On
Tuesday May 15, 2012, I started what I think will be my last book. This
is PG rated version as I plan to have the X rated published in hard
cover. It is called "The 7 Decades Series" based mainly on my life. I am
writing it not because I think my life is much different than many
people but in the hope that some younger people will learn from my
mistakes, or triumphs, even though I am aware that most people will not
listen to elders but prefer to think their life will not take the same
path doing the same thing the old folks did. I certainly hope young
gay people will read what is part of their history and I think nongay
people will learn of a world they don't know or think they do but don't
really. Also, if you don't know, there is no one 'type', or stereotype,
of a gay person as they are as different as nongay people--all sizes,
all types, all heights, weights, all temperaments, races, religions,
somebroughtupin 'traditional' families, some just by one parent some by
same sex parents (though I am willing to be that 99.something percent
were brought up by a nongay parent or parents) and, sorry, one size does
not fit all.

Starting tomorrow I will continue the story with chapter 20 A with all previous chapters of the series already posted.

I don't remember the exact date but I do know it was 1947, I was 11 years old, and I realized that I was gay. It would be a year later that I would have sex with
another male and yet another year before I started activism by coming
out. The second decade of my life was a very bewildering, mixed up time but
then, I suppose, most teenagers could say that except I had the
additional pressure of discovering exactly what being gay meant. From
the ages of 13 to 16 I discovered a Manhattan that most adults, let
alone teens, from 1949-1952 didn't know existed. There was an underbelly
of restrooms, bars, baths and parks the majority of New Yorkers were
not aware of being. I always looked older than I was so I wasn't carded
going into bars--the legal age was 18 back then--or the baths.  I
learned about the bathroom on the 8th floor of the Rockefeller
buildingandthetwobasementrestroomsalong with the IRT 50th street and
28th street stops.

There
was also a sophisticated gay side that I was taught about consisting of
going to theatres, piano bars, dinners, penthouse orgies, museums, art
galleries and jazz clubs. I was described as a 'west side' kid with
entry to the 'east side' gay life.

At
the same time I was dealing with a family that was, and had, failed. I
was asked to play a part, a role that I wasn't able to deal with. In
June of 1952 I left my family, got a room in Greenwich Village, got a
job as an usher at the Lyric theatre on 42nd Street, went to summer
school and found time to get comfortable in a world that I wanted to be
in and make better. After graduating high school I attended the State
University of New York for 1 semester before deciding to enlist in the
United States Marine Corps and in February, 1954, I arrived in Parris
Island, South Carolina.

Someday
I will get into being entrapped by the vice squad, scams against gay
men in the movie houses along 42nd street by security men, a 3 month
'affair' with a celebrity, intermissions at the theatre and making dates
for after, having to grow up fast and holding my own along with mentors
who helped me become the activist that was able to accomplish some
things but for now it is time to talk about going to Korea and ending my
second decade of life taking a life only to be chewed up and spit out!

Oh
did I mention that I was a fat kid and after leaving home I ended up in
the hospital  overdosing on 'diet pills'? No, I wasn't attempting
suicide--I was just trying to lose weight faster!

 After
16 weeks of boot camp in swamp surrounded Parris Island I saw, for the
first time, the good looking man I could be. On leave, in New York,
before being transferred to Camp Pendleton, I saw the admiring looks I
was getting when I went into the 63rd Street Y or the theatre or
Downey's on 8th Avenue, dressed in uniform and it would be a little over
a decade before I would be getting those looks again.

I spent a couple of weeks in Camp Pendleton, California, undergoing more training. It was a huge base between San Diego and Los Angeles surrounded
by hills and divided into many sections. When I arrived there a new
part of the base opened and was called Camp Horno--yes, you know the
punch line, you know what they called it.  Along with that female
Marines were referred to as "BAMs" and if you can't figure that one out
e-mail me. Remember this was the mid-50s, a different world.

A
surprising factor to me, though it made sense once I thought about it,
and Marines here will deny it vehemently, there were many gay Marines,
as discharges would show after the Korean War was over. Many teens,
young males, unsure of their masculinity, sexuality, enlisted in the
Marine Corps to 'prove' they were men but it didn't take me long to
learn that many would rather go into the hills on weekends instead of
going to nearby Oceanside or up to Hollywood and, trust me, it wasn't to
hear the sound of music.

None
of the above is meant to be negative about the Marine Corps. I was
proud to be a Marine and I still state, with pride, that I was a Marine,
in spite of how they treated me and other gay men when we were no
longer needed by them.

Before I knew it I was on a troop ship on my way to Korea to 'help clean up'.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

*****************************************************************

"I AM NOT AFRAID OF STORMS

FOR I AM LEARNING

HOW TO SAIL

MY SHIP."

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

(FROM MARIA'S CARDS)