When there has been so much noise about the coming out stories. You know the ones we have seen recently on streaming services. I am not going to advertise their names. After all I really have a lot of friends in the business.
Show business that is and in honor of the current Writers and Actors strikes, I stand with my entertainment families.
After watching a few seasons now of the coming of age stories as each one of them discover themselves and are starting to get in touch with themselves and their attractions to other lifestyles. It can a difficult time for them and everyone they know. Family, friends and the like.
Listen to this Try and play these segments during the blog. Music is a strong emotional power for me. Enjoy!
After living for a longer time than them and after all the marches and campaigns I would like to think that we have progressed somewhat. And after looking over the memories. We have made progress for our human agenda. As Elizabeth Taylor stated at an AMFAR fundraiser. (Aids Research and Healing funds). "This is not a gay agenda. Its a Human Agenda".
Like in the my past Hate has raised its ugly head way too many times. It is sometimes loud and the most dangerous are the whispers about it that keep the rhetoric going about us just being who we really are as people. It really takes a lot of courage to be yourself. You have to get over the comments and the lack of acceptance. Sounds easy but when you are younger and you are not even sure what goes where. It can make us have anxiety, fears and disrupt our lives.
My feelings about all the current stories involving our differences are great to watch. The difference here at least for me when the stories represent mainly what could be and aim to be. These stories for us that did not match that script have made a lot of us including myself relive our own coming out or coming of age stories. It can be painful for a lot of us. We have lived thru so much anger and violence ourselves. We all want a happy or at least happier ending. If we grow from the past and move forward.
Become confident.
Even loves ourselves.
So if you can bare with me. I will tell you my story. Of growing up as a Jew in Atlanta, Georgia. The word jew alone can cause some people to pause as even though it had been a long long time since the Holocaust. There are still a lot of untold stories. Stories of horror, abandonment, murder and to this day there are some family members who are survivors like myself as my Mom escaped the camps. It tool a lifetime for her to tell me. I digress. Just giving you a clearer background.
So here I am a Jew in the south. A gay jew at that. You know the white privilege portion for me was immediately stripped away because of the labels. I hate the labels. We all hate the labels. But if I can visit on that. The labels are used by the people that do not understand or know us. It is a shield.
So for my so called coming out. We were not advanced to the LGBTQ+ Stage. We were called Homos or queers. This was in the late sixties for me Early Seventy's.
I became a runaway. I wanted to get away from a father that never told me loved me. I am not going to write the dialogue of the hate speech form him. Just like love they no longer are enough for the thoughts to even stick. I would hitch a ride and got as far as Texas one time. I was wanting to get away from all that and was taking a stand. I did not know who I was even then accept that I liked boys.
The coming back home scenes were so dramatic and my Mom was having to live thru it with my very southern civil war background. I stopped cause it made her so sad. I had tried to fit in during the years with a fake girlfriend. Who I later found out was a Lesbian. No wonder she was so easy to talk with about things.
All of this finally came to screeching halt as I tried to commit suicide. Spoiler alert!!
I am still here.
From that came the forced psychiatric visits which would become a blessing for me. I had a really good psych who actually gave me my own permission. My psych said. "Its Ok to be attracted to men. Its not a sickness." Having that forward thinking was like a light turned on. Not long after that session. My father and mother had a group discussion with actually a few Psychs and when my father heard that information. That very night there was a huge argument which became my fathers decision to throw out of the house in my Junior year in High School.
But luckily for me my Mom who had come from a history of being thrown out herself secretly rented an apartment for over the next several years.
Saved by Mom.
It could have been much worse but for it was hopeful.
That lesson would stick with me all my life until she was much older and I took care of her in her final years.
The dramas that I went thru growing up Gay became my strength. I was on a mission for freedoms. It then started with the very first Gay Pride march in Atlanta where we were protected by a circle of police that protected us as we marched from possible snipers or people that actually wanted us erased. For me those got bigger every year. Till here we are 50 years later. Still being visible and larger than the 25 of us in the first march.
My freedom wanted to include us all. I actually marched in a Civil Rights March with Coretta Scott King years later. I will never forget her bold red lipstick.
Marched later for AIDs as the we were ignored for so many years and so many 100's of my friends were dying everywhere. I did fundraisers even long side the AIDS czar for president Clinton.
My marches did not stop there. That progressed into Woman's Rights, Equal Rights, Abortion Rights, and Black Lives Matter. To this day.....
My friends would Gilbert Baker (Pride Flag Founder). Sylvester and the Weather Girls. (A white guy doing black hair and make-up, Really !!!). Started as a volunteer for Hotlanta. The largest gay circuit party ever. I went up the ranks to CEO when I eventually liked another boy and ended up in Los Angeles. Hollywood to be exact. One of my homes. Another home where i have spent a lot of time is Paris where i was taught how to protest. It's a national pastime for us there. A life to this day full of actors, writers, directors, agents, recording artists and all the in between wherever I am at the time.
Then my involvement with the Film and Writing Industry which opened up so many levels for communications and began to give me sense of belonging in the these years which slowly erased all the hate, bitterness and lonely moments of my youth. I do not want to list all the contacts and projects as this is not the case here.
So my story here is that as I advance in the next sections of my life as I am one of the very Gay men still here after surviving the AIDS years. A youthful and vibrant 70's. All of those articles on skin care and health and staying out of the son. And a very valuable lesson early in life. You can do anything as long as it is Moderation. Oh and Sex is not a dirty word. LOL.
So after all that I continue to fall in love with the romance of the LGBTQ+ community. More than even the relationships are better as we all have gotten better. Marriage is still a new term for me even though I fought for so long for just the freedom. But then is this something to pursue for me? As for me I still date. Have affairs! Fall in Love and Out. My views about love are maybe too free for some to wrap their heads around. But this is my world. I am happy as they come. Still full of life and freedom to be me.
I create all the time and mentor a few as they have noticed that they want to live like I do as person that actually still likes boys.
I am grateful that there is so much support as these stories are told. More than ever. There was a line from Heartstoppers. "No Hanky Panky". How old is that line from the 20's maybe.
My life is a delightful world of "hanky Panky". It is entertainment. From my own past where we called "Friends of Dorothy". (Judy Garland fans). Look it up!! to the this day of the newly founded "Hanky Panky". We are all in this together. Together we are strong. " I am what I am".
Thank you for reading my coming out story. It does get better. Thanks for visiting my blog as it is 7 years old today. Live Live LIve by Rand Angel.
It gets Better
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