------Gay Community News'. July 31 1982 • Page 7 ------Odyssey of a Unicorn------
By Nancy Walker monals, of course, are not privy to made right by the simple act of sit• rary measures v.,cre necessary to day evenings and attend to my clas On Wednesday, July 7, 1982, my the "energyts" intentions, but ting in a special place. If this sounds continue publishing without sifieds. Now that comfortable so1her and I had breakfas1, as sometimes we willingly go along for religious, if sining silently in the breaking our long-established rhy routine is over. usual, to the tune of my insistent 1he ride, so to speak. back of a church does the same for thm. There were no tears at the Our office was a meeting place '"Hurry up, let's go; I'm gonna b; During the two days before the devout Christians as sitting at my meeting, but as I looked at the fami for organizations who needed to late for work." Sether sits looking disastrous fire, for no reason I desk did for me, I am not at all liar faces, I saw many red eyes. We meet in emergency situations. lt placid, saying nothing. I gulp down could have explained, I was extra surprised. were hurt emotionally, but we had was home to most of its workers my scrambled eggs and cheese, ordinarily unnerved. Everything Therefore, after my sother's work to do and we were going to do who looked on their efforts at GCN saving a small portion for Henry, made me jumpy, even things that announcement finally penetrated it. not as a job but as a way of life. It 1he mySlery pel, and jump up. My usually did not upsel me. Monday the inner layers of my conscious When the meeting was over, J was our place and it had a very sother says, "Get your stuff was bad enough, but by Tuesday, ness on that fatal Wednesday, I went with a number of comrades special ambiance. It was in no way toge1her [I go to work every day late afternoon, I was in a wept my little weep but went to back to Bromfield Street to survey beautiful. There was nothing looking for all 1heworld like 1hebag considerably agitated condition work as usual. I think some corner the remains. 1 don't think I could whatever lavish or luxurious about lady to end all bag ladies] and goou1 and I mentioned how rotten I was of my heart was frozen, it must have have gone alone. It was a devastat it. II was a hard.;:limb up adifficuh the door. I 'II be finished before you feeling to Maxine Feldman, our been or else I would not have been ing experience. Though ever since I mountain to gel there. It was hot as are . ., This irritates me because she new Promo Homo. She had her able to function at my job. began working at GCN l have been hell in summer(wecould not afford is always right. I have two gears: own business to attend to, and I was A meeting had been arranged for worried about fire, I could not have to pay the electric bills even if some• first and reverse. She purrs along typing up the classifieds, preparing I :00 pm 1ha1 day, and when I imagined how hideous the after- . one gave us an air conditioner) and mostly in fourth. It's not fair, but them to go to the typesetter, a task I arrived at the meeting site, I saw a math of fire would be. often cold in winter. We had only there you are. Domestic bliss is pre have performed religiously for over number of GCNpeople in the eleva If you have seen war films, you cold water. From the standpoint of dicated, I chink, upon lwo people five years, and for over five years, tor and yelled for them to wait for know what bombed out buildings physical com tort, there was none. loving each other, but at different after I finished lyping lhe ads, I put me, which they did, but explained look like, particularly ones But love, ah love, there was a super speeds and with vastly unlike nerv the forms away in my filing cabinet, that the elevator wasn't working, so destroyed by incendiary bombs. abundance of that. We loved the ous systems. a single drawer affair, painted we had to walk up to the third floor. Our offices looked just like that. office. And we worked together Because she loves me and lavender, sitting on one end of my Our newly defunct offices had been The ceilings had melted and fallen wi1h a great deal of mu1ual affec believes in her heart of hearts that desk. On Tuesday, July 6, 1982, a on the second 0oor. It was. a very in. There were jagged pieces of tion and respect even when we something unspeakable will hap little voice in my head said, "Take hot day, and I had all I could do 10 wood, glass and metal covered with disagreed. pen to me if I am forced to use the T them home with you." I asked the schlepp myself into the meeting. As soot and slime all over t.he noors. In my mind's eye, I can see every (Boston's over-priced, highly unre little voice why, and it replied that