Anna had spotted John and me as we sipped our Cokes and toyed with the last of the french fries, dragging them through a small pond of ketchup as we browsed the crowd, assaying individuals as if they were specimens to identify. This was a favorite pastime for killing an hour in the old Memorial Hall cafe between classes.
Anna was a very sweet Catholic girl. She had been drawn to John because of his genius; he spoke six languages before he ever enrolled in college. Anna, being the sweet Catholic girl that she was, practically short-circuited when John had told her that he was gay, but had recovered nicely and had become something of "ward" of John.
" Hi Asa!," she greeted me. " John, I have to ask you this super huge big favor. Would you and Asa be my R.A. program?"
"Does this involve high heels?" John quipped.
"NO! It's perfectly legit. I need a program for the Resident Advisors for Brumby Hall and I thought I'd make it gay.
"You want us to turn Brumby Hall gay?" I had to get a word in this.
"No! I want you two to come to the program and answer questions about being Gay on campus."
"That wouldn't be very exciting, Anna. The University of Georgia is hardly a hotbed of the homo-erotic," John explained.
" Maybe not," she conceded. "But you two are. I mean, people are curious, you know."
"Yeah, I guess. Are we like the main course of the program?"
"You are the program."
" I'd hate to be just a cheese course you know, a dessert maybe. I guess main course is okay," I joined in.
We were then told that our part in this program she had planned was to come on after she spoke on gay students and how R.A.'s might need to deal with problems specific to gay students. We would provide the answers for a question period afterward. It seemed simple enough.
"How many people?" I asked.
"Probably twelve to twenty."
"Great!"
We pledged to be at Brumby Hall at 7:00 the following week and thought little else about it until John and I got together and walked to the dormitory to meet up with Anna about fifteen minutes early.
Anna was waiting as we approached the building. With lots of 'shooshes' she ushered us into a side fire door where there were several young women in a huddle who kept glancing at us.
"Okay. There's good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?" I played.
"The good news is that I have gotten a lot of interest in my project."
"Great!" said John. "And the bad?"
"The bad news is that it has gotten a lot of interest. I mean, a lot of interest. Peep around that door, but be careful not to be seen."
We did as ordered. There had to be two hundred people sitting and standing throughout the lobby. I noticed several large cameras. There was a microphone and two empty chairs placed before it. Those must be our seats, our seats facing a semicircle of two hundred people.
"This is twelve people?" I asked.
"What the hell?" John muttered.
"Okay" I said to John. "Two options: One, we slip back out this side door and leave Anna here to safely wipe the egg off her face. Two, we go announce that we are founding a gay lib movement."
"Except for option two, I think you may be on to something," John said.
"No! Think about it." I asked. "I'm sure that enough people already have our names so anonymity being blown is already a gimme. That said, we can come out of this and maybe do some some good or we turn tail and become famous as the two queers who shit their pants and ran home crying."
"I won't be alone?" John looked at me.
"I'm in til death do us part."
"Which will be in aproximately twenty minutes."
Somehow we followed Anna out into the lobby where all had been prepared.
Anna spoke about two minutes that how in the spirit of helping R.A.'s understand different races and cultures that the subject of being a gay student was being presented.
I got up. It was a defining moment in my life. I spoke of being gay, of being normal, but mostly they heard that John and I had decided to start a Gay group on campus, the Committee On Gay Education, and announced a time and place for an organizational meeting.
We never did become an "official student group" that year. The University never granted us "official" staus. I spoke wherever I was requested. I spoke mostly to students in Social Sciences, but spoke with groups with other interests as well. I figure I spoke before over two thousand students and faculty. I even addressed a Council of Churches and a Socialists' Rally.
We did win two injunctions against the University of Georgia and had a gay dance attended by five hundred people. We did host a weekend of seminars for the Southeastern Gay Alliance. I did get my own F.B.I. monitor and some weird guy that I always suspected was from the Governor's office stalked me.
I joined with other student groups and worked doing some draft counseling for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, a lot of seminars and marches for Women's Rights, and dodged around a lot. I never felt safe for my person more than a few days at a time and stayed with friends for a day or two, here and there.
I never finished my degree. In those days, if you were openly Gay, you were not hired for a job, not one that required a degree at any rate.
I wouldn't change one damn thing even if I could.
Photo courtesy of Paula Smith, a proud PFLAG mom. Newspaper article by the Red and Black, the daily newspaper of The University of Georgia.