Athletics. Inc., and the city of San Francisco welcomed 3,482 women and men representing fifty-nine cities and sixteen countries, who competed in seventeen sports. Triumph ’86 was the largest international amateur sporting event held in North America in 1986. At his last closing ceremonies, Waddell presented the Games flag to representatives from the Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia, Athletic and Arts Association, the organizers for Gay Games III: Celebration ’90. In July 1987, Waddell lost his battle with AIDS.

Gay Games III in Vancouver, British Columbia, provided the backdrop for the largest Games gathering yet. The MVAAA envisioned a grand celebration that included both athletics and the arts. More than 7,000 athletes and 1,500 cultural participants from 30 nations converged for a week in Canada. Fifty thousand spectators could choose from over twenty-six sporting events, and gorge on gay and lesbian cultural offerings. For the first time in the history of the Games, many events were officially sanctioned.

art CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

The major international athletic competition started by Tom Waddell was originally called the Gay Olympics. When the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) learned that the term “Olympics” was being associated with a gay and lesbian athletic event, they fought with the San Francisco Athletic Association, which was sponsoring the event, all the way to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, in 1987 the Supreme Court sided with the USOC, and the Gay Olympics were renamed the Gay Games. Interestingly, the court had no problem with the Crab Cooker Olympics, the Police Olympics, the Special Olympics, or any other of the hundreds of organizations around the country that use the term “Olympics” in association with their events.

Gay Games IV: Unity ’94, opened to the bustle and bright lights of New York City. Held the week before Stonewall 25, Gay Games IV and Cultural Festival hosted 11,000 athletes, along with 2,500 artists from forty-four countries. Thirty-one sports, including women’s wrestling, ice hockey, and figure skating with a same-sex pairs competition, were held in twenty-eight venues. Games programs were filled with letters of support from President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with New York governor Mario Cuomo and mayor Rudy Giuliani. Corporate sponsors like AT&T and Hiram Walker joined with groups and individuals to help fund a $6.1 million budget. Five hundred thousand spectators enjoyed a week of fun and freedom. Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis thrilled diving fans with fifteen minutes of power and grace on the diving hoard. Closing ceremonies were held in a nearly packed Yankee Stadium, where the crowd was treated to two laser light shows, two fireworks displays, and a host of entertainers, including Patti La Belle, who left them screaming for more after she sang “Over the Rainbow.”

Gay Games V will be held in Amsterdam in 1998. The Dutch government has already committed $27 million toward the event, unlike the United States, which never offered financial support to the Games. The Netherlands is home to a diverse culture that has long integrated homosexuality into its social fabric, and “Friendship ’98” stands poised to be the largest and most welcoming Gay Games yet.

Official Sporting Events of Gay Games IV

HOBBIES FOR HOMOS

For many lesbians and gay men, despite propaganda to the contrary, recreational life does not consist entirely of lesbian soft-ball, the bar scene, and gay male sex clubs. Some of us also have hobbies, ranging from bridge clubs to kite flying, and from hiking to choral singing. Some of us, gay and lesbian alike, have even been rumored to needlepoint.

Often, when we play, we play in groups. Clubs and organizations across the country in rural, urban, and suburban America are meeting in secret and in public to stitch, gamble, gossip, and blow horns. Aside from just having fun, these clubs build community, as well as serving as an outreach to mainstream organizations with common interests. Some activities, like lesbian and gay marching bands and choruses, present a relatively nonthreatening view of gay life to heterosexuals who, because of stereotypes and assumptions, might be uncomfortable with gay people. In that way, these organizations bridge a gap that might otherwise be unbridgeable.

art DID YOU KNOW…

In Seattle, the Chicken Soup Brigade, which provides everyday assistance, including transportation, home chores, and meals on wheels to people living with AIDS, has been holding monthly Gay Bingo since the fall of 1992. Because of constant sellout crowds of more than 500 people, the organization began holding biweekly games in 1994. “Buy in” for twelve games is $10, and winners are awarded cash prizes of up to $1,000 and an array of donated merchandise from local retailers. Occasionally local politicos and celebrities, including columnist Dan Savage (“Hey Faggot”) and State Representative Cal Anderson, drop by to “call” a few games.

