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Want to Control Our Sex Lives |
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By Billy Glover Homosexual Information Center Editor's Note: Billy Glover, a pioneer of the movement, graduated from LSU in 1955, was discharged as gay from the U.S. Army in 1956 and began working at ONE in 1960 after a stint in the Mattachine Society's San Francisco offices and after attending the Denver Mattachine Convention in 1959. He worked in ONE's library and with the pioneering magazine itself, delivering it, acting as its business manager, mailing it and keeping its records. He began working in the mid-1960s with Don Slater and The Tangent Group. His comrades in those days included Dr. Vern Bullough and Harry Hay. Billy Glover says he "had a wonderful journey with everyone, but mainly Don Slater with whom I moved and founded the Homosexual Information Center (Glover was Vice-Chair) along with Joe and Jane Hansen, Jim Schneider, Rudi Steinert, and Don's long-time companion, Tony Reyes."
HIC doesn't say much about homosexuality, because in the about 50 years we have been dealing with aspects of homosexuality, we haven't found many specific, scientific answers. Therefore we say we give out balanced information and let people decide for themselves.
And I have thought, based on what I have seen in 'Ex-Gay' mailings such as those from Exodus, that in any case we all agree that no matter how many homosexual citizens there are, or what causes us to choose the sex partner we do, we, as individual Americans have a right to privacy and our choice, probably the most personal aspect of our lives. And my experience is that it is religious fanatics who keep trying to force laws to control our private sex lives. They don't stop at preaching, but when we reject them, they then "for our own good" pass sodomy laws, try to get children committed to hospitals to force them to be heterosexuals, etc. The struggle against these people is the fight I've part of for over 40 years.
But Don one day said that one young man who had problems, not necessarily sexual, had seemed to be better after starting to work with the Scientology people, whose offices were down the street from our offices in downtown Hollywood. So he was willing to accept that some good came from Scientology but did not forget the person or motive that started it. And Scientology has as much an equal right to seek converts as Baptists or Catholics, etc. But as I think we agree, no church has a right, or religion has a right to force their beliefs on all of us, such as making us vegetarians, non-smokers, dieters, joggers, etc.
So I ignore the Bible's view of sex as I did its view of slavery. It is as wrong as is the Quran on both issues. Its contradictions are obvious to any sane person who understands that just because the Constitution allowed slavery did not make slavery right. Just because the Constitution denied women the right to vote didn't make it right either. Now there are still issues about which I don't believe we truly understand the best answer, such as abortion. I have one view, Don had another, yet we worked together for 40 years and respected each other's views. We also disagreed about politics. And we worked with people who were homosexual but disagreed with each other on almost every aspect of life - we dealt with vegetarians and meat-eaters, on animal lovers who hated the gay rodeo people, the gay atheists don't like the gay church people, drag queens don't like the gay cowboys, and leather people don't like or I should say agree with the gay faeries. If someone is unhappy being homosexual and thinks that they would like a referral to a source that might help them change, I have no problem giving them Exodus' address.
I do get tired of the converts to non-smoking who suddenly become fanatical about people who do smoke. I am one of the "pure" homosexual citizens on Kinsey's scale. But I don't look down on those who change - and it isn't just Ann Heche or some celebrity that does. But I accept Kinsey's research and that means that for every person who becomes homosexual, a heterosexual becomes homosexual, but not permanently, and the we have the asexuals and the bisexuals and trans people, so life is interesting. These remarks don't answer all questions, but they give some background to show why I work in this movement and why I think that there is little in life that is perfectly black or white and the Taliban proves currently that point - and I believe it is the responsibly of Muslims to speak out against the Taliban, just as it was the responsibility of Christians to speak out against Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson when they say something that is not true. But that doesn't make all Christians responsible or make the majority of Muslims guilty of what the fanatics/Taliban do. That fact that Americans today no longer believe in slavery and women in American can vote, proves to me that things change, and I believe for the better. Hopefully it won't take another Civil War to change things still wrong about our nation and the world. |
An inquiry to the Homosexual Information Center (HIC) about prayers in public schools recently found me saying that there won't be any prayer in schools if it is a Muslim prayer, because I don't believe that the Baptists will allow that. Southern Baptists want prayers in the name of Jesus only.
Dr. Kinsey 
Don Slater 
Perhaps the country's most fanatical anti-gay religious leader, the Rev. Pat Robertson
© 1997-2002 BEI