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Title
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[Letter from Edra Bogle to Jerry Stout, June 13, 1977]
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Identifier
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MSS380_letter_19770613
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Type
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Letters
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Manuscripts
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Date
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6/13/1977
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Description
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Letter from Edra Bogle to Jerry Stout, editor of the Denton County Enterprise, responding to his confusion over the push for gay rights. Bogle explains the discrimination and harassment that comes with being openly gay in this time period and how changing laws and ordinances can help to stop this.
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Originally formed as the Texas Gay Task Force, the TGLTF was the first statewide gay/lesbian organization in Texas. Organized in 1973 for the purpose of planning annual conferences (until 1990), the TGLTF served as the parent organization for the Lesbian/Gay Democrats of Texas and the Lesbian/Gay Rights Advocates.
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Subject
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force
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Bogle, Edra
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Stout, Jerry
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Format
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2 pgs.
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Language
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en
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Rights
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Materials may not be used without permission. For more information, contact us at (940) 898-3751 or womenshistory@twu.edu.
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Is Part Of
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force Records, 1970s-1991.
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Accrual Method
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Gift
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Provenance
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Bogle, Edra
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extracted text
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[redacted]
June 13, 1977
Mr. Jerry B. Stout, Editor
Denton County Enterprise
[redacted]
Dear Mr. Stout,
In your June 12 “Reflections” column, you state: “I really don’t understand why gays are seeking rights through ordinances.” As a gay woman whose home is in Denton, perhaps I can help you see why.
First it is necessary to distinguish between overt sexual acts, which as you state are against the law in Texas, and all other aspects of one’s life. For most homosexuals, as for most heterosexuals, the proportion of time spent in actual acts is extremely small compared to one’s time spent at work, meeting friends, and in all other aspects of living. It is to these other activities that the ordinances against discrimination adress themselves. Even persons who do not commit illegal sexual acts at all can be discriminated against at present, as can “straights” who are wrongly suspected of a homosexual orientation. Also, any other group has the right to seek to change laws by peaceful means. If gays identify themselves enough to try to change laws against homosexual acts, they are again subject to losing their jobs, their housing, and their straight friends.
It shouldn’t be necessary to explain why any group would prefer not to be discriminated against. But one point on which there seems to be confusion is, as my mother recently asked, “Why would you people want to flaunt your sex preferences?” There is a difference between acknowledging something and flaunting it. What we want is the right to reveal ourselves as gays without consequences merely from the revelation. A few examples might explain why.
Last winter I was walking down the hall at work. No one was around. I realized I was feeling very relaxed because no one was watching and I didn’t have to be careful how I walked or what I looked at. “How wonderful it would be,” I thought, “to feel this way all of the time.” Can you imagine being guarded all the time, choosing clothes for how well they will delude other people, and watching your conversation nearly every minute of your life? No wonder we like to be with others like ourselves, with whom we can be honest. But when we go somewhere together, a group of the same sex is under suspicion too. I’m sick of feeling watched and judged every minute!
Youth is a difficult time for most people, but for gays it tends to be worse. Realizing that one does not conform to the pattern of one’s age group, during a time when one wants to conform, leads to guilt and insecurity in itself. Religion and family pressures add to these feelings. And lack of older models with whom one can identify adds to the pressure.If young people knew the business and professional leaders in in town and in the country who are gay, they would be more able to realize that they too can lead worthwhile, full lives. Anybody who
stays gay in a society such as ours will be for many years is not doing so just on a whim. It is not in the best interests of society in general, let alone of these young people, to make them feel they must be less than their potential allows.
Most homosexuals of either sex whom I know want a long-term relationship, the equivalent of marriage. Some have it. Many do not. One has a small group people from whom to choose when one cannot recognize most of the gays one meets, so may not find an appropriate person. If one does, everything is against stability. How many heterosexual marriages would last if, every year that the couple was together, people grew more suspicious? If there could never be the slightest expression of affection before others. If the families probably did not know, or knowing, disapproved?
These are only a few of the aspects of life which are made unnecessarily and uselessly difficult for us. There are a number of aspects of most people's lives with which other people do not agree. Homosexuals are not asking for approval, but for tolerance, for the kind of freedom that other Americans of minority beliefs are allowed.
Two years ago I would not have written this letter. Last year I would not have signed my name. This year I must ask that it not be revealed, lest my friends and my employer be upset and indeed ostracized. Things are indeed changing. I hope that too much more human sacrifice is not required before civil rights for gays are established as a matter of right, not of privilege.
Sincerely yours,
Edra Bogle
