Did you hate, fear or dislike gay people at one time?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

67. When I was a teen just learning about sexuality in the 1960s I didn't know any gay people

Last edited Fri Jun 12, 2015, 01:58 AM - Edit history (1)

(that I was aware of). I remember all the disparaging gay references high school boys would use to put down other boys even though the latter were probably not gay. I guess I had a fear of gays, of being seen with them (if I had known any) and of being suspected of being gay myself. Then in about 1973 I became the new guitarist in a band that backed a soul singer named Nancy Hyde. Unknown to me at the time was that Nancy's manager had booked her into a chain of large gay clubs which we toured. Nancy's sound was very popular in these clubs and she'd already developed a following. The first club we played in was one in San Francisco called the Cabaret Club, a three story building with a couple of restaurants, an enormous dance floor, and a theater with a stage where our group appeared. The first few nights I felt pretty uncomfortable and spent most of my time between sets in the dressing room. I was afraid that if I circulated in the club I might be thought of as gay and maybe get hit on. But to my own surprise it stopped bothering me. It really was like any other club except for the fact almost everyone was male...and there were hundreds and hundreds of people who went through that gigantic club. Nancy told us that she'd seen John Lennon in the audience one night. As a musician, that really freaked me out to think he was listening to my playing. The club owners housed our band in a large apartment in downtown San Francisco during out stay. Lots of gay people went in and out of that apartment to meet with the club owners, who lived in another part of the apartment. Everyone was extremely nice, polite, and attentive to our every need. It was a pleasant change for club owners to treat us musicians like human beings who mattered. Some of the gay men I saw were very effeminate, something I couldn't help noticing. Some showed nothing that indicated their sexual preference that I could discern. Anyway, it was in living for weeks with all the people of this gay club, at the other Cabaret club where we played in West Hollywood, and at others that caused me to stop caring about sexual preference. They were people like any other. Most of all, they were all uniformly kind, polite, and very nice to us musicians which left a lasting impression on me.