Lesbian and Gay Bands of America

Before 1982, gay men and lesbians in marching hands had no collective banner under which they could gather and march in unity. All that changed when seven independent marching bands from across the United States, uniquely identified as lesbian and gay, met one day in Chicago. The Lesbian and Gay Bands of America (LGBA) was born of a need for strong visibility and consolidation among gay marching hands. In its present form, the LGBA consists of twenty-four bands from the U.S. and Canada.

Through the LGBA, lesbians and gay men who share a love of music have the opportunity to improve their musicianship and organizational skills and bring the art of concert/marching hand music to audiences from all areas of society. Member bands “band together” every year to perform in concerts and parades, as well as smaller-scale community events. The first united performance was a commemoration in 1981 of the Stonewall rebellion’s fifteenth anniversary, when the LGBA presented “A Gay Night at the Hollywood Bowl.”

The Lesbian and Gay Bands of America performed during the 1993 March on Washington. (Zoe Perry)

In 1990, the LGBA debuted internationally, performing the “Beyond the Rainbow” concert in the opening and closing ceremonies of Gay Games III and Cultural Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1992, history was made when the LGBA was invited to take part as an openly gay and lesbian organization in the fifty-second presidential inaugural festivities.

The LGBA has evolved beyond the scope of its original aspirations. Associated LGBA groups are not limited to music. Under its auspices, groups such as “Band Aides” emerged—friends, family, and lovers who provide critical support at LGBA performances. Video production, baton twirlers, tap-dancing troupes, flag and rifle corps, and vocal assemblies have also come out of the larger LGBA coalition.

Why I Play in the Gay Band

I have been a member of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band since August 1985. For many years, I have hardly ever taken a break from the Tuesday-night ritual. I’ve logged nearly 500 rehearsals, dozens of concerts, too many parades to count, and other odd performances (and I do mean odd!).

The band fills a number of needs for me. Since that day many years ago when I climbed up on my parents’ piano bench and started banging away, expressing myself with music has been something I can’t imagine being without. I truly feel sorry for the many people I meet who confess they played in a band or orchestra as a youngster but haven’t touched their instrument in ten or twenty years. The music is within them somewhere, looking for a way to get out.

art DID YOU KNOW…

The first gay and lesbian computer game was Gay-Blade, a fantasy role-playing game invented in 1993 by RJBest, a San Francisco-based computer game company. In the game, a gaysbian warrior combats evil lord Nanahcub (an anagram for Buchanan), using such weapons as a lethal blow dryer, a condom shield, and press-on nails for hand-to-hand combat. Soon after, Queers in History, an educational trivia computer game about lesbians and gay men in history, was developed by Quistory, Ltd.

Secondly, my band is composed primarily, but not exclusively, of lesbians and gay men. All of us who share this fabulous orientation choose to “come out” in our own ways. For me, as a person not particularly interested in politics, the band has been a way to belong to a gay organization and make a political statement in a nonpolitical way. In the words of a dear friend, and a band member, who has since passed of AIDS, “What’s more harmless than a marching band?” He likened a marching band to a teddy bear or balloon—“What’s not to like?” I have witnessed this on many occasions when the band participates in its many outreach activities by performing in “straight” parades and concerts. Music is a great equalizer; almost everyone’s biases or ignorance seems to melt in the face of our performances.

The third reason for my ongoing love of the band is the people. Just about all my friends these days are band members, or as we proudly call ourselves, “band peeks”! These friendships cross the normal barriers we set up in society: gender, income, religion, race, and even sexual orientation. We are one big happy family. And be careful not to mention to me that you’ve got a musical past, because WE RECRUIT! An important extension of the people connection is an even larger circle of band-geek friends that I have developed around the country.

Between the music, the need to express myself as a gay man, and the amazing circle of friends I have nation-wide, it should be no surprise how I answer the question “Why play in a gay band?” The obvious answer: Band = Life and life = Band!

