ifferent significance then.

 

by Ron Kearse

 

BIDS: The only thing that was
amiliar to us with this name was a
ad diet. It was constantly being
advertised on television in the late
'70s and it was called the Ayds Diet
Plan. It quickly vanished from
Sight when the epidemic emerged
in the early ‘80s. No kidding.
 Aalta Brvaats There are some of
you who probably remember her.
She was a former Miss America
er-up and singer who, in the
early ‘60s, had a number of minor
its on the charts. In the ‘70s she
as appearing inorange juice -
rommercials for the Florida Citrus
‘ommission.

In 1977 she decided that the city
pf Miami (her home at the time)
ad gone too far when it outlawed
discrimination based on sexual
brientation in employment and
ousing. She was a very devout
hristian, and rallied the forces of
e righteous to repeal this law.
The gay community and its
supporters across the North
America countered with their own

 
  
 
    
 
 
   
 
 
   
  
  
 
  
 
   
 
 
 
  
 
    
  
   
  
  
 
   
 
  
 
 
  
   
   
   
   
 
  
  
 
  
  
   
   
 
 
 

at said, “Squeeze a fruit for

ita,” they fought hard to keep
the law as it was. A vote was held,
and Anita won. The law was
epealed on June 7, 1977.

Anita took her anti-gay cam-
paign on the road to many cities in
the US and Canada to overturn
similar laws elsewhere. In some
rities she was successful, like in
ugene, Oregon, and St. Paul,
innesota. One of her biggest
udiences was in Edmonton. But
she had to cut the tour short,

they have offered this course
fogether. “Mind and body can’t be
Hone without the other,” main-
ined Linn, a bright-eyed spokes-
person, “There is no difference
between mind and body. Some
eople believe you can choose how
ou feel, they are saying “don’t
orry, be happy....” In fact what
people need is clear information, to
finish up their unfinished business,
d to learn communications

ills.”

Finally, I stopped by Reiki

aster Stirling Marie Sexton’s

able; while we talked, she gave a
emonstration of her skills to a
itting woman. “Reiki is about the
ght touch: it is not a massage,”

lhe explained. “Massage goes to

e muscle. [Reiki is] bone deep!

Queeratives

 

GlenGs$ This was a strange style
phenomenon. It began in the
lesbian community, and was
quickly adopted by the guys all
over North America. It consisted of
wearing short hair, moustache,
mirrored aviator sunglasses, plaid
shirt, bomber jacket, Levis 501
jeans, and either hiking boots or
Adidas runners. Who says that we
don’t wear uniforms! It was also
the main reason why a lot of gay
crime went unsolved.

Gendems: These were things that
you found at the back of the
drugstore. Usually there were only
about a half dozen boxes of them
on display at any one time. It was
considered to be in poor taste to
have them prominently displayed
as they are now. Besides, now you
can enter stores that sell nothing
but these things. They only had
one use back then, and that was to
prevent pregnancy. Unlike ona
recent trip back to Calgary, where I
witnessed a drunk patron in a bar
stretch one over his head, pull it
halfway down his face and blow it
up with his nose until it burst.
They’re versatile things, aren’t
they?

bes Ballets Srocaderes This
troupe of all gay male dancers
from San Francisco sold out
everywhere they performed in
North America. They were a
parody of Russian Ballet troupes,
and dressed in tutus they would
perform such serious ballets as
Swan Lake.

But, because of their male
physique, their movements on
stage would be greatly exagger-
ated, much to the delight of
audiences. When reading a
program at any of their perform-
ances, you got introduced to such
dancers as Vladimir Legsupsky
and Natasha Ripsernickersoff!

..- Natural Healing (cont. from pg. 4)

Patients can feel the tingling; they
can feel the energy...but it’s up to
the patient, they go as deep as they
want, emotionally, physically and
spiritually.”

It was an interesting evening,
and I regret that I didn’t have the
time to speak to everyone. I did
walk away with a small dead
forest’s worth of literature, though.

