 Allen Bell (left) and Steve Duhr, headed out to dance, 1973 |
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Iowa State University/Ames Gay History [Flash Intro]
Welcome to the Ames, Iowa/Iowa State University/ Queer Boy Archives [this archive is mostly the boy stuff]. Consider this attempt to chronicle a San Francisco Mirror Site. Technically, it's not such, but a rumor we once knew had it there were only 7 gay people in the whole world, and we knew how it was really all done back then, now didn't we, dear friends?
If you get that joke, you belong here. If you don't, well, hell, we're good and liberal so stay anyway and remember or learn.
Our mini history lesson begins in 1971 with the beginning of the Gay Liberation Front on campus at Iowa State University.
Sadly, so many of the original members of the magnificent 7 total gay people in the world who were so adept with those mirrors are no longer able to grace us with their needed presence, and this is dedicated to them. Added to this sad fact is the additional horror that the rest of us went and got a bit older somehow, as that sadistic guy, Father Time, stops for no one. Don't ask me why, I certainly didn't make or approve of these rules. I think all baby boomers thought we'd stay youthful forever.
In the beginning, President Parks created Friley and Beardshear Halls, and he looked down upon what he wrought and he saw that it was good and he smiled. He smiled because it was summer and there hadn't been an ice storm yet. For that matter there weren't any students. Students always make things problematic...
Next he invented the Union and he put a teevee room there with comfortable cruisy seats and a fountain outside and a lake over in the corner with two silly swans, and he built a symbolic, phallic, campanile in a big patch of well tended and mowed grass over to the other side of the Union, and he added tasteful window treatment in the piano rooms in the Union and put sugar laden fast food options in the Trophy Room (he had created the Trophy Room, too, oops, I forgot that) and he placed a librarian, David Windom, in the Trophy Room on a nightly basis, so someone would be there to talk with all of the union's visitors, and before you knew it, he looked over rather than down upon what he wrought, for he had his own house on campus already, and he gasped, "Oops! What are all those queers doing over there?"
 1978: Moving to San Francisco? Have a Party! (Burnett Street) Back row left to right: Bob Stahl, Jerry Mauer, Mike Anderson, Craig Guttau, Harold Osler, Earl Bowen Front row left to right: David Halterman, Scott Nelson, Stephen (Rick) Heffington, and Dale Small |
History as I'm writing it here is my own interpretation of memory. Even when "history" is current, when it is happening at this very moment, it will often have as many interpretations of its truth as there are people living through it.
My memories are fuzzier sometimes than I'd like to admit, and even the ones I remember so clear it's as if they were just yesterday can be wrong, which I am finding out upon discussing events with others who were there. Sometimes my memories seem to have potholes. They have selective gaps that vary in size from pinhole to cookie cutter.
Because of this, I can make no claim to be able to remember or coddle anyone else's perspective on the events listed here that began fall quarter of 1971 [Iowa State University was on a quarter system then, not semester]. I don't know where many of the other people from the first year's Gay Liberation Front group are. The Gay movement grew larger beginning in the 1972-73 school year, and I do know where many of the people who were involved with it beginning that year are (those who are still alive). I'm hoping for contributions from other people who were involved with gay politics at any of these time periods.
There were of course so many gay people who were never involved directly with organized groups on campus, but who wove themselves through and around the organizations.
Unfortunately I do know that far too many of us who were living in Ames those first years of gay liberation have died from AIDS.
I encourage all others with ISU/Ames connections to make additions, subtractions, and contributions to this tale so we can make it more complete and give it more than just my own perspective. There are now 30 years of openly gay history at Iowa State University. Much is apparently already preserved back at the ISU Library, but everyone's personal accounts and recollections are not, and perhaps even many of our mementos are not.
Email me if you want to contribute. If you do choose to write, be gentle and considerate of those who might read this journal and be unhappy to have their names or stories included.
School year: 1971-2 The Gay Liberation Front
School year: 1972-3 Lesbian Alliance - Gay Men's Rap Group
School year: 1973-4 Gay People's Liberation Alliance - Lesbian Alliance
1974-5 - Gay People's Alliance
Pushing the non-underlined by tastefully colored NEXT [something else here] links
will continue your journey from any page you are on to the next page, chronologically, from the previous pages.
After beginning this project and realizing I was going to leave these pages up, I have re-scanned the newspaper articles which are posted on many of the links below at a fairly large size and resolution, so they should be quite legible on almost all monitors and to most eyeballs. I regret the download times this may involve for those who are using a modem (as I myself do). If you are on a slow connection and/or care to read only the text of the articles which are scanned and posted (none of the accompanying explanation), try this page. Text renditions of most of the articles are available as well on the individual pages.
Unfortunately, by autumn, 1974, I had become less fanatical about saving every clipping and article. Perhaps someone else has copies?
Clicking on these links will spawn a new window to load the pages. No guarantee is made for the current status of information on any offsite links.
Penmanship test: email
Total Drivel: brumm.com, the experience
