Allen Roskoff’s never been afraid to voice his opinion. Well, that’s not true. Like so many of the lavender set, the New York-based activist once hid in the closet, but found himself out and proud after falling in with the Gay Activist Alliance, one of our city’s first post-Stonewall rights groups.
Now, as president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Roskoff remains one of the most progressive activists this side of the Mississippi. In fact, it was an email from Roskoff that spurred the following exchange with our editor.
Some of you may recall last week’s story about anti-gay “cult” Aesthetic Realism. Well, Roskoff wrote to us and regaled us with tales of how he and his GAA pals used to rail against the group.
Always intrigued by tales of homo history, we asked Roskoff if he’d like to elaborate for you, our darling readers. And he graciously agreed.
Read what Roskoff has to say about the Realism movement, gay activism’s golden years, why homos need to stop cheering for Hillary Clinton, how Barney Frank and HRC do more harm than good, and why Barack Obama must be the Democratic nominee – after the jump, naturally.
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Andrew Belonsky: First, Allen, I want to get a little background on you. I know you worked with the Gay Activist Alliance, but what was your political awakening?
Allen Roskoff: My political awakening was the Vietnam War and Bella Abzug. I was totally taken with Bella. I mean, I started out anti-war and Bella was leading the anti-war movement, but I wasn’t out of the closet then. I was struggling with being gay since I was – god, since I was about ten years old. Younger than that! And then I went to a meeting of the GAA and within a very short period of time, I think a few weeks, I was chair of the Municipal Government Committee. And tasked with co-authoring and lobbying the Gay Rights Bill.
AB: So activism really helped you come out?
AR: Yeah. I mean, until I went to the GAA, I had never been open about being gay. I had never talked about it with anybody and I was never around openly gay people. I remember riding around the block and then I called to ask them if anyone would bother me. And then I rode around the block again a few times just to see what kind of people were going in. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!
AB: That meeting must have dispelled some stereotypes you held.
AR: It was great! I walked in and there was Arthur Bell to greet me. I was totally at home. And they got me to come back the next night. And within a few weeks I had moved to the village and my whole life changed.
AB: And you were gay, gay, gay.
AR: Yep. Mister Gay!
AB: The reason you and I are talking right now is because of the Aesthetic Realism piece Queerty wrote about last week. Can you tell me that story – about the zap that you did?
AR: Well, first of all, you should know that they had their headquarters; I think it was 67 Jane Street. Apparently Eli Siegel lived there and they got thrown out and they had a petition protesting and everybody in the neighborhood was signing it, because nobody knew who they were. They just talked about Eli Siegel being this great philosopher and all that. And they used to walk around with these little buttons – white buttons with black letters that said “Victim of the Press.†People came over to them and sympathized, because people didn’t know what “Victim of the Press†meant. It was basically, obviously stereotypical gay men with women and the women were claiming them and the men were trying to behave as straight people.
AB: So it was really one of the original ex-gay movements?
AR: Yeah. Exactly.
AB: Do you know if they had any sort of conversion exercise or anything like that?
AR: I don’t know, but they were telling the gay men that it was unnatural to be homosexual. Only opposites could attract in art and in life. The whole philosophy was about opposites, and of course that meant that homosexuality was wrong. I guess they matched up or convinced men – whenever I saw a woman with a button, I would say, “What’s the matter, you can’t find a straight man?†I detested these people. I mean, they were the ex-gay people.
AB: What year was this?
AR: It must have been ’73 or ’74. Something like that – mid-seventies.
AB: What’s your take on the climate in New York today? We have a number of gay organizations – we have Stonewall Foundation, your organization. Do you think all of these are effective?
AR: When I got involved in the movement, everybody was progressive. We were all fighting for gay rights, we had demonstrations, we did same-sex dancing at the Rainbow Room, we got the regulations changed – up until that incident, it was against regulation for same-sex couples to dance any place that had a cabaret license. We did really tremendous things and everybody was in sync; everybody was fighting for our rights, we were all against the war in Vietnam, we were all in tune with the anti-racism fight. It was a totally great place to do your politics. We were a very progressive movement. Now I find the movement much more mainstream. I think we have a lot of professional gays now – people who are involved in politics, where the politics come first before the idealism and the commitment.
