Pridelets for April 23

Pridelets for April 23
On this day in 1979, Time Magazine asks, "How Gay Is Gay?" and
determines that ... it's pretty gay.
There's actually "a national trend that is changing the lives of the
American minority that forms the gay society. Homosexual men and women
are coming out of the closet as never before to live openly. They are
colonizing areas of big cities as their own turf, operating bars and
even founding churches in conservative small towns, and setting up a
nationwide network of organizations to offer counseling and
companionship to those gays-still the vast majority-who continue to
conceal their sexual orientation. ... Gay people still encounter
suspicion and hostility, and occasionally violence, and their campaign
to live openly and freely is still far from won. But they are gaining a
degree of acceptance and even sympathy from heterosexuals, many of whom
are still unsure how to deal with them, that neither straights nor gays
would have thought possible just the day before yesterday."
Heterosexual society (can not) ignore the subject of homosexuality,
as many straights devoutly wish it could. Says Eric Rofes, a gay teacher
in a Cambridge, Mass., private school: 'Ten years ago, few people knew
that they knew a gay person. Today, most kids grow up knowing that they
know someone who is gay.' Knowledge, however, does not necessarily mean
acceptance."

BIRTHGAYS (and the occasional straights)
* 1723 - Eighteenth-century British female soldier Hannah Snell
* 1857 - President James Buchanan
* 1909 - Gertrude Stein protégé, professor, writer, tattoo artist,
and pornographer, Samuel M. Steward
* 1918 - James Kirkup, author of the "blasphemous" poem "The Love
That Dares to Speak Its Name"
* 1930 - Psychologist Charles Silverstein, author of "A Family
Matter: A Parents' Guide to Homosexuality" and coauthor of "The Joy of
Gay Sex"
* 1952 - "Princess in Training" and "The Berdache" playwright, Cheryl
Ann Costa

Q.UOTE
"I send boxes full of my movies, T-shirts, and that kind of thing to
soldiers in Iraq. One whole troop told me they were being bombed while
watching 'Female Trouble.' I wrote the major back and said, 'I feel like
Bob Hope!' He wrote, 'I promise more of them know who you are than Bob
Hope!" -- John Waters

THE BEDSIDE TABLE
"The Joy of Gay Sex (Revised & Expanded Third Edition)" by Charles
Silverstein and Felice Picano
http://tinyurl.com/yt36wj
For a new century and a new generation of readers comes a fully
revised and expanded edition of a classic guide to gay sex, love, and life.
Invaluable as a sex guide, a resource on building self-esteem, and a
trusted aid for coming out of the closet, "The Joy of Gay Sex" covers
the ins and outs of gay life alphabetically from "anus" to "wrestling."
Noted psychologist Dr. Charles Silverstein has collaborated once again
with critically acclaimed novelist Felice Picano on this third edition,
updating every single entry and adding nearly thirty new entries. The
authors provide positive and responsible advice on safe sex in all its
varieties; on emotional and relationship-oriented issues such as
long-term couples, loneliness, and growing older; and on scores of
diverse topics ranging from spirituality to online dating. With fifty
new line drawings by acclaimed illustrator Joseph Phillips, this
landmark reference is a necessary addition to every gay man's bookshelf.