Gay Firefighter out of closet; -workers say they knew already – Call the Cops

Contents:

• GAY-FRIENDLY LATE FIREMAN IMMORTALIZED BEEFKE CALENDAR
• IN THE LOCKER: A GAY FIREMAN'S STORY
• THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977
• GAY FIREMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• 'I'M A GAY FIREFIGHTER LONDON AND I DON'T HI WHO I AM JT BEE 'S A STEREOTYPILLY MASCULE JOB'JAM RODGERS SPLS HIS TIME BETWEEN THE LONDON FIRE BRIGA AND EAST LONDON'S LGBT+ NIGHTLIFE SCENEGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMATT SPIVEYCONTENT EDOR11:49, 14 FEB 2022UPDATED14:37, 16 FEB 2022BOOKMARKJAM' LIFE OUTSI OF THE FIRE BRIGA EXISTS WH PRIMARILY QUEER SPAC (IMAGE: JAM RODGERS)SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI MORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI INVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• 'STATN 19' SEASON 3 EPISO 13: EMMETT OUT AS GAY, BUT WILL FIRE CHIEF DIXON ACCEPT SON'S SEXUALY?
• BEG GAY THE FIREHOE
• GAY FIREFIGHTER OUT OF CLOSET; -WORKERS SAY THEY KNEW ALREADY

GAY-FRIENDLY LATE FIREMAN IMMORTALIZED BEEFKE CALENDAR

A black FDNY rookie says he was “terrified” that a fellow firefighter would rape him after a homoerotic hazg by naked Bravt, explosive urt papers reveal. Sprgs and three other probi h out of the Fire Amy were hered to the gym where firefighter Peter Grillo “gave me an aggrsive ph” and whispered, “This hoe is really gay, ” Sprgs said. M., ne men — trapped si a buildg wh blocked-up wdows and no fire p — would not make out years after Stonewall, the tragedy at the Everard Baths — never vtigated as anythg but an accintal mattrs fire — marked the begng of the end of a brief, exuberant heyday of New York Cy gay life that was able to thrive part bee of cheap real tate and a cy ernment that was willg to look the other way when me to, say, S&M clubs like the Mhaft the Meatpackg District (drs clud no logne).

But even as the '70s New York were a relatively open, excg time to be a gay man New York — pri paras, gay bars and clubs proliferatg, a mastream weekly gay newspaper, a gay rights prott at the 1976 Democratic Natnal Conventn New York — beg openly gay, whether on the street or the workplace, still me wh dangers. The bathhoe had long been an anonymo space where gay men uld be themselv whout shame — but the fire at the Everard rerced the ia for many queer men that the few spac they thought were tly their own weren't always safe.

IN THE LOCKER: A GAY FIREMAN'S STORY

Everard Baths was not jt any gay bathhoe; the wrer Michael Rumaker, his acunt of gog to the baths (A Day and a Night at the Baths) for the first time the wter of 1977, lled Everard "the most venerable, loathed, and affectnately teemed baths all of New York Cy. " Everard (or "Ever-hard, " as was nicknamed) had opened as a Turkish bath 1888, but by the 1920s had bee a known, and culturally signifint, gatherg place for gay men.

THE GAY BATHHOE FIRE OF 1977

Author Gore Vidal met his longtime partner, Howard Aten, at Everard 1950; over the years Everard was reportedly vised by the wrer Tman Capote, theater director Aled Lunt, the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and gay rights activist and wrer Larry his memoir Cy Boy: My Life New York Durg the 1960s and 1970s, Edmund Whe remembers the Everard as "filthy... "Ined, was an important and, s when much of gay life was lived secret, necsary space for gay men to associate wh each other — and, particularly for closeted men, a safe place to meet and have sex wh other men.

Bathho are private and exclive; whereas anyone generally has accs to other gay male spac, like bars and clubs, bathho were, and ntue to be, exclively for gay men — and th play a unique and signifint role gay life.

They generally existed on the g of lawfulns; the Everard, along wh other gay bathho New York Cy, were perdilly raid by police, wh a few people beg rted off to jail for lewd behavr now and then, but generally left alone — the ultimate "don't ask, don't tell.

GAY FIREMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

And th the fire shone a not-totally-wele light not jt on New York gay life, but also on the cy's negligence makg sure the buildg was up to .

'I'M A GAY FIREFIGHTER LONDON AND I DON'T HI WHO I AM JT BEE 'S A STEREOTYPILLY MASCULE JOB'JAM RODGERS SPLS HIS TIME BETWEEN THE LONDON FIRE BRIGA AND EAST LONDON'S LGBT+ NIGHTLIFE SCENEGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYMATT SPIVEYCONTENT EDOR11:49, 14 FEB 2022UPDATED14:37, 16 FEB 2022BOOKMARKJAM' LIFE OUTSI OF THE FIRE BRIGA EXISTS WH PRIMARILY QUEER SPAC (IMAGE: JAM RODGERS)SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI MORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 SIGN UP FOR NEWS AND FEATUR OM OUR DIVERSE MUNI INVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!

The tragedy galvanized the gay muny New York an unprecented and public way, and was nsired a ser tragedy a cy mired fisl crisis.

And the gay muny was quick to claim the tragedy: The pastor of the New York branch of the Metropolan Communy Church — the gay church found Los Angel 1968 that had held servic at the UpStairs Lounge jt prr to the fire — tablished a fund to help those jured the fire, as well as pay for the burials of the men who were aftermath was also vered the media.

