GAY PEOPLE OF OXFORD

When someone asks me what it is like to be gay, I can tell only of my own experiences. Gay people, like all others in the world, are individuals. So I can speak only of one gay male.

One of the first experiences that a gay male has are feelings of inferiority. Society has carefully programmed him to fulfill the role it de-

fines as masculine.

He perceives--and

others often do, too--that he does not fulfill the role. He identifies himself as a man, but he is an "inferior" brand of man. The constant sniggering references to "queens," "queers," and "fairies" reinforce this feeling of inferiority. Because the gay person has been taught that relating intimately to a person of the same sex is wrong, unnatural, perverted, and/or immoral, he feels guilt when he establishes a homosexual relationship.

Many people are taught to have guilt about sex; for a gay person, those teelings are compounded because sex is doubly wrong with a person of the same sex.

Gays also have much to fear: loss of jobs, housing, acceptance, and love from family if they are found out. We instinctively know that we cannot let society know that we are gay, because society will oppress or deny us

So, we must wear a mask to protect ourselves from society.

We must feign an interest in the opposite sex, we must laugh when someone makes a joke about gays, we must condemn "queers" when someone else does.

We are afraid to be seen with someone who is "obvious", because of guilt by association We must watch every word we say, for fear that one word will betray our true feelings to the "straight" world.

In the last few years, a movement of gay militancy has sprung up throughout the United States. It started in New York with the Christopher Street riots in June, 1969, and has continued and burgeoned since that time.

What do gay people want?

Why is "the vice that dare not speak its name" now shouting forcefully?

Homosexuals have been in our civilization from the beginnings of recorded history Until a few years ago, they tried to gain acceptance by showing how "normal" they were, how wall they could fit into "normal" society.

No longer! Now gays are demanding recognition that they constitute a valid minority group which has rights.

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And they are doing this in the only way possible: by showing power.

In the past, society has dealt with the "homo-sexual problem" by the technique of divide and conquer. It capitalized on the fear of gays of exposure. They could not create any type of power base.

Now, we are banding together, forming Gay Activist Alliances and Gay Liberation Fronts. We are "zapping" (publicly confronting someone with the aim of embarassing him) politicians and government officials. We want recognition of our status as a minority, and we want the rights which we deserve.

We want--no, ve demand--an end to discrimination based on sexual preferences. We demand an end to loss of employment due to sexual

Lavender Starship/Page 17/May 10, 1972 imbalance or "perverted" heredity. It is the product of the fundamental manmalian heritage of general sexual responsiveness as modified under the impact of experience.

A very important mission of gay activism is to get straights and gays to talk together, to find out the fears of each and, insofar as it is possible, to get the facts.

Gay People of Oxford have been meeting as a group for seven weeks

now.

We have been trying to acheive some of the goals outlined above. We have established a speakers bureau which has been speaking to interested group and classes at Miami about Gay Liberation.

We are presently planning edcational forums to be presented during Gay Pride Week, as well as social activities with neighboring Gay groups in Cincinnati and wilmington. We have also established a counseling service.

We hold general meetings every Thursday evening at 9:30 at the Together house, 14 So. Campus. Join Us!

preferences. We want an end to tax discrimination which prevents gay couples from income splitting. We want an end to harassment of gay people in traditional gay meeting places, such as gay bars. We want alternative places to meet and socialize with other gays, not just in gay bars which are often exploitive, and which may be run by criminal. elements who make payoffs to the police. We want to be able to dance together, to hold hands, to show affection for each other.

We do not want to molest children; we do not want to accost or solicit straights in public. We simply want to live openly, honestly, and in harmony with everyone.

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How can gays reach these goals? First we gaya must come to accept ourselves, to have "gay pride"

Then we must educate society. The college generation of today is very aware of homosexuality; it is not so taboo as it was ten or twenty years ago. Gays must capitalize on this. Many straights are afraid of homosexuality. They fear it may be contagious--a ridiculous and ipossible fear.

What most straights fail to realize is that they are as much a product of societal conditioning as gays are. In their book, Patterns of Human Sexual Behavior, Yale anthropologists Ford and Beach came to the following conclusion:

love is

Love is very patient and kind, Never jealous or envious,

Never boastful or proud,

Never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges And will hardly even notice When others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, But rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone

Man and women who are totally lacking in any conscious homosexual leanings are as much a product of cultural conditioning as are the exclusive homosexuals who find heterosexuality distasteful and unsatisfying. Both extremes represent

No matter what the cost. You will be loyal to him

You will always believe in him, Always expect the best of him, And always stand your ground In defending him. All the special gifts and powers From God

Will someday come to an end, But love goes on forever.

I Corinthians:4-8

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Matthew 22:38, 39

movement away from the original, intermediate condition which includes the capacity for both forms of sexual expression. Human homosexuality is not basically a product of hormonal

Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

Matthew: 22:37

For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that anyone vho believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

JESUS LOVES YOU.

Jerusalem House, 1473 Summit Ave. (between 8th and 9th Aves.), Columbus, 0hio. Sunday service: 11:30 a.m.; Thursday Bible study: 7:30 p.m.

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