ARTICLES & FICTION
12 "ENTRAPMENT IN FLORIDA"
By Jack L.
16 "MUFFINS"
By William Spencer
28 "THE DADDY MYSTIQUE"
By Tim Barrus
39 "FASHIONS OF Peter Berlin"
By Jerry Douglas
48 "THE YELLOW SATIN SHORTS"
By Kieran Prather
54 "JOHN HOUSEMAN"
By George Heymont VISUALS
8 "Pierce Daniels"
Photos from Celsius Studios
33 "BODY WORSHIP"
Photography by Richard White
39 "FASHIONS OF Peter Berlin"
Photos from Berlin Productions
65 "PERSONAL THOUGHTS"
Photos from Malexpress Studios
73 "DELIVERY BOYS"
Photos from Laguna Pacific Ltd. MONTHLY FEATURES
4 QUICKIES
24 ROUNDUP (Film, Books, Theatre, Music)
46 VIDEO VIEWS
52 LETTERS TO CASEY
58 CONTACTS EDIORIAL
Despite anything you may have heard to the contrary, ignorance is not bliss
— especially with regard to the current unblissfully ignorant attitudes
toward AIDS. These days, ignorance is terror, ignorance is panic, ignorance
is hysteria. In Chicago, for example, a woman called an AIDS hotline to determine
the danger of having her hair done by a gay hairdresser. In Boston, a caller
inquired if he could catch AIDS from a public laundromat. And a recent New York
Times/CBS poll revealed that nearly 50% of those questioned still believed they
could catch AIDS by using the drinking glass of an AIDS patient. The gains made
by the gay rights movement in the years since Stonewall are disintegrating in
the backlash of a homphobia legitimized by very real health concerns.
Under the guise of containing an epidemic, large numbers of straight America
are changing the ways in which they were just beginning to accept and enjoy
the gay community. Restaurants with predominantly gay staffs are going out of
business. Furors are exploding in the rights of children with AIDS to attend
public schools. The unmarried male has become the Typhoid Mary of the Eighties.
If he is a dentist, his patients may well request he wear rubber gloves during
treatment; if he is a patient, the dentist may well opt for rubber gloves. And
despite the prevailing assurances of the experts in the field that AIDS cannot
be spread through casual contact, the handshake is rapidly replacing the kiss,
even in such kissy-kissy towns as Hollywood.
Misinformation has prompted this unprecedented backlash, and fighting widespread
ignorance is no easy task. But it must be done. Each of us must arm himself
with all the latest information and must spread it as every opportunity. More
importantly, each of us must fight legislation aimed at isolating the homosexual
via registration, via quarantine, via ghettoization — for these were the
very tools used by the Nazis to isolate the Jewish community from the rest of
society during the Thirties. Each of us must become a vocal disseminator of
the truth as science currently believes it to be. As shiboleths go, we suggest
replacing "Ignorance is bliss" with "Knowledge is power."
Only then can the backlash be diffused.
Jerry Douglas
Editor