"Homosexuals Mobilize to Aid Fire Victims" was the headle a New York Tim article on May 26 that explaed that gay men "led up to donate blood" — which today, post-AIDS, they are still banned om dog, meang gay men uldn’t donate to their iends and loved on hospalized after Orlando — and "helped intify bodi and promised to raise money on behalf of the jured, " and that "telephone appeals for help volved a work of 15 homosexual relig anizatns as well as activist homosexual polil groups.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

" In this way, the Everard fire serv as a kd of pre-AIDS era timtamp: Gay men uld still donate blood, bee AIDS hadn't happened yet; gay polil groups were actively advotg for gay rights a way that was startg to be supported by the mastream media. They had been a uple for six years— teachers their mid-30s, jt returned om jobs the Middle East" — and prience, wrg the same article that the Everard Baths were "a kd of 'Marlboro Country' among homosexuals' gatherg plac... " Bce Voeller, a -executive director of the Natnal Gay Task Force who would go on to be a leadg AIDS rearcher and activist (and die of AIDS 1994), told the Tim that "you uld often meet an off-duty p or fireman at the Everard.

Like the UpStairs Lounge fire of 1973, which 30 gay men were killed a spected arson, there was no attempt or sire on the part of policians or the media to claim as anythg but a gay tragedy. Today, the sh to claim the Orlando tragedy as "human, " as opposed to a specific attack on queer Latx people, the real danger that people of lor and queer people still face this untry n get lost — the first versn of the Tim' story about the Orlando shootg didn't mentn that Pulse was a gay club; the #AllLivMatter movement elis the fact that vlence by police agast black people is an tractable problem. Five months later, October, another article was headled "Homosexuals New York Fd New Pri" and opened wh Yom Kippur servic at a gay synagogue the Wt Village.

"The cy's homosexual populatn, which only a few years ago began to 'e out of the closet' and to the street, has veloped markedly recent months to a hive, open and anized force. " The pot of the article seemed to be to reassure the Tim' rears that the gay populatn was not jt "terr rators, Fire Island and bars wh a leather motif" — although "this world do ed exist and flourish some neighborhoods. " No, now the gay populatn of New York was now "very much one of lawyers, physicians, teachers, policians, clergymen, and other upper-class profsnal men and women.

'STATN 19' SEASON 3 EPISO 13: EMMETT OUT AS GAY, BUT WILL FIRE CHIEF DIXON ACCEPT SON'S SEXUALY?

"Of urse, this scriptn nveniently leav out the thoands of gay men and women who were not upper-class and not whe; race is not mentned at all, jt that "there are ser divisns wh the homosexual populatn New York... " The article also highlights the ternal polil nflict wh the gay rights movement between "ant" groups and "morat": "Milant groups like the Gay Activist Alliance ntue to stage monstratns — more than a dozen the last month — which some morat feel are unterproductive.

" The AIDS crisis, which would start htg the cy's gay muny 1981 and by 1983 bee a full-fledged crisis, would put some of the polics on the back burner. The Tim' first story on the crisis, July 1981, was famoly headled "Rare Cancer Seen Homosexuals" and was buried on page Everard was rebuilt after the 1977 fire and was soon back bs.

BEG GAY THE FIREHOE

Only a few bathho survived Mayor Koch's purge, cludg Manhattan's East Si Club, opened 1976 — "New York's Premier Social Relaxatn Club for Gay and Bisexual Men, " acrdg to s webse — and s newer siblg, the Wt Si Club, which opened 1977, the fire at the Everard Baths was a remr that there was no such thg as real safety — which felt all too faiar last weekend.

After tablishg himself on the Chigo theater scene lol productns of “Hamlet, ” “Macbeth” and “Objects the Mirror, ” Daniel Kyri has ma a succsful transn to episodic televisn, starrg as Darren Rter, an openly gay Black firefighter, on the h NBC procral drama “Chigo Fire. Durg that time, he has been able to work “anilly and llaboratively” wh the wrers — who, he said, “are so good at strikg such a lovely, well-balanced tone between edy and drama, between the everyday and the adrenale-ducg” — to rporate parts of his own inty and lived experience to his breakout the wrers ntued to wre him to major plotl, Kyri disvered that his character was gog to e out as gay at the start of the eighth season.

“Bee my web seri felt like a kd of g out, and then [wh] this historic moment the ntext of the ‘One Chigo’ world, for this Black, male character to e out as gay this blue-llar, first-rponr world, I wanted to do jtice, more importantly, ” he said. The prenceptns of the environment wh a fire statn n often be perceived to be a hyper-mascule space, but this is now an outdated mentaly, acrdg to an openly gay firefighter. Jam Rodgers, a recent addn to the London Fire Briga (LFB) spoke to MyLondon about his experience as a gay firefighter whose life outsi of the fire service exists primarily wh queer spac.

GAY FIREFIGHTER OUT OF CLOSET; -WORKERS SAY THEY KNEW ALREADY

He has been the job for a year and a half and his time at the statn he has joed their LGBT+ work, but admted that is often hard to meet other gay male firefighters person. He said: "I have been the service for jt over a year and a half now and I've met one other openly gay male firefighter and whilst I know about others but actually meetg them is very few and far between, but is nice to have the muny work to be able to munite wh them.

He said: "There's not many openly gay male firefighters but was nice knowg that we had a group already set up that I uld get volved straight away. Matt is a traee reporter specialisg LGBT+ issu, cludg speakg to LGBTQ+ activist Peter Tatchell ahead of the 50th anniversary of Gay Pri the UK, an terview wh an ex-Litenant Commanr who was forced to keep his sexualy a secret the Armed Forc for 20 years who lost his partner to AIDS two days before he left the Navy, and speakg to the founr of The Gay Men's Dance Company, which offers pole dancg class, among others.

The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty. "I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.