Stonewall Park: Rhyole, Nevada gay muny undone by homophobia, racism - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• A ‘GAY HOMELAND’ UNDONE BY HOMOPHOBIA AND RACISM
• ONE INTERRACIAL GAY COUPLE TRI TO TRAVEL FEARLSLY — AND SOMETIM FDS ACCEPTANCE SURPRISG PLAC
• COMMENTARY: AS A BIRACIAL GAY UPLE, WE HAVEN’T FACED MUCH HATE BUT WE WORRY OUR KIDS ULD
• THEY WERE A GAY, TERRACIAL UPLE AN AGE OF RELENTLS BIGOTRY. THE TWO HAROLDS DIDN’T FLCH.
• EBONY AND IVORY: THE TERRACIAL GAY MALE UPLE

A ‘GAY HOMELAND’ UNDONE BY HOMOPHOBIA AND RACISM

9, 1986, at the height of anti-gay hysteria durg the AIDS crisis, a biracial gay uple om Reno, Nev., ma a remarkable announcement: They were gog to create what some lled “a gay homeland” the Nevada Schoonmaker and Aled Parkson planned to name the muny Stonewall Park, after the 1969 uprisg New York that lnched the gay rights movement. The effort to transform the abandoned ghost town of Rhyole to an enclave wh gay-owned banks, shops, sos, and sgle-fay hom mec ma news.

“Group Buys Ghost Town for Homosexual Cy, ” said the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Ghost Town to Bee Gay Town, ” said Uned Prs Internatnal.

ONE INTERRACIAL GAY COUPLE TRI TO TRAVEL FEARLSLY — AND SOMETIM FDS ACCEPTANCE SURPRISG PLAC

And the lol Death Valley Gateway Gazette put s own twist on : “Happy Gays Are Here Aga. ” Schoonmaker billed Stonewall Park as a rort muny, a haven where gays uld live and thrive away om AIDS-spired and legally sanctned homophobia. Schoonmaker, then 44, had faced homophobia long before movg to Nevada, which still had an anti-sodomy law, the 1980s.

COMMENTARY: AS A BIRACIAL GAY UPLE, WE HAVEN’T FACED MUCH HATE BUT WE WORRY OUR KIDS ULD

Growg up a small Wt Virgia mg town, he knew he was gay om age 9. In high school, his two bt iends, 16-year-old boys who were also gay, died by suici, part “bee they knew what society thought of gay people and didn’t anticipate a happy future for themselv, ” acrdg to a story the Los Angel 1974, Schoonmaker met Parkson, his partner, San Francis, where the two ran a few bs ventur before settlg Reno. There, they both worked at sos but were relegated to the rtrants — at that time, gays were forbidn to handle rds, dice and money for gamblg gam.

Parkson was black, and as Schoonmaker soon saw, Ameri was not safe pecially for Ain Amerin gays at the time, they faced racial tnts Reno.

THEY WERE A GAY, TERRACIAL UPLE AN AGE OF RELENTLS BIGOTRY. THE TWO HAROLDS DIDN’T FLCH.

He was driven to build a gay homeland not jt for the greater good, but also to give Parkson, whom some scribed as gnively challenged, a safe and peaceful place to live after Schoonmaker was gone, said Rob Schlegel, a reporter who vered the Stonewall Park story for Reno’s gay Bohemian Bugle newspaper, and the lol mastream paper, the Death Valley Gateway ia of a separate gay muny was not new to the charismatic Schoonmaker, acrdg to Dennis McBri, who wrote about Stonewall Park his book, “Out of the Neon Closet: Queer Communy the Silver State. ” He was probably volved wh the Los Angel Gay Liberatn Front, which 1970 veloped plans to tablish a gay muny northern California’s ty Alpe County 10 south of Lake Tahoe, McBri proposal shocked California’s ernment and faced major opposn om relig lears and rints.

EBONY AND IVORY: THE TERRACIAL GAY MALE UPLE

Schoonmaker knew he would need more than a morn sculpture to attract fellow gays to his town. But he reasoned that he’d have to build the gay muny an area where no one else would want to live, where lols would appreciate the velopment, and gays uld be left alone, acrdg to Schlegel. In October of 1986, Schoonmaker announced the al and the forthg gay mec, even though one of the partners the UPI article said that “negotiatns were ntug and no money had changed hands.

But stead, the homophobia he hoped to pe nonted him, as gay-fearg lols protted and news outlets County missner Bob Revert, who owned a general store and gas statn the nearby town of Beatty, ma very clear that gay people weren’t wele, acrdg to Schlegel. When they get to the Nye County le, they cease beg gays.