AB: Well, some people could say that “idealism†doesn’t get as much done. You have to be realistic and work within the system.
AR: I’ve been part of the system, but I’ve never compromised like most people compromise. I’ve worked for elected officials and if I had an official who took an incorrect position on something that I disagree with, I would publicly disagree with that person, I would not defend that person. I would tell them that they’re out on their own. What you have now is you have people defending Hillary Clinton’s position on being against marriage. Instead of saying, “No, she’s absolutely wrong and it’s reprehensible,†you’re having people saying, “The climate’s not right; she’s doing as much as she can; she’s the element for change.â€
AB: But Allen, if the Democrats – Clinton or Barack Obama – were to say, “I believe 100% that gays should get married,†that would take away a huge number of voters who would otherwise vote Democratically.
AR: What I’m saying is that we should be more honest about where the candidates are. I had to make a choice. I had to vote and I voted for Obama. I think he’s the better of the two, but you don’t see me running around saying Obama’s great for the community. He’s not great and neither is she, so I had to take other things into consideration. I’m really tired of the cheerleading for people who don’t deserve the cheerleading. Accept the people for where they are and say why you’re supporting them without trying to sell damaged goods for reasons that don’t exist.
Leland Frances
Roskoff is one of the survivors of in-your-face activism, B.A. [Before AIDS] who deserve a great deal of respect and gratitude totally disproportionate to how little name recognition he has outside of NY, and too little is known today by gays of all ages about those days. Can anyone remotely imagine Joe Solmonese or his predecessor who turned HRCF into an impotent money mad Borg, Elisabeth Birch, literally wrestling a Presidential candidate’s staffer to the floor as NGLTF cofounder Bruce Voeller did in a zap co-organized by Roskoff of George McGovern’s NYC headquarters in 1972 as others chained themselves to its switchboard from which they began to call every mainstream newspaper and TV station to announce their takeover? Can you imagine the leader of ANY national or state LGBT group doing that today? Of course, you can’t and that’s one of the main reasons why we are still second-class citizens 36 years later.
With so much experience and wisdom within him, it’s sad to see someone like Roskoff [who as far as one knows isn’t simply driven by the unquenchable thirst for revenge that David Mixner obviously is] be taken in by the synthetic siren song of the Dali Obama. True, one might read what he said as, “Obama is the lesser of two evils,†but there is a curious and disingenuous focus on Sen. Clinton’s statements about gay marriage while failing to mention Obama is also opposed and has repeatedly ceded control of the word to homophobic religionists, lecturing us on our lack of gratitude for his willingness to grant us Obama’s Super Duper Civil Unions even as he disagrees with his own denomination’s unique support for full equality. THAT would be “being more honest about where the candidates are.â€
And is it the mental damage caused by apparently having seen Ethan Geto naked that causes him to remember Obama’s first dropping of the G-word as “[addressing] our community†when the entirety of what he said was, “and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States.†That’s the equivalent of saying, “Some of my best friends are gayâ€â€”the kind of pusillanimous pandering that a gay war horse like Roskoff was rightfully stomping on decades ago! Has this often excellent historian of our movement forgotten that Jesse Jackson included gays in his litany of groups making up “the American quilt†and, again, as a part of â€the Rainbow Coalition,†adding explicitly that, “No American citizen ought be denied equal protection from the law†in HIS Democratic National Convention keynote TWENTY-FOUR YEARS BEFORE Obama’s pussyfooting?
Roskoff is either guilty of “trying to sell damaged goods for reasons that don’t exist†or he’s another one of those who constantly “hear†things that Obama does NOT say, such as almost never joining “rights†or “equality†with the word gay when he sprinkles it here and yon? Has the “New York-based†movement veteran been out of town every year Sen. Clinton has marched in its Pride Parade, showing, as she did at the link below, that she’s NOT “afraid of getting taped.â€
SEN. CLINTON’S PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR LGBTs ON VIDEO: cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=1749986n
Did he miss entirely the stories of Obama’s refusal to be photographed with the one straight Democratic official most associated with gay marriage equality, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom—even as Newsom was helping Big O2 raise money for his US Senate campaign?
It’s not surprising that he’s unaware that Obama has repeatedly lied about sponsoring/passing Illinois’ LGBT rights law—because gay media have either ignored the truth or printed the lies.
