Day: June 1, 2024

Why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side?

/ fightmasterwrites / 1 Comment

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Gay Pride Edition!

In the mid 1990’s, I taught high school for three years.

I was teaching lighting, at a performing arts high school, in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati at the time was very conservative. VERY CONSERVATIVE.

I was told before moving there, to keep my sexuality to myself. I did so by buying my one and only rainbow car sticker, to put on the back of my Ford Escort Station Wagon, that my friends called the family car.

I didn’t really get any pushback as had been suggested.

I had a boyfriend soon after moving there, who came to my shows.

I didn’t flaunt it, as they say, but I certainly didn’t hide it.

One day, I’m teaching in the morning, and a student, who was known for pushing the boundaries, raised their hand, and asked what the (hehe) meaning (hehe) of the sticker (hehe) on my car was for (hehe).

She was completely convinced she was going to make me out myself, publically.

Instead, I stretched the truth a bit and said, “Well, it’s a rainbow sticker, that was created to celebrate diversity. Its foundation, was the rainbow coalition, that has been supported by the Reverend Jessie Jackson. Its purpose is to let everyone know, that I think diversity is a good thing. I think, we should include everyone equally in everything we do, and I just want everyone to know that.

There was a pause, she said okay.

And I went back to teaching.

It never came up again.

And I went on to sing in the Cincinnati Men’s Choir. I also designed the lighting for a number of their shows, and my students assisted in hanging and running the shows.

IF YOU WERE GAY, THAT’D BE OKAY.

/ fightmasterwrites / Leave a comment

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

June is pride month.

I thought I’d write some posts about being gay.

Or at least about my being gay.

I’ve known I was gay for as long as I can remember.

Well not gay. I didn’t have a word for how I felt.

I just knew that I was fascinated by boys/men.

Battle of the Network Stars.

The Hardy Boys.

Emergency.

Chips.

Saturday Night Fever.

The Sears catalogue.

The underwear section at Kmart.

And I a crush on a whole host of boys in my grade or older.

I’d list some of their names, but think it’s better if I don’t.

As I said, I knew I liked boys.

I knew it was wrong.

And I knew not to tell anyone this deep dark secret.

I, however, did find a word for how I felt on September 29, 1976.

The TV show Alice had started the week before. It was fun.

Kiss my grits!!!

We tuned in the following week and the episode was about a former professional football player that Alice is interested in who turns out to be gay. She suggests he take her son fishing, then changes her mind when she learns he’s gay.

Drama and discovery occur, she realizes she’s wrong, and eventually changes her mind.

Tommy goes fishing.

In that episode, I learned the word homosexual, which I looked up in the dictionary as soon as the show was over.

Homosexual: sexually or romantically attracted to people of one’s own sex.

Sexually or romantically attracted to people of one’s own sex.

One’s own sex.

That was me.

Gay must mean the same thing.

There was a word for me.

The word for how I’d been feeling.

I was a homosexual.

I was gay.

It would be a while before I did anything with this information.

But it was nice to know I was not alone. There were others like me.

Turns out that week was filled with gay characters although I didn’t really remember them.

I did see the Barney Miller episode mentioned in this video:

This video tells you about that 1976 tv season.

However.

I’ve always remembered this episode of Alice.

I didn’t learn it was the only the 2nd episode till about 10 years ago.

But remember it I do.

For almost 50 years.