Singing in Harmony — The History of the Lesbian and Gay Choral Movement

The beginning of the lesbian and gay choral movement is difficult to pin down precisely, just as the founding dates for some individual member choruses are difficult to determine. Men’s, women’s, and mixed choruses, many of them with lesbians and gay men filling their ranks, have existed for centuries. As a recent example, the Sister Singers Network includes a number of feminist and women’s choruses that predate Gay and Lesbian Chorus Association (GALA) choruses by several years. They did not begin to join the GALA Choruses organization in significant numbers until the mid to late 1980s.

The founding of the San Francisco Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps in 1977, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus by the late Jon Sims the following year, are cited as the beginning of the specifically gay and lesbian band and choral movements. As the first hand and chorus among several in the early 1980s to proclaim their gay identities by name, the San Francisco ensembles represented openness that quickly inspired gay men and lesbians throughout the United States and Canada to establish bands and choruses.

Jay Davidson, the first general manager of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, began the process of reaching out to the fledgling bands and choruses across the country. He distributed copies of the Chorus’s in-house newsletter to other bands and choruses in exchange for copies of their own. It was Jay’s hope that this mutual sharing would provide support for expanding the number of gay and lesbian musical organizations. This informal networking led to a casual meeting in San Francisco during 1980 with Jerry Carlson, the musical director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and Nick Kelley, from Toddling Town Performing Arts in Chicago. Discussed at this meeting was the possibility of forming an organization, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Performing Arts (GALA Performing Arts), which would include both bands and choruses from around North America. Nick Kelley agreed to host a meeting in Chicago in the spring of 1981 to which representatives from all the known bands and choruses were invited.

As of January 1, 1995, the GALA Choruses network included 128 choruses: 62 men’s, 41 mixed, and 25 women’s choruses. These consist of more than 6,500 individual singers and support members, and have combined annual budgets of over $5.5 million! Most choruses perform over three concerts a year, giving them an annual audience estimated at over 500,000 people.

—EXCERPTED FROM “A BRIEF HISTORY OF GALA CHORUSES,” COURTESY OF KENNETH COLE

GETTING AWAY

As fun as everyday lesbian and gay life can be, and as great as our friends are, sometimes we all need to take a break and get away for a while. Vacationing is always fun, exciting, and a little bit stressful. For lesbians and gay men, the stress is increased by the potential homophobia involved in traveling to unfamiliar places. Some hotels, for example, still can’t fathom what it means when two men request a single room with a queen-size bed. Potential headaches abound.

Still, traveling can be an adventure, and lesbians and gay men have a variety of ways in which we spend our money and time while on vacation. Some of us like to spend our vacations in gay ghettos like West Hollywood (Los Angeles), the Castro (San Francisco), and Greenwich Village (New York). Others of us like to go to gay resort towns, like Fire Island in New York and Provincetown in Massachusetts. Still others enjoy taking lesbian and gay cruises or organized gay tours. And, of course, many gay men and lesbians travel to the same places that everybody else does, like the Grand Canyon, Disney World, and Hawaii.

Summer Camps Making a Difference

Although many gay men and lesbians attended summer camps as children, the experiences we had were mixed, at best. Some of us felt ostracized based on the religious bent of the camp we attended. Others of us struggled with early stirrings of our sexual awakenings and pressures to conform to heterosexual camp “romance.” An entire mythology in lesbian culture, rivaled only by the gym teacher, has been constructed around the crush on a female counselor. And, of course, for the sissies, the aggressively competitive athletic bent of most boys’ camps was painful, frustrating, and alienating.

art DID YOU KNOW…

All around the country, there are clubs of lesbians and gay men who love to camp—and put away those heels, Mary, these folks camp with a tent and cans of Sterno! They range in size from the South Sound Outdoorsmen, a hardy band of fourteen gay and bisexual men who gather to share their mutual love for men and the outdoors in Olympia, Washington, to the Wilderness Network of the Carolinas, which has over a hundred members in North and South Carolina. The largest lesbian, gay, and bisexual outdoors group is Chiltern in New England, which boasts over 1,200 members and has a monthly newsletter detailing their hiking, skiing, biking, and canoeing adventures that are planned nearly every weekend, year-round.

But times are changing. At least three camps around the country are designed to accommodate both lesbian and gay kids, and children of gay and lesbian parents. By reinventing the idea of the traditional camp with progressive values and sensitivity to the special issues surrounding gay people, they show an exciting new trend for both gay and lesbian parents and their children, and gay and lesbian kids.

