Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

male By Frank Conner For research in to the changing attitudes toward the motorcycle as a masculine symb ol , I wen t to the peop le for wh om the symb ol once held th e greatest im p ort an ce in the old d ays: the homosexuals. I interview ed th ree "gay" rid ers living in the Los Angeles area - a 37 -year-old gay m otorcycle club m em ber who is heavily in to leather and sado-masochism; a 28-year -ol d st reet-rid ing graduate of gay liberatio n; and an I8-year-old bisexual motocross racer. Each rider agreed to discuss freely his att itudes toward sex and motorcycles, if I would disg uise his identity in the article. Mike 6 Mik e and I were sprawled in comfo rtable chai rs upstairs in a gay dis co in North Hollywood. Be neath us the rock beat was heavy enough to ge t lost in side, the ligh ts flashed an d glittered, an d the d an cers flew or flowed or jiggled - acc ord in g to their moo ds . Mike was tal l, slender, dark-haired in te nse and aggre ssively m ascu lin e. He di d n 't lo ok 28 . Downstai rs he had been the object of he avy flirt in g. I as ked , "Are yo u gay or bis exu al?" " Defintely gay . I tried it with wo m en a few tim es. " He shoo k h is head . " Noth ing." " Wha t kind of wo r k do y ou do ?" .. Acco un lin g. I rep ort to the com p trolle r in t he paren t ' co m pany of a conglo m erate ... "Could you get fire d if th ey fo und out you were gay ?" "Nope. When I ap plied for the jo b , I sai d in my resume that I was gay," "Yo u must have given tha t a lot o f th ou gh t. " ' "Not real ly . These da ys it's ho w y o u handle you rsel f, If you let people kn ow that bei ng gay is just a p art o f wh o you are , t hey 're us ual ly willin g t o acce pt yo u. " "When did y o u start telling y our employers what your scene was?" " In New York. I go t involved in gay liberati on. " "You 'd been u p ti gh t about being gay?" " That 's pu t ting it m ildl y. But after gay , lib I could start coping wit h it. After y ou've demonstrat ed a few tim es - de m an ding yo ur rig hts as a h u man being - in front of riot cops and politicians , it chan ges y ou r outlo ok." "Are you into S&M?" "You mean b ec au se of the motorcycle?" "Yeah. " " No , not me . I' m gay an d I lik e to ride bikes, b u t I don 't mix th e two. Leather and whi ps an d th at k ind o f th ing ju st doesn ' t in te re st m e." "Do y ou lik e gay bars?" " This one's okay , but I hate m o st o f th em. They 're so uptigh t - even when everybod y ' s l au gh in g. Bitchy quee ns . . . chit, chit, chit, ch it ." "Do yo u spend m uch time in gay bars?" "Yeah , My lover likes them . And somet imes I go by myself when I wa nt to score a one-nigh t stan d . But I' m just no t co m fo rtable arou n d queens." "Why not? You d on 't wa n t people to put yo u down fo r d oing yo ur thing. Why put down th e queen s for do ing theirs? " "It's no t the same t hing. I'm a man; I act like a man. They're men , too, but they wan t to ac t lik e women . The wh ole thing turns m e off." " Do esn 't it take a lo t m o re co urage to fa ce th e p u blic as a TV (transves tite) quee n than it does to p ass for st raight?" "Yeah, but th at 's no t th e p oint. Th ey 'r e ju st causin g trou bl e for us all. " "Bu t wh o starte d gay liberation ?" " You mean th e Stonewall rio t?" "Uhu h , Who were the rio ters?" " Street people. Heavy d opers . So me o f them were h u stlers . I gu ess m ost of the m were queens. " " Were y o u aro un d w he n that was ha p pe ni ng? " " Yeah. So me of it was p retty scarey - bu t it was a tremend o us hi gh, too." " What kind of m o to rcy cle do you ride?" " CB-75 0." " Ha d you co me out before y ou starte d riding? " " No , I gu ess n ot. I go t m y firs t moto rcycle when I was 16 - .it was a Hond a. and I didn 't have m y first sexual ex perience un til I was 19. " "W as th e mo torcycle a m asculinity trip fo r you?" HI don 't know- Maybe. " " What kinds of pe ople wer e b uy ing their first s tr ee t bi kes in those d ays ?" "Mm m m ... 