New York's Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is cited in this material as a political prude, closing down New York bars and dance clubs including Cake, Crowbar, Edelwiess, Rounds, Sound Factory, the Limelight, and many others. "He's fenced off the piers," complain the free love advocates, "zoned adult businesses out of the city and padlocked sex clubs and theaters."

Worse, according to the protesters, "cops have entrapped more and more men in gay cruising grounds, parks, bathrooms, and the streets of Chelsea and the Village. Queer New York is being shut down. Not since Stonewall have we faced so much harassment."

Seeking assistance from prominent spokespersons, say the sex-radicals, is futile. "They have bad answers for real questions. They say we caused AIDS; they blame us for spreading it; they tell us to get married."

The leaders in question include Andrew Sullivan, author of Virtually Normal; Michelangelo Signorile, author of Life Outside; Larry Kramer, author, playwright, and semi-retired AIDS activist; Gabriel Rotello, author of Sexual Ecology and Bruce Bawer, author of Beyond Queer.

"Look at what they are saying," beg the new radicals, "They don't like gay culture, they don't believe in safer sex, they don't trust you. They reduce lesbians to sexless homebodies and want gay men to be the same."

The New York group's complaints reflect dissatisfactions with social and sexual life in the age of AIDS. "The media tells us AIDS is over," say its leaflets, and yet "HIV continues to spread." The protesters point out that a new generation is at risk, a generation which "wants badly to believe" that AIDS is behind them, but which feels, instead, burnout and despair.

This generation seems, according to the sex-freedom crusaders, awash in nostalgia about the Stonewall era. Then, when sex freedom emerged as a proud force in gay liberation politics, it was left to individuals to construct their own sex agendas. But even then, they say, The New Puritanism was already lurking in the wings. Prior to the outbreak of the virus, Larry Kramer's book, Faggots, deplored the promiscuous sexual lifestyles the author had noticed in Manhattan locales.

Even AIDS activists and authors, such as Dr. Alan Cantwell, Jr. are critical of Kramer's long-running crusade against sex, accusing the New York author of putting the blame for AIDS where it doesn't belong, namely on sexually active gay males. Cantwell, author of Queer Blood (See Archives for GayToday's current series by Cantwell under "Health" features) thinks this kind of indiscriminate blame stands in the way of a more rational discussion of AIDS origins and treatment.

The New York Times Book Review (May 25) focused on the latest books by Gabriel Rotello and Michelangelo Signorile simultaneously, its editors calling gay lifestyles "a culture of risk."

Rotello and Signorile were co-workers for the New York-based newsmagazine OUTWEEK, now defunct. Currently they are best known as columnists in mainstream gay publications.