it I entered, I said, "It's about those We were hoping to find the cause of detail of I he room I spent so much liable transit system), she drives me didn't know why, bu1 I should just stairs ... " And everyone broke the fire and to see what, if anything. time in during the past six years. No to work. Nodoubt,overtheyears, I take them home. So, I took them up. Maxine Feldman told me that could be salvaged. doubt, my colleagues have the same have mentioned her unflappable home in my briefcase, wondering before I came in several people had Much of what was in closed metal mental images, though everyone's good nature; taxi service is simply why lhe hell I was doing such an been wondering what Nancy cabinets could be saved and the emotional connections with the one instance of it. unnecessary thing. Walker would say, and Maxine removal operation began on the office are different. Our individual On this particular morning, the The following day I learned why said, "She'll ask us to get a new spot. I stood, petrified of falling experiences there are far from hottest day of the summer, to date, the little voice had spoken and, even office without stairs.'' So, I came in and being impaJed on some of the identical. But weshareourloss with we were listening to the news. The more importantly, why I had on cue. debris, looking at what had been each other and the wider announcer was talking about a listened. What accounts for that? As I was rushing to the meeting I my precious desk, my fortress, my community. seven alann fire in Boston's South How do we explain behavior so wondered how other pe_ople would long-term friend in need. It had The newspaper is not just a col End, the area we were driving contrary to our normal patterns? feel about our loss. Working at proved to be a friend in deed and, lective of hardworking people. It is through at that very moment. My The classifieds are one of the three GCN is a very intense experience. because it too was made of metal, also, by extension, the people it sother said, "Amy Hoffman.called main sources of income for the No one who cares about the paper the mail and other items inside its serves. The significance of GCN is this morning.'' ''Shush,'• l replied, paper, and, had they gone up in cares only a little bit about it. We drawers would eventually dry out that it makes a bridge between 11I wanna hear the news." She smoke, we would have had to make care for it with a depth of emotion and beat least partially useful. But I distant individuals. It creates com waited a beat and then repealed, good for all the money paid for reserved for no other activity, no felt in that moment as if someone munity and keepsallofusinformed •• Amy called this morning.'' those classifieds. My having them other institution in our lives. For very close to me had been of each other's joys and sorrows, "All right, obviously you want to unscathed was a real financial me personally, GCN is, ·and has murdered. accomplishments and failures. For tell me something. Why did Amy break, and I was relieved to be able been for over six years, the second Of course, I knew the paper me, 1he paper represents a network call?" "Your office burned; it was to reconstruct my pages by the sim most imponant thing in my life. would go on, and we would find of love and understanding. It is a completely destroyed. Amy didn't ple expedient of typing them over The one thing I was sure of was new quarters and it would only be a serious and determined attempt to want you to learn about it on the again at home on Wednesday that we would put out Volume Terr, matter of time before we were all make necessary human connec radio. She said yo1t shouldn't go evening. Number One on Friday, come hell back to a semblance of normal ope tions, to prevent gay men and lesbi there." 0 WHAT??7tf!" "Your If I had consciously known that I or high water, both of which had ration. But as of this writing I feel ans from reeling cut off from office burned. Amy got a call about would never sit at my desk again, I aJready come, as a matter of fact. like the fabled Wandering Jew. l humanity. 