But did someone with Roskoff’s fine sense of smell of bullshit not go dizzy when he read Obama’s obvious backtracking on his promises to fight to overturn DADT in his second “Please Save My Ass†Advocate interview? Opposition to DADT wouldn’t be a “litmus test†for Obama’s military Chiefs of Staff? He insisted during the PA debate that, as Commander-In-Chief, he would demand that any Iraq invasion loving general follow his orders about withdrawal. But he doesn’t even have the nomination yet, let alone the keys to the White House, and he’s already waving a white Obama 2008 t-shirt with “I surrender on DADT†written on it.
Yes, we, too, miss the days of demanding more of our candidates. But Roskoff can’t excuse his failure to do his homework on Obama just because Sen. Clinton is a subject he’s been studying for a long time. And if he applied the same Politically Pure From the Womb standard to the long-publicly closeted Janis Ian that he does to Sen. Clinton he would not have posed with Ian for the picture above or been friends and crafty coconspirator for the greater good with the previously long-closeted Geto—who, last I looked, was a Sen. Clinton advisor.
Charley
agree with everything Roskoff says, and I didn’t know about him. I knew Jack Nicols of the New York 70’s period, although I was closeted lving in Dublin Ireland when the activism was happening. I have always been a liberal and did support McGovern, however.
michael smith
Thanks No. 1 for keeping the whole truth upfront. The one thing I totally agree with Allen on is that I am tired of cheerleading politicians who really do not support full equality for LGBT’s. Dr. King would have never accepted such compromises. But the civil rights movement had the passion and conviction behind it of those it represented. Its more difficult for we that are LGBT. People of colour did not have their own families, their own churches, synagogues, places of worship, and even sometimes their own friends against them as we often do. We are often forced to travel the road of self discovery and acceptance alone. The Allen Roskoffs of the world bring tears to my eyes. To love ones own people enough to spend your lifetime fighting for them is the ultimate virtue. I wish all of we who are gay could learn to really love each other and ourselves. Because when that happens, we will be a force to be reckoned with and we will win this fight. We are not second class anything. We are human beings who are what we are because something greater than all of us wanted it and still wants it that way and when all of know that with the utmost conviction, we will tap into that power and will take our place in the sun. Mr Roskoff reminds us to never believe that we deserve anything less.
Mauricio
Enough of this nonsense! All of you. We see in both, together, what we need. I say Hillary/Obama, yes, a good ticket for 2008. No more “anger”,”mudd pies” or “revelations” here. Both made promises, both will keep each other in check and working for fairness. What do you want? Mrs. Rice in the Gop ticket before we wake up? Hillary is ready, Obama is young. (..and I voted for O, btw. I wanted to let him keep talking. I am glad that he does.)
M Shane
Great interview Andrew: Like Charley i hadn’t even heard of Roskoff before but stand in admiration of him as the only voice that will lead us in an authentic and empowered direction. He held on to Gay Liberation where all of the assimilationist nut jobs, led by pied piper A.Sulivan and Baurer , lead our clause over the cliff.
Also, I’m glad that somone with authority is pointing out what a phony Clinton is regarding gay issues and how didmally mislead people are.
Again. the interview was well constructed and you asked the right questions. Kudos.
M Shane
p.s. correction: I “stand in admiration of him as being one of the of the only Voices” : not “the only voice”. I think he respresents a whole line of thought still connected with the reality. of who we are.
luc Dyrkacz
Now, wait, Mr. Roskoff is a professional gay. Every job he ever had was to be the “gay liasion” to this or that. Don`t talk about Blacks, Jews, Gays and Lesbians, or any other identifiable groups`s members who “live off ” their group identification as “heros” or “leaders” or “pioneers”. There were many members and, yes, leaders of the GAA or other Gay or Lesbian Groups that who never made a dime off being gay unlike Allen Roskoff, Tom Duane, Debbie Glick, Gale Brewer, etc. This is like certain members of my ethnic group who serve on a board “because of ethnic pride” yet all have PAID JOBS in non-profits that our in turn funded by the larger group`s board they sit on.
I am not going to list gay leaders of groups who never got a PAID JOB as a gay liasion, but these are the true heros and leaders, and no, they never “sold” an endorsement for office like, do I have to name names?