Gay History, One Man's Memory

[marshlander]

Thanks. It is interesting to read your personal recollections. While I lived through similar times in England, my experience was different and I spent years trying and frequently failing to live a traditional straight life.

Attitudes were born out of ignorance. Most of this was a case of other people deciding they knew better than those of us who lived the lives. I feel some shame that I swallowed the lies and thought life would be simpler when I married my best friend. Those you call the "do-gooders" made gay men and lesbians out to be sad, depraved monsters. I was unable to identify with either the popular image of gay men in the media, mostly on television and the radio, or with the images of homosexuality that I somehow imagined existed outside of myself. I was not "one of them" - an assertion sworn by both myself and the first man I went with after an encounter in a cottage. In another cottage I was set up for entrapment by two policemen in the early seventies. I avoided trouble on that occasion by having a healthy mistrust of anyone with short hair, shiny shoes and creases in their jeans.

Hopefully these are more informed times.