5:30 this morning." would have kissed it good-bye. I But my sother and I have a house, don't know where to go. I have The response to the fire has been "WHAT???!!!" keep it neat (notice the present and I knew that, if worst came to dreams of displacement, being lost, enormously inspiriting. The love I realize how silly my response tense, I haven'! yet fully accepted worst, we could have gotten the looking for somewhere, the address we send out is coming back to us must seem, but that is exactly how I the finality of fire). Neatness exists paper ou, using our Victorian of which I don't know. many times multiplied, and, as I reacted-stunned disbelief. How nowhere in my life except in my wreck as a base of operations. As it One of the chief reasons I said to Maxine at the meeting on could 22 Bromfield Street and all it GCN desk and mes. Thal small bit turned out, and as you all must accepted the particular civil service Flaming Wednesday, "We'll turn meant to me not be there any more? of our vast universe was like home know by now, we had incredibly job I took two and a half years ago this devastation into profit.." We Frequently in these columns over plate to me. It was a place, once kind offers of assistance, space, was its location within easy walking have lost some things, but we have labor, ju~t about everything, in an the years I have mentioned that I touched, where I was "safe." distance of 1he old GCN office. On not lost people. We are going for don't believe in coincidence, that I If I could drag myself up the outpouring of love and support lunch hour I could sit at my cool ward with greater energy than ever think events or actions which-seem steep, seemingly endless staircase that more than justified our faith in green desk and feel at home, sur before, and I am prouder and hap causally unconnected are really and plop my bottom into my chair. our readers and members of our rounded by other people who pier than I have ever been to feel directed by some unseen energy everything that had until that community here and all across the shared my commitment to a whole somehow part of this spunky country. thal makes sense of the whole cha moment been wrong with the world that is surely much greater than the publication. At the meeting morale was very otic mishmash of our lives, collec (and many times it was almost sum of all its parts. I could go back tively and individually. We poor unbearably wrong) suddenly was high and we set up whatever tempo- to my desk on Tuesday and Thurs-
Film------1 Glen or Glenda? Not Just a Puppy Dog's Tale
Glen or Glenda? critics.) C.oming on the heels of the there is Bela Lugosi-who at this mixture of your basic sex education as scientific inventions-the sex Wrillenand directed by Edward D. Christine Jorgenson headlines of 'point in his life had become an film (Young man: "Gee, doctor, I change is no different; the charac Wood. With Bela Lugosi, Lyle several years before, Glen or alcoholic and morphine addict and have these sores on my body and a teristics of each sex are more mut Talbot, Timothy Farrell. Al Off Glenda?tackles-perhaps the looks simply terrible-as "the sci painful sensation when I urinate. Is able than we think. The Wall in Boston. Running time word is assaults-the question of entist." He sits in a skull strewn something the matter.") and also But this informational format is 7J minutes. transvestites and transsexuals. room filled with smoking beakers the format of early soft-core porn nothing compared to the dramatic by Michael Bronski Wood himself was a transvestite- and ''unusual'' scientific equip films (Doctor: "Many married telling of the two stories. Wood's It's difficult to know where to and apparently heterosexual-and ment. He lectures the audience on Americans experience some sexual notion of casting was apparently of begin talking about Glen or was fond of telling how he went social and psychological matters problems. We arc going to show the "let's-put-on-a-show" variety Glenda? I suppose you could say through World War II wearing and never interacts with any of the you-for purely scientific reasons and he just called his friends over that it's a "one of a kind" movie, panties and bras under his Marine film's other characters. ◄ •Bevare, -different sexual positions that to make a movie. The sets are no but the question keeps arising: uniforms. The mm did not do very bevare! The s1ory must be cold ... will help solve those problems."). different; flat, uninteresting living what kind? Just a few basic facts weU and had very limited distribu• Bevare of the big green dragon that With the police chief asking per rooms and kitchens that make the will fill in the background before tion. This was partially due to the sits on the doorstep. He cats little tinent, leading question, the doctor secs on TV soap operas look like any elucidation on the film's most subject matter (it probably could boys! Puppy dog tails! Big fat cells us lhe stories of Glen/ Glenda Busby Berkley productions. His peculiar sensibility. - not have played Boston at all), snails! Bevare! Bevare!" After a and Alan/ Ann. The first is a trans notion of camera work is also pecu Written and directed in 1953 by partially because it is just so badly bit of this we are introduced to 1he vestite, the second a transsexual. liar: static and unmoving, the Edward Wood, Glen or Glenda? made, and finally