Two of these camps are in Northern California: Camp It Up, near Yosemite, began in 1989 and bills itself as “A Camp for All Kinds of Families.” It is a summer camp with a progressive spirit and it welcomes single-parent, interracial, and lesbian and gay families. Camp It Up has swimming, arts and crafts, hiking, music, dance, theater, overnights for teens, and evening fireside sing-alongs. In addition, they have reduced registration rates for low-income people.

Camp Lavender bill has been in operation since 1992. Camp co-director Chris Van Stone calls it an “eight-day retreat for both children of lesbian, gay, bisexual families and self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual young people.” It has traditional campfires, crafts, canoeing, and hiking, all set in a wilderness camp near Nevada City, California. But Lavender Hill also provides leadership training for their eighteen- to twenty-three-year-old counselors, who are all either lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth themselves or are children of gay parents.

In Mecklenberg, New York, there is Mountain Meadow Summer Camp which since 1993 has been providing a “kids’ community with a feminist conscience.” Mountain Meadow is not exclusively lesbian and gay. The brochure says, “All kinds a kids come to Mountain Meadow! Kids from the city. Farm kids. Kids from Canada, Virginia, New York City, Philadelphia—all over. Biracial kids, white kids, black kids. Jewish kids. Kids with two moms, kids with lesbian moms, kids with gay dads, kids with a mom and a dad.” Through feminist approaches to leadership, cooperation, and decision making, kids have “community meetings,” play volleyball, learn pottery and leathercraft, and participate in a myriad of other activities while celebrating each child’s difference and uniqueness.

Summer camp doesn’t have to be awkward and painful. In fact, it should be downright fun. In the words of Chris Van Stone, “Kids don’t have to feel alienated; as supportive adults we can make a difference.” These camps make that difference.

Top Ten Gay Destinations in the United States

San Francisco: Gay life is pervasive in our nation’s number-one tourist destination. Neighborhoods like the very gay Castro and trendy South of Market are home to an unparalleled number of gay-popular restaurants, bars, and clubs.

South Beach, Miami: Buoyed by its Art Deco past and the fashion industry, South Beach is a gay destination with lots of sizzle. Trendy restaurants, electric nightlife, and a constant parade of beautiful people keep South Reach hopping.

Provincetown: Once just a summer resort, Provincetown is increasingly popular year-round, with a classic afternoon T-dance, a wide range of quality guest-houses, and a large female following.

Key West: One of the first gay resort towns, Key West has become increasingly popular with straight tourists, but it remains a top choice for gay singles and couples looking for a relaxing, warm winter getaway.

Palm Springs: Home to over twenty-five gay guesthouse resorts and the biggest lesbian party of the year, Palm Springs is a popular gay getaway offering desert scenery, year-round nightlife, and big special events.

West Hollywood: From the day it incorporated as its own city, West Hollywood became the gayest city in the world—a full third of its population is gay or lesbian. Santa Monica Boulevard surpasses even New York’s Christopher Street in its expanse of gay businesses catering to gay locals and tourists.

New York City: The city that never sleeps offers something for just about everyone. New York’s gay scene is active, vibrant, and not confined to Greenwich Village. Add the city’s cultural, historical, and retail opportunities, and New York’s appeal is easily understood.

San Diego: No longer a distant third place to L.A. and San Francisco, San Diego’s Hillcrest section is a first-rate gay destination, with a palpable concentration of gay restaurants, shopping, and nightlife.

Atlanta: The South has risen again, and Atlanta is its pinnacle. Lively nightlife, southern hospitality, and an urban sophistication are an unusual and inviting combination. Hotlanta, an annual rafting party, is one of the top events on the gay calendar.

San Juan: San Juan is the only destination in the Caribbean with a range of gay-specific accommodations and nightlife. Year-round good weather and affordable airfares draw lots of gay vacationers.

Advice for Gay Travelers

1. The more information your travel agent has about your travel patterns and preferences, the better he or she will be able to help you. This may include the nature of your relationship with your “traveling companion.” If you’re not comfortable conversing openly with your agent, find a new one!

