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When Movement Activists Quarrel Jesse's Journal |
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Slater's reaction was equally drastic. According to Slater's biographer, novelist Joseph Hansen, Slater conducted a nocturnal heist, using his office key and the assistance of his life partner and a few close friends to "move" every single item in the ONE office. When Legg arrived at the ONE office the next morning, he found Slater waiting for him, but nothing else. Slater even took ONE's mailing list, of which there was only one copy. Possession being nine-tenths of the law, Slater proceeded to use his stolen goods to publish ONE on a regular basis, while Legg continued to publish his own "official" version of the magazine. Competing issues of ONE were published for several months, creating what historian Rodger Streitmatter called "one of the more bizarre moments in the history of the gay press." Meanwhile, lawsuits flew back and forth in what one of the judges viciously called "a squabble between two queens." Finally, the courts reached a Solomonic decision: Legg and his board got the exclusive right to the name "ONE" and Slater and Co. kept everything that they took. The result was the creation of a new magazine, Tangents, which Slater published with the help of ONE's old staff, equipment and mailing list. I only rehash the old Legg-Slater feud because it is one of the first of many instances of in-fighting that dot the history of the lesbian and gay, bisexual and transgendered rights movement. At times it seems that factionalism is endemic in a community whose political and social groups are too-often led by rugged individualists with oversized egos.
Adam Nagourney and Dudley Clendinen, whose history of the gay rights movement Out for Good managed to include each and every bitch fight conducted between 1969 and 1989, blamed all this infighting for the GLBT's community's relative lack of progress. This bickering, Nagourney told a reporter, is "very personal and very intense, much more than in any other liberation movement. It's why no single leader, like a Martin Luther King, Jr., has emerged with the experience and stature to speak credibly for gays in the public forum."
Recently our community has endured public squabbles conducted by the leaders of several GLBT organizations. As a result of those disputes, some of our community's most important groups have lost much of their staff, money and reputation. Some of the quarrels were caused by honest differences among the board and staff members, while others were caused by incompetence or corruption on the part of the leadership. Sometimes conflict occurs when a group's volunteers, after devoting years of work and money to their cause, are replaced by professionals with more knowledge and experience. Though at best this combination allows a group to enjoy the best of both worlds, all too often this uneven mix leads to discord between both sets of leaders. (The reader should note that I do not mention any of the groups by name. That is partly because of my personal friendship with some of the protagonists but mostly because finger pointing is petty and counter-productive and would date this essay faster than last year's dance hits.) Like many journalists, Nagourney only sees our bad side, since that is more newsworthy. He certainly never explained how, in a community as diverse as ours, would a "gay Martin Luther King" be either possible or desirable. And I should point out, in all fairness, that quarrels, disputes and infighting are as common in "mainstream" organizations as they are in our own GLBT communities - even Dr. King had Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers to contend with. Though conformity might be politically advantageous, it goes against the grain of a civil rights movement whose main tenet is the right to be yourself. The best that we can do is agree to disagree, respect each others' differences, and work together to achieve our common goals. Diversity is one of our community's greatest strengths; let us celebrate it. But we should also remember that, on the most basic issues, we are all on the same side. Though the heat of the moment often blinds us, looking back we can see both sides, as fallible as they may be, are contributing to the common good. After all was said and done, Slater's Tangents magazine paved the way for other queer publications to follow and Legg's ONE Institute of Homophile Studies pioneered the field of GLBT scholarship. Our community's ongoing struggle for equal rights will continue, long after this season's feuds are forgotten. Miss P: The Passing of a Legend I cannot end this column without paying tribute to the late, great "Miss P" (Paul Wegman), who passed away last month from AIDS complications at the age of 59. For over two decades Miss P was the "queen" of Orlando's Parliament House resort, entertaining generations of fans at the P-House's famed Footlight Theater. In addition to introducing the various acts and even doing a number, P had a great shtick, joking and carrying on with the audience and poking fun at the "straight" tourists who would go "slumming" at the P-House. I have enjoyed Miss P's performances at the Footlight Theater many times, and in my humble opinion it was P who made those P-House shows so memorable, and notches above most female impersonator shows then or now. (You can read more about the legendary Miss P in James T. Sears' Southern gay history, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones.) For those of you in the Orlando area, the Parliament House will hold a Memorial Service for Paul Wegman/Miss P on Wednesday, September 29, at 7:30 p.m., appropriately enough at the Footlight Theater. Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer and journalist who lives and works in Southern Florida. Send all your comments and complaints to jessemonteagudo@aol.com . |
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Publisher and gay activist the late Don Slater