Letters to Lambda
Gays and the Draft
Dear lamMa,
The U.S. government is bringing
back the drafts ostensibly to beef
up its forces in the face of a Soviet
"threat,” but moie likely the real
reason is to create a strike force
capable of carrying out intervention
in Third World countries on behalf of
U.S. imperialism.
The rulers of this country are in
no mood for "another Nicaragua,"
especially in the western hemisphere.
I have chosen to resist draft
registration and thereby not
contribute to these war maneuvers in
any way.
Since I'm Gay I could just wait
until induction if I wanted to,
and then get a deferment by declaring
my homosexuality (something the
government deems would make me
"unfit" to "serve.") I am not doing
this for two reasons.
For one thing I do not wish to
register at all because I do not want
to cooperate with the cannon-fodder
gathering process in any way (to
get a deferement I would still have
to register.)
Secondly, I don't want to
perpetuate the system of anti-gay
oppression and discrimination that
exists in society by agreeing with
the government that my being Gay is
somehow a handicap.
Resisting the entire conscription
process and the interests that
process serves (this country's
rulers who make anti^iGay bigotry
just as much an integral part of
their philosophy as imperialist
intervention) is the only thing I
can in good conscience do. I
urge others, Gay and straight, to
do the same.
Steven,
Chapel Hill
Another view of Cruisiug
Dear lambda,
I will no doubt incur the wrath of
that which calls Itself the gay com-
mimity of Chapel Hill by saying this,
but the controversy that I keep read
ing about compels me to say it: I
liked the movie Cruising, (l can al
ready hear shouts of "reneg^e")l
Maybe it's not the best film I've
ever seen, but it's nowhere near the
worst. And I think it's better inten-
tioned than its critics maintain.
Almost all criticisms of Cruising
have been misdirected. The straight
metropolitan press has rarely been so
vicious. Reviews in papers like the
New York Times, the Washington Post,
and the Los Angeles Times use adjec
tives like "offensive" and "repulsive"
to describe the subject matter and be
moan the fact that it got an R rating
rather than an X rating. Some of the
reviewers go so far as to describe the
gays in the sado-masochistic subculture
as "losers" and "unsavory elements" and
even "degenerates."
One would think that political gays
would address these frontal attacks
from the press; instead they have de
voted their efforts to censoring a
movie which is uncondemning of and
sympathetic to gays.
In their criticisms of the film, gay
politicos usually use phrases like "it
is stereotypical," "it doesn't show gay
life as it really is," and "it distorts
gay sado-masochism."
To briefly simmarize my rejection of
these criticisms, I respond-that stereo
types are depicted only inasmuch as they
exist. Yes, there is a heavy-leather
scene, and there are drag queens in the
Village; around the docks one finds
little else. A film set in the docks/
leather scene need not depict the wide
range of gay experience; it needs only
to provide an accurate portrayal of
leather bars.
Concerning the content of the film,
there is really little room for argu
ment: murders do occur in the heavy-
leather subculture; the film was drawn
from an actual series of killings that
occurred around the Village docks.
Of the numerous gays that I have
talked to, I have been suiTprised by
their lack of understanding of the
film, I just get blank looks when I
mention analysis or perspective, and
the conversation usually turns back
to a discussion of blood and gore and
stereotypes.
The perspective of the film is this,
simply put: gays in the S&M subculture
are people who are tirying to work out
psychological problems that arise from
social attitudes concerning homosex
uality, power and violence. Gay
sado-masochism arises out of self-
hatred imposed by heterosexist soci
ety. Ibwer and violence are dramati
cally and theatrically concentrated
in gay leather bars, but they perme
ate all levels of social interaction.
Gays cavight up in these social and
psychological contradictions are not
the perpetrators, they are the sym
pathetic victims of social violence.
(Cruising, cont. p. 10)