2. The single most important criterion for having a good vacation is the compatibility of your traveling companions. Check the demographics of the participants on a gay trip. Will the trip be all gay but mixed men and women, mixed gay-straight, mostly couples, older or younger people?

3. Make sure both names and your bedding request are clearly noted in all hotel reservations. No matter how comfortable you are, this is easier to deal with over the phone than at the front desk.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask about gay-friendliness. Some easy questions to ask: Have you had gay guests stay with you before? Would you describe your hotel, guest house, yacht charter, or tour group as a friendly and welcoming place for gay singles/couples?

5. Make sure any travel insurance you buy considers your partner part of your immediate family.

6. Not all frequent-flier awards are transferable to a gay spousal equivalent. If you intend to transfer an award, make sure you know who is an acceptable transferee, and how the relationship is verified. (Your lover could be your stepsister, for all TWA knows!)

Ten Tips for Traveling Queer and Cheap

1. Road trip, road trip, road trip. There is no cheaper way to see the country, and no better way to find off-the-beaten-path places than to take a road trip. Pile into a car with a couple of friends and take off with no greater destination than “that-a-way.” Make sure you’ve got queer friends who have cars that will be operable for over a hundred miles. If all else fails, get a bus pass and go Greyhound.

2. Set daily queer goals. One sure way to make the journey through small-town America more interesting is to plan to perform at least one queer action a day. This action can be anything from wearing an “I’m Not a Lesbian but My Girlfriend Is” T-shirt to spray-painting a pink triangle on a speed limit sign. On one of our trips, we were in salt flats on Highway 89 in Nevada (“The Loneliest Road in America”), and we stopped to spell the word “QUEER” on the side of the road with large chunks of black rock. It looked fabulous against the stark white ground. Then we got the hell out of there.

3. Make cool mixed tapes. If you’re going to be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing on the radio but static and Rush Limbaugh, you need some real music. And each person in the car should get an alternating turn on what gets listened to. A road trip is no place for a control queen.

4. Check out gay guides. If you have a general idea of where you’re going to be on your trip in between large cities, go into the local lesbian, gay, or progressive book-store and check out the gay travel books. Copy down any information, such as bars and information lines, for areas you’ll be traveling in next.

5. Go to local queer hangouts. Nothing is better than driving into a place like Salt Lake City and, after a quick heckling trip to the Mormon Temple, driving over to the Sun Club to have a drink.

6. Ask bartenders questions. Good ones include: What do gay people do for fun in this town? How would the locals react to gold lamé? and Do you know of any gay, or gay-friendly places in [the next place you’re planning to go]? Especially with the third question, you might find places that are not in any gay guide.

7. Stay with friends. Friends are great. They know local stuff. They have free food. If you have to, you can also stay with relatives. Sometimes this can be fun, eye-opening, and bonding. Sometimes it might just be better to find another place to sleep (see tip #8).

8. Find a nice residential street, pull the car over, put one of those silly sun blockers over the windshield, and go to sleep. It may not be too comfortable, but it works, and it’s safer than sleeping at a rest stop. Also, many states have “public land use” areas, which are like National Parks, except the land isn’t as pretty, so they don’t charge you to sleep there. Plus, you can often build fires on public land, and no one will bug you.

9. Treat yourselves. Nobody likes living like this all the time. Pick a night, find some great local mom-and-pop motel (try to avoid chains, so you don’t give money to The Man), flip on the cable, buy a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. and go crazy.

10. Practice safer sex. You may wonder why this is on the list. Safer sex is so important that it needs to be on every queer list around. Just because you’re in Kansas doesn’t mean you don’t need to protect yourself and those you mess around with. So bring some latex.

Gay Cruising on the Open Seas

RSVP Cruises is the largest cruise company devoted solely to the travel needs of gay people. (Courtesy of RSVP Vacations)

I just knew a gay cruise would be worth trying. I thought of 800 guys in Speedos and sent the check. After three cruises (Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and the Mexican (Coast) I still think of the Speedos. But there are more reasons to give a gay cruise a try:

• You really can do exactly what you want—be with people or avoid them, read inside or out, take a nap, eat wisely or not, go dancing, play cards, see a movie—and if you want to change your mind, go ahead. Sometimes I think I want a structured vacation, but when it arrives, I don’t. On a cruise, that is riot a problem.

