Washgton DC Gay Area Gui - Dupont Circle │ misterb&b

Contents:

• WASHGTON DC GAY SHOPS
• FROM THE ARCHIV: IS DC BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF AMERI?
• WASHGTON DC GAY CLOTHG
• GAY CLOTHG OPTNAL CAMPGROUNDS NEAR ME
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS WASHGTON
• WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

WASHGTON DC GAY SHOPS

Not only were gays a key to the aln that put Barry the DC mayor’s chair; they also have won one of the natn’s strongt anti-discrimatn laws, they have earned the support of much of the DC cy uncil, and many of them now serve on cy boards and missns. Consir a few other extrem: You first meet a health specialist who tells of his tective work tryg to fd a young drifter who has personally set off a venereal-disease epimic wh a strg of “tricks” at a gay bath. ”• In an office buildg on Capol Hill, a fundamentalist preacher who has been prayg for the repentance of homosexuals ris om his kne and bellows to the televisn meras: “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

”• A wealthy gay hairdrser is stg on his terrace, slicg a b of pâté that his Brazilian hoeboy has brought down om the kchen, and gazg to his swimmg pool, which is rated on the bottom wh a mosaic of Marilyn Monroe.

FROM THE ARCHIV: IS DC BEG THE GAY CAPAL OF AMERI?

One rd shows a group of men-all drsed jt like the ctomer wh the Laste alligator on his cht wh the words “Christopher Street” script above their rds are signed for the gay market—Christopher Street is a famo gay strip Greenwich Village and the Laste alligator is rigur a portn of the gay muny. Below Dupont Circle, another theater is featurg Can’t Stop the Mic, a vehicle for the Village People, the group that has done most to popularize macho gay styl wh s h songs “Macho Man, ” “YMCA, ” and “In the Navy. If he wants to announce to the world that he is gay, there is silver jewelry shaped like the Greek letter lambda, the accepted symbol of gay liberatn, or black buttons wh pk triangl, which are a remr of the tags the Nazis pned on homosexuals.

Nan Hunter, who practic wh a “femist law llective, ” reprents lbian mothers child ctody s, fends other lbians agast voluntary discharge om the ary, and seeks upgrad discharg for those who have been turned out of the ary wh “ls than honorable” discharg and are th nied veterans’ this crease gay bs are several factors that would warm the heart of any entreprenr. The same is te for a lol weekly entertament magaze lled their pag you will fd ads for clothg stor that specialize styl popular wh gays, ads for gay rorts Key Wt and Provcetown and Fire Island and Rehoboth Beach, as well as ads for baths, rtrants, theaters, and bars.

Ten years ago, the GAA didn’t exist as an effective polil anizatn, homosexuals were barred by feral policy om all ernment employment, and the ia of anized gay clout at the polls was not dreamed of by even the most visnary activists. How many reers were affected durg the postwar perd will never be known, although a Senate mtee reported 4, 954 s between 1947 and who didn’t go quietly was Frank Kameny, a man who was eventually to bee the champn of gay polics the cy.

WASHGTON DC GAY CLOTHG

Four years later, after appeals to the Whe Hoe and Congrs and the lower urts, the Supreme Court settled the matter by refg to hear his the fall of 1961, havg cid that an dividual uld not fight alone, Kameny helped anize the cy’s first gay anizatn. It was hh-hh, wh hardly anyone except Kameny g his own as the meetg was to beg, one of the men took Kameny asi and asked him if he realized that one of the ostensible homosexuals si was really a vice-squad tective and that the bulge his at was a pistol.

” The police had known about the secret meetg, turned out, bee they had earlier put a fake name on the New York mailg this time, the early 1960s, Kameny and a few other gays were begng to see some parallels between their posn as homosexuals and that of blacks.

Both were mori out of the cultural mastream, both lacked nventnal polil power, and both had to some extent ternalized their own homosexuals seemed to believe the dictment agast them—the dictment of the ernment that they were dangero employe, the dictment of the church that they were sful, and the dictment of psychologists that they were sick. '”Later on, that was one of the slogans all the buttons that gays wore when they picketed the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn to mand that homosexualy be removed om s list of “mental disorrs, ” somethg done and other gay lears also began to take tactil cu om the civil rights movement.

GAY CLOTHG OPTNAL CAMPGROUNDS NEAR ME

He realized he had no chance of wng, but he had a surprisgly easy time llectg 7, 700 signatur to get on the ballot, and he gathered much ee publicy for the gay-rights Fntroy won and Kameny me fourth, ahead of all the mor ndidat, cludg the Reverend Douglas Moore, who was velopg to one of the gay muny’s most stnch enemi. That was left to a new gay anizatn lled the Gert Ste Democratic Club, formed 1976 by Pl Kuntzler, a televisn producer named Richard Mlsby, and a few Ste Club, domated by whe profsnals wh liberal Democratic leangs, has been the vehicle for anizg gay power DC ever sce.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS WASHGTON

In 1978, the club endorsed Barry early when he was far behd Mayor Walter Washgton and Council Chairman Sterlg Tucker the polls, and eventually livered the gay vote as a cisive factor Barry’s narrow victory.

Kuntzler, whose feat was a b of a surprise, was later add to the legatn as an alternate by the District’s Democratic of this succs, which has brought policians nng for Ste Club endorsements, is based simply on the large number of gays who have moved to the District and registered to vote. Kuntzler also lik to remd people of another statistic: Those 22 gay preccts ver 20 of the 21 preccts where Barry piled up a majory of the vote 1978—a ccial marg that helped him make up loss elsewhere that close three-way of the gay voters also have extra sh that is eful to policians mpaigns, and their sense of persecutn often mak them highly motivated mpaigns for special iends like Barry or special enemi like also turned out for Barry as volunteers—makg up more than half of his phone-bank workers, acrdg to one timate, and about a quarter of his poll-watchers. At Gay Pri Day, there may be a few drag queens and heavy leather typ walkg around, but the Ste Club booth has people golf shirts, sellg chilled Perrier and handg out Ted Kennedy livered for Barry two years ago, gay activists expect—and are gettg—improved treatment om the District ernment.

He also hand out low license-plate numbers—a tradnal sign of fluence—to Kameny and two other gay also have secured more than a dozen mayoral appotments to part-time jobs on var cizen boards that advise cy ernment.

WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

A former GAA print serv on the library board, the gay owner of the Lost & Found and the Pier is on an enomic-velopment mtee, the lbian founr of a leadg femist quarterly serv on the missn for women, and a proment gay hairdrser is on the smetology board. A fal irony: Ron Bal, the man who regnized the vicquad tective at that first meetg of the Mattache Society neteen years ago, is now vice chairman of an advisory uncil to the Metropolan Washgton Council of jobs for gays are another matter.

The most proment gay man the District Buildg is Richard Mlsby, a founr of the Ste Club, whom Barry named head of a new office to enurage film pani to e the District as a are, of urse, other gays cy ernment who are ls “out” than Mlsby. ” This means that many of the gay whe mal who have ncentrated over the past ten years on the District Buildg are now turng to other goals–to passage of a natnal anti-discrimatn law, to remag feral job discrimatn, to polil anizg the suburbs, and to buildg alns wh black gays and lbians.