The man who pegged John Amaechi and Tim Hardaway as gay - Outsports

Contents:

• MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
• THE MAN WHO PEGGED JOHN AMAECHI AND TIM HARDAWAY AS GAY
• RISG UP OVER GAY RACISM
• MY RACIST GAY WORLD

MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST

Episo NotRandy Boyd’s “gay agenda” was to be radilly open about who he was: a gay, HIV-posive wrer—not the straight profsnal athlete he was always assumed to be.

THE MAN WHO PEGGED JOHN AMAECHI AND TIM HARDAWAY AS GAY

Determed to blow up stereotyp about Black people, gay people, and people livg wh HIV, he had his work cut out for him.

———Learn more about Randy Boyd this terview wh A&U magaze and read his oral history the send edn of the Makg Gay History book. Eric Marc first beme aware of Boyd through his say “My Gay Agenda, ” which was published 2000 the Harvard Gay & Lbian Review (now lled the Gay & Lbian Review); read here.

In the episo he rells his sister potg out a gay bar on a drive through town. Back then, Indianapolis gay bars blackened their wdows and kept a low profile.

RISG UP OVER GAY RACISM

The muny’s first Gay Pri event wasn’t held until 1981. Atks always appreciated his huge gay fan base. It was pecially difficult to reach men who had sex wh men, but didn’t nsir themselv to be gay and distanced themselv om the muny.

In 1987, Congrs pound the problem of reachg the men when banned the e of feral funds for AIDS tn materials that were perceived, directly or directly, to enurage or promote homosexual activi.

As Boyd not, when Hollywood leadg man Rock Hudson died om plitns of AIDS 1985, was a wake-up ll for the whole natn, but many gay men found themselv shunned by iends and relativ  the wake of the actor’s ath. Read more about Proposn 64, which LaRouche and his followers the Prevent AIDS Now Iniative Commtee (PANIC) managed to get on the 1986 ballot California here or the full California Senate day after Eric Marc terviewed Boyd, Boyd sent him a follow-up email about meetg gay rights pneer Harry Hay at an AIDS vigil outsi Los Angel County’s General Hospal.

MY RACIST GAY WORLD

To learn more about Harry Hay, listen to his Makg Gay History episo the late ’80s, when I was first begng to fe myself as an openly gay man, I participated a vigil. He began tellg me stori about what had been like to be gay the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. He had even started one of the first gay rights groups and told me of their stggl wh the law and the world at large.

It was the first time I had heard a first-hand acunt of where we as gay people had been. My gay history I did night, I gaed a new appreciatn for what gay people had to go through the past and how far we had e.

Listeng wh youthful wonr to that old man’s stori was one of many fg moments my disvery of myself and my role as a gay person. I had been talkg to one of the most important figur the early gay rights movement, to one of the Frerick Douglass or Booker T. Washgtons of gay culture.

———Episo TranscriptEric Marc Narratn: I’m Eric Marc, and this is Makg Gay History. I first met wrer Randy Boyd prt— an say he wrote for what was then lled the Harvard Gay & Lbian Review.

It was the year 2000 and I was workg on an updated edn of my Makg Gay History book and searchg for new perspectiv to add to the book’s origal 1992 ’s perspective was a bracg one. In his say, he outled what he lled his gay agenda: “to be myself wherever I go, no matter whom I’m around, whatever the circumstanc—lock, stock and barrel; all of me, cludg the parts that are gay and HIV-posive.