• The people you want to meet will probably be there. The cruise draws those who like sun, water, travel, and can afford $900. That’s a significant part of the community. Even if your tastes in conversation or love are narrow, the 800 passengers you have to work with should keep you busy for a week.

• With no effort on your part the scenery changes, unlike sitting on the stunning Hawaiian beach that gets duller by the day.

• If you like gay men at home, you’ll like them on vacation. Same quirky humor, same good manners, same winking.

And the Winner Is…

The letter arrived for Rosalinda. “Congratulations! You’ve won a four-night cruise to Mexico aboard Royal Caribbean Line’s Viking Serenade. Please call to request your date of departure.” What was this, another advertising gimmick? Was this one of those “buy one get one free” deals? No, Rosalinda really had won some drawing giving her passage for two aboard a 1,400-passenger ship on a cruise departing Los Angeles Harbor, sailing to Catalina Island, then on to Ensenada and back to L.A. Who would have thought that the 1,100th time she filled out an entry form in some store she’d actually win something, rather than just get her name on another mailing list?

LESBIAN AND GAY CRUISE COMPANIES

Lesbian and gay cruises now go everywhere from Alaska to the Bahamas, with packages for singles, couples, and parties. Ask your travel agent about specific trips on any of these lesbian and gay cruise lines:

Galaxsea Cruises

Journeys by Sea Yacht Charters, St. Thomas (Virgin Islands)

Olivia Women’s Cruises

RSVP Travel Productions

Sailaway Cruises and Tours, Marina del Rey Sailing Affairs, New York

—Charlie Graham of Winship Travel

Lucky and free! Things like this never happen to people like us, so naturally we were suspicious right up until the day we received our tickets, worrying more about whether the time we would take off from work would be wasted. We gave no thought to the potential experience of cruising with 1,398 heterosexuals. Our first clue of what this might mean came at the L.A. Harbor document check-in line. Surrounded by clusters of excited family members at various alphabetical registration stations, I stood alone in the “O’s,” Rosalinda a half a mile away in the “D’s.” Why didn’t we think to use the Del Magus name merge we created and so conveniently use at our Castro district dry cleaners? The explanation of our partnership would have been their problem, not ours.

Arriving at our cabin, we find two neat little single beds in an L-shape against the walls. How will we ask the handsome Latino cabin steward for a double bed? Rosalinda is Latina, so suddenly all the machismo forces from the Pope down to the Little Sisters of Mercy are conspiring against her being able to ask him. “Una cama pares dos—no hay problema(one bed for two, no problem),” he graciously responds.

Okay, this seems workable. We dress for dinner and cheerfully trot off to the dining room. “Ladies [our subtitle for the next four days], you are at Table 38 for all your meals.” We are shown to our table and share polite introductions. To my right are seated a young towheaded couple from the farmlands of Michigan, married one day. To Rosalinda’s left a cute Hispanic couple from L.A.—also married one day. We’re in Honeymoon Heaven. To their left a charming middle-aged couple from Hawaii. Completing the table, a blue-collar couple from Fremont, California, he with fierce-looking tattoos on both arms, celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Now is not the time to tell them we’ve just celebrated our tenth!

GAY AND LESBIAN WALKING TOURS

One way to get a feel for the gay history of a city is to check out some of the lesbian and gay walking tours offered in some localities. Most of these tours are listed with the local chamber of commerce, the gay business association, or the convention and visitor’s bureau. When all else fails, read the ads in the local gay press when you get to town.

In San Francisco, check out Trevor Hailey’s “Cruisin’ the Castro”

In Washington, D.C., check out “Walk on Washington”

In New York, see Sam Stafford’s “Sidewalks of New York” tours; ask for the “Gay Olde New York” tour

In New Orleans, try Roberts Batson’s “The Gay Heritage Tour”

In London, take “The Pink Tour”

This, our group’s first meal together, requires our earnest attention and genuine efforts to get some conversation going: “Four hundred at the wedding, how lovely” and “three grandchildren, their ages … how lovely.” We are working our butts off. They’re all answering and smiling, but obviously they haven’t the foggiest notion what having two women together at their table means. Mercifully, the meal is over, the tables are cleared, and we exhaustedly stagger off to the intimate refuge of our cabin. This was work. Only eleven more meals to share at Table 38. Ain’t we got fun?