For more information about
topics on natural health and
healing at Douglas, poke around
the college and pick up one of the
thick brochures being liberally
distributed. Or call 527-5671 to
have your name put on the mailing
list (Warning: it’s a voice mail
thing, slower than Telereg). And if
you want to talk to a real person,
try Geraldine Murphy, Program
Coordinator, at 527-5046. |

host and Gheeks Glossarx:
as bite in ihe ‘405

I came out in 1975. I was 18 years old. Although that was just over twenty years
go, so many changes have effected our community that it feels like 100 years have
assed. Things that the gay community takes for granted now, had an entirely

Other things that were quite common in gay life then, no longer exist. For those of
ou who were too young to remember, or too stoned to care, here is just a little
ste of some of the things that you missed.

Berrerss Small, brown bottles
containing Amy] Nitrite can still be
found in most of the porn stores on
Granville Street. You shake the
bottle, hold it to your nose and
inhale. The heart rate speeds up
and the room spins around.

Known as ‘the two minute high,’
when combined with smoking pot,
one whiff of this stuff can send you
right into the night sky. Poppers
were regularly brought to parties,
discos, and any place where gay
men gathered, in’‘many cases they
were a must have. Little silver
inhalers containing poppers were a
popular item, worn around the
necks of many of the guys. Much
like the ubiquitous wallet and
chain worn by young guys today.

Bornesrarhys It will always be
with us, but in the ’70s gay porn
came out of the closet and became
a multi-million dollar industry. It
was quite a novelty, and every-
body knew the names of the porn
icons of the time: Jack Wrangler,
George Payne, Richard Locke,
Casey Donovan, Scorpio and Joe
Gage were among the many big
names.

Millions of copies of their movies
were sold all over the world.
Coinciding with the popularity of

ay porn, was the rise of 383 bath

08868. When AIDS started to
reach epidemic proportions in
1984/85, many municipal health
departments in the States, and to a
smaller degree in Canada, shut a
lot of these places down. However,
bath houses still exist today, in fact
in places like San Francisco many
of them have reopened.

$8%6 8643 If you mentioned that
you wanted to have safe sex with
somebody back in the ‘70s, you
would have been the brunt of a
few jokes.

“Hey Gary!”

 

“What?”

“This guy wants to have safe sex
with me!”

“What's that?”

“Dunno!”

“Sounds like some kind of Anita
Bryant thing.”

“Maybe we should ask him.”

“Yeah let's do that.”

“Okay fool, what the hell is safe
sex?”

an Brancis6es This was the
original place to travel to if you
were gay. It was Mecca, and every
morning when you got up you’d
bow three times toward it. Now
Amsterdam and Sydney rival San
Francisco as world centres for

ueers.

Tales of the 6lts3 Perhaps you
watched the PBS series about three
years ago. It was originally a
weekly fiction series written by
Armistead Maupin, and it ran in
The San Francisco Chronicle
throughout most of the decade. It

rc
i
dl
dl
if
i
i
I
i
i
‘
I
\

ts

i

“CHINESE CUISINE**

3 item Combo Lunch Special
US Ce meme

Ny . py

Tem

CN ES ee ey)

FREE
THY BLESSED KITCHEN*520-0782

601 Agnes St. at 6th St., New West
MON-FRI 7:45am - 7:30pm * HOLIDAYS CLOSED

a ———

 

daily soup with any
purchase of Chinese Combo,
Sandwich or Burger

was about the daily lives of a
group of people living in a board-
ing house at 28 Barbary Lane. This
series was later made into four
books: Tales of the City, More Tales of
the City, Further Tales of the City and
Babycakes. If you want a fairly
accurate view of gay life in the
‘70s, not only in San Francisco but
pretty much all over North
America, read this series. Read it
anyway! It’s highly entertaining
and really well written.

Well that’s about it for now.
There are a lot of things that I left
out, and there were a lot of things
that happened that are just un-
printable. Those times were tacky,
tasteless, obnoxious, and loud, (I
was anyway). I have a lot of fond
memories from back then, but take
it from a grand old fag like me, as
cliched as this sounds, there’s no
time like here and now. Take care
of yourselves.

j

INCLUDED

 

 

The Other Press February 101997 11