because it's just story proper(?). A transvestite has The scientific information here camera seems to sit and record wu marketed u an exploitation so weird. been found dead, in drag, and has isn't bad. It is made clear that from wherever it was plopped film and pushed in New York's Basically Glen or Glenda? is an left a note lhat s/he was going to neither the transvestite nor the down in the room. Like the parts of 42nd street grind houses. Wood impassioned defense (emotionally, the next world in lhe clothes s/he transsexual is a homosexual and a John Waters film that don't had already made a small name and psychologically, and socially) of was not able to wear in this one. that social pressures make life very work, Glen or Glenda? is stagger reputation for himself u a truly transvestites and transsexuals. The From here we arc taken to the hard on these groups. The facls are ingly bad. The difference between ,.,,;J,w r.Jmmal its conv1ct1ons and sometimes There are enough moments how• Glen or Glenda? is well worth crackpot notions it transcends its ever that do perk -things up: the seeing; as funny as Pink Flamingos failures to become (while neither constant cutting to a stock footage and as intriguing off the wall as any • Rda t1 o n :-. h1p C ontran.., • Immigration moving nor truly convincing), dis of lightning wnenever an import Kenneth Anger or Jack Smith • Will-. • Civil & Criminal Lmg:nion arming and engaging. ant point is being made; the _ experimental film it is certainly • Do m~ c1 c Rdatmn.., • Real E:-.tacc T ran ... a\.·t1on.., Take the scene where Glen is "guilt" dream sequence (Glen unlike anything else. But there are • C orpormc Mnncr .., • E:-.tatL' Planning contemplating telling his fiance jmagines not telling Barbara about actually other reasons to prompt Barbara about his "other self." Glenda) which is a Dali-esque viewing. Altough it may seem Two P:1rk S4u:irc • R -L-u-L-t National 512 Massachusetts Ave wom••• ""w ek Central~ Square, Cambridge MA Seven Days a e 492-9545 Wed. 2 for 1 Anti-Klan Network. . Specter of Fascism: arms. But we must ask ourselves, Ken Lawrence, an expert on the The Third Annual 'when will a million people in this Klan from Jackson, Milsissippi, country be ready to march against drovehomethenewthreattheKlan Conference of the National racism?' It is not a question of poses. He made clear that the Klan Anti-Klan Network which is the more important issue, today fights under the banner of Atlanta, June 21, 1982 for we will never end the arms race fascism. The old Klan was not a by Barry Mehler until we have put an end to revolutionary movement. They · While Atlanta celebrated its gay racism." stood for reaction, racilm aa4oet pride week, one hundred delegates At the plenary session I made an regation. Klan terrorlntbellllllllaa from over fifty organiz.atlons met appeal for areater PY participa been aimed at "keepiua Ibo.....,. at the Atlanta . Biltmore Hotel tion in NA.KN: "If we are serious in his place," and lntlmklallag between June 18-20 for the third about putting a million people on union organizers and refonmn. annual conference of the National the street to fight racism and The new Klan has a spedficaily Anti-Klan Network (NAKN). fascism we must have the full coop- fascist ideology aimed at srarting a NAKN, organized in 1979 by the eration and support of the gay and race war to exterminate blacks, Southern Christian Leadership lesbian community. Since the end gays and Jews. Conference and the lnterreligious of the Vietnam War no group has The new Klan stratesY ii lo pol Foundation for Community been as active in the struggle for arize society and build on the fears Organizing, is the nation's leading human rights. The gay community and tensions that can bcaated by 80 Boylston St.• Suite 855, Boston. MA 02116 organization monitoring and fight regularly puts a quarter of a million disrupting the fabric of politica u ing the growth of Klan/Nazi people on the streets for gay rights usual. That is the politlca of the organiz.ations. and pride in San Francisco and Turner Diaries, the new 1'lan beat In her keynote adaress, Anne Washington." The Reverend C.T. seller, Here, for example, is a Braden, a founder (of NAKN and Vivian, plenary session moderator, sampleoftheKlan'snewgruesome co-chair of the Sout!t_ern Organiz heartily endorsed my statement. vision of the future: ing Commiftee for - F~onomic And a burst of applause seconded Justice, told the gathering that Squads of our troops witb lyncluoaiud the motion. watches 1uddnly appeared ID • llloaslnd beha~ior 0 the rise in racist violence has However, even as I was making blocks at once in flfty differeat rmcleadll reached crisis proportions . . . the appeal, I realized it is our .,.;,hbo