Our vacation time was lovely: taking walks around deck, using the gym, getting our handwriting analyzed, watching the dolphins frolic, and, in the evenings, gambling in the casino. We read mystery novels, took aerobics classes, and let the ship’s hum lull us into a restful state.

New challenges in Middle America lay ahead, however. “Captain’s Night”—our photos are taken with the ship’s captain standing between us and we are then released onto the dance floor. A tall, dapper fellow then takes Rosalinda’s hand for a dance, and before I realize what is happening, she’s gone and I’m standing in the middle of the dance floor alone, my arms still reflexively up and ready to meet hers. She quickly returns to me after having told her amorous dance partner that her very large and jealous Puerto Rican mafioso husband was back in San Juan while she enjoyed this trip. I laughed at her inventiveness and cried inwardly at the necessity for it.

By Day Three and Meal Number Eight, Table 38 had loosened up a bit—we are still the charming inquisitors and no one has asked us a thing. In my frustration to be seen as an existence, I started using the plural pronoun and publicly recollecting many memories of our past ten years together. “Remember how much we enjoyed our trip to Italy that year?” “It was a good idea when we bought new luggage for our Greek cruise, don’t you think?” “Do you remember when we first had the house painted?” The eavesdropping waiter asked us if we were sisters. Sure, don’t we look like sisters? With Rosalinda’s dark Puerto Rican complexion and African nose, and this Jewish schnozzle and my British accent, who could mistake that we must have come from the same DNA batch? I was about to burst a gut and just come out when Rosalinda kicked me hard under the table. The waiter saw this and asked what she was doing. At this point, all my years at DOB, NOW, BACW, and CSZ started to churn within me. But political and social acronyms are like military stripes—useless when you’re out in the real world. At a large personal price, we restrained ourselves and did not upset Table 38’s hard-earned vacation. In response to the obtrusive waiter’s persistence, Rosalinda replied, “Oh, please excuse my leg, was that your foot?”

By the time that we approached Meal Number Ten, our group has begun to walk a very thin line of familiarity. The comfort level at Table 38 has grown. We’ve begun conversing, exchanging stories of our luck in the casino, laughing about our mutual overeating, marveling at the vision of the prior evening’s sumptuous midnight buffet. The passage of time, the breaking of bread together, the discovery of a common ground—all have created unforeseen and unpredictable bonds among former stranger-than-strange strangers.

As our last meal together finally arrives, there’s a palpable quiet at the breakfast table. The timid Michigan newlywed tells us that she’ll miss our funny stories. The lovely Hawaiian husband sincerely expresses how much he’s enjoyed our company. The Hispanic newlyweds ask about our home in San Francisco—sharing how much they love our home city. “We do, too” is our understated reply. We now realize that we have become a group, a unit together, and that we will miss these people as they will miss us, too. Mr. Tattoo Fremont truck driver unexpectedly reveals how much he loves San Francisco and how tolerant people are there and how he can’t stand bigots. Who would have thought? There are tears all around as we hug and say good-bye. The magic of what has happened over these past four days and twelve meals does not escape any of us.

Congratulations. We’ve just completed our cruise in the real world. It’s true that all of our future ship experiences will, no doubt, be with Olivia Women (a lesbian travel company), but, wherever we go, the love and acceptance of Table 38 will always be with us.

Aerobics		Physique
Badminton		Powerlifting
Basketball		Racquetball
Billiards		Soccer
Bowling		Softball
Cycling		SportClimbing
Diving		Squash
FigureSkating		Swimming
FlagFootball		TableTennis
Golf		Tennis
IceHockey		TrackandField
In-LineSkating		Triathlon
Judo		Volleyball
Marathon		WaterPolo
MartialArts		Wrestling

1982	14 choruses
1983	39 choruses
1985	40 choruses
1986	46 choruses
1987	50 choruses
1988	55 choruses
1989	62 choruses
1990	85 choruses
1991	102 choruses
1992	116 choruses
1993	125 choruses
1994	128 and counting…