"Jack Nichols has been at the forefront of gay activism since before most of the U.S. knew that gay activism existed," said Gwendolyn Dean, a graduate assistant in Emory University's Office of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Life.

Nichols will discuss his life and most recent book at Emory April 23, in an appearance co-hosted by the Office of L/G/B Life and the Atlanta chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. He will also speak at the University of Georgia in Athens on April 22, also co-hosted by Americans United.

"I'm a rationalist who has led the life of a mystic," Nichols told Southern Voice in an interview—liberally sprinkled with philosophy and humor—that spanned his experiences as a founder in 1961 of the nation's first homosexual activist group, the Mattachine Society of Washington, to his current post as senior editor of the Internet magazine, Gay Today, sponsored by badpuppy.com.

In between, he was the first gay activist to challenge the idea that gays were "sick," dressed "like a salesman in a suit and tie" to discuss homosexuality with clergy members in the early '60s, wrote the first gay journalist accounts of the Stonewall Rebellion, co-founded GAY, New York City, an early activist newspaper, and even lived in Atlanta from 1978 to 1981.

Along with his most recent book, "The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists" (1996), Nichols is the author of "Men's Liberation: A New Definition of Masculinity" (1975), "Welcome to Fire Island" (1976), and with his late lover, Lige Clarke, "I Have More Fun With You Than Anybody" (1972) and "Roommates Can't Always Be Lovers: An Intimate Guide to Male/Male Relationships" (1974).

"I really am essentially a journalist activist, and I consider Gay Today an expression of that," Nichols said of his current work. "I'm a free speecher and a person who is still very counter-culture in my approach, because I've always felt it is important to question the culture you're brought up in instead of accepting it piecemeal and being a bore." Gay Today receives an estimated 50,000 hits per day, he said.

Those numbers are a far cry from the ten men and women who joined him on that first White House picket line, but Nichols said he doesn't remember being afraid.

"We were just the ten of us, and of course we didn't know what would really happen or how people would react, whether they would freak out," he recalled. "People always say, 'Oh, you're so courageous,' but courage is in the eye of the beholder, and whether they would feel comfortable is not to say it didn't feel natural to me.

"Fear was not part of our program, and I was always taught to do what is right because it was the right thing to do. I was brought up that way. Plus, I'm sure I was macho enough in those days that I probably would have sublimated it, but I can't really say I was afraid."

Raised by a staunchly feminist mother, Nichols said he was brought up to question social roles from an early age, a lesson that definitely informed his activism. "So that makes me a raging feminist, too," he said.

"My mother was the first woman on Cape Kennedy to be in management in the space program, and when she married my father in the mid 1920s, she had to change churches to find a minister who would allow her to strike the word 'obey' from the vows."

Watching the women's movement's insistence that 'biology isn't destiny' motivated him to continuously challenge the notion that homosexuality is a psychiatric, medical condition that "people couldn't help," Nichols said.

"When people say we are determined by biological fiat, that was one of the things the women's movement moved against in the late '60s because that phrase was used to keep women in their place," he said. "In the same way, if homosexuality is destiny, then same-sex love will be forever marginalized as something that just affects a very few.

"But my more radical view is homosexuality is part and parcel of all humanity," Nichols continued. "Same-sex and passive love is to me essential in a nuclear age. If men are afraid to get close to each other and they are in control of all of those penis-symbol bombs, if they find it hard to feel and have empathy for each other … that makes them a primary danger on the face of this planet."

Another danger of this type of thinking is that it may keep people from trying to fix the things they feel are wrong with the world, explained Nichols, who himself refuses to retire and rest on his many achievements.

"When you start talking about sickness in gay people or original sin in Christianity or biological determinism, you're talking about a society or culture incapable of change, and I've lived long enough to believe that's just not true," he said.

"If there's one thing I've learned in 35 years in the gay movement, it's that change is possible. I remember when there were only two bars in New York where you could dance in a back room with two light bulbs … and when the light came on you had to break up and move to the sides until you knew it was safe to start dancing again. I think that gives you a good idea of how much change I've seen."

Asked what advice he would give to today's gay youth based on his years of experiences, Nichols—ever the philosophical individualist—declined to be pinned down.

"In a nutshell, I'm not really a good 'nutshell' person," he said. "I believe everyone is unique, and in personal situations I would say quite different things to each person I meet.

"If I were to give some advice, I would say to find the best things about yourself, the things you love, and make them part of yourself. Find those things from every department of life—poetry, music, art, whatever it may be—and focus on them. Absorb them so much that they become a part of your marrow so they will be available for you to mirror in daily life no matter what."

Who: Jack Nichols
What: discussion and book signing
When: April 22, 7 p.m.
Where: University of Georgia in Athens
Contact: (706) 549-9368

Who: Jack Nichols
What: discussion and signing
When: April 23, 7 p.m.
Where: Emory University, White Hall, room 307
Contact: (404) 727-0272
Other: Nichols will also participate in a colloquium for gay history scholars.
Call for more information.

Courtesy: Southern Voice www.sovo.com