19 6 3. I ca me from a sm all ci ty in th e Midwest , Bike s were ju st beginnin g to show up o n th e st re et in those days. Seems t o m e m ost of t he new riders were just kid s - 16 to 19 , ma ybe - like me ." " Did you get t o kn ow any of them ?" UA few. " "What were they like?" " They we re just guys. A little sh y" maybe - like me. " " Did they keep on being sh y ?" , " No , th ey didn 't. Nei ther di d I. I tra de d m y Honda for a Bonnie, an d I pu t reve rse -cone rnegs on it. Turned in to a st reet rac er , until I d am n nea r lo st m y licen se ... " What kind of ridi n g do y o u do th ese days?" mosexual "W eekend to u rin g, stuff li ke t hat, wh en eve r I' ve got t he t im e. My lover do esn' t like bikes, so .. . .. " Do you ever go touring with ot her gay riders?" " No , like I to ld you, I d on't m ix motorcycle s with sex . So me times I'll pi ck up a tri ck in a ba r and take him along as a pas senger." " Have you eve r go tten off a bi ke ?" .. Few ti mes, just a fter I lea rn ed how to ride. But I've been a t it for 12 vcars, now. So metimes 1 like to go fast. 'b u t I know my bike, a nd what I can do wi th it. and what to watch o u t For." "Why do you like touring? " "I don 't know. Maybe it's beca use I've always got the choice between be ing a n ex plorer and be ing a race r. I can switch back a nd fo rth . I can jus t ride alo ng an d ta ke in th e sce nery. Wh en I'm in the moun tain s I can crank it on and pl ay with th e ro ad. Rid ing gives m e everything I need." Charlie We sat in a coffee sho p near th e beach . Ch arlie lo o ked a lo t lik e the o t her I 8-y ear-olds in the p lace. Sho rt, le an h ardco re-s u rfer tan, su n bl each e d hair cascading down his back, len t-size shirt, droopy cu to ffs, and te n n is shoes without socks. Ch arli e was tellin g m e abou t th e lo w-b udget LTR su rgery he wan ted to perform o n h is 250 Elsinore . Mo ney was t igh t . We talked abou t S&Ws versus Konis, and then I sa id , "Yo u 're bisexu al. " In a flat regist er he ans we red, .. Yeah , I guess you co uld say th at." " Yo u d on' t like t he wo rd ?" " I d on't lik e the la bel. 11, e only label I wear says 'C harlie ,' a nd so metimes I change that o ne." " What 's w ro ng wit h ' bise xua l'?" "A ll lab els - th ey're all ba d. If you're into wearing label s - ' Tm this,' 'I'm th at ' - you ca n never get away wi th j us t o ne o r two . You e nd up wi th 30 or 4 0 - o r 3 0 0 or 400." " Yo u d o ?" " Yeah . And whenever y o u feel lik e do ing so m ethin g, first you have to look down and read al l those labels. Yo u have to d ecide, 'Wou ld a guy wearing th is set of label s feel okay ab o u t doing this t hi ng ? ' So y o u en d up mi ssing o ut on m ost of it. You get hung up abou t every thing. .. _ " Yo u don 't wear lab els?" "No. Then I'm free to try wh at ever co m es along, to see if I'll lik e it. What I was doing yes terday, or last year, m ak es no di fferen ce ." "Do your fr iends know wh at y ou r se x trips are?" "I don 't know. So m e probably do some probabl y d on 't. Depends on wh at tri ps th ey 're into. Mo st of 'e m j ust don't care. Oh, mayb e sometime we 're sitting aro u nd here bored, an d so me bo dy'll say, ' I wonder if Chris is gettin g it on with Jimmy .. or so me thing like th at.... " The n y ou take ap art C h ri s ' repu tation ?" " No, man, they're jus t curio us. Doesn 't m ean all tha t m uch . The impo rtant thing to u s is, do we like being a ro und Chris, a nd party ing with him, an d alL" "Doe s everybody in your crowd thin k th at way ?" "Pro bab ly not. A fe w of the m are all hu n g u p abo ut every th ing . Some are hu ng up about t h is or that. It depends." "Did you sta rt out wi th girls or guys?" " I go t it on with a girl who lived dow n th e st ree t when we wer e ho th 13." "Did yo u dig it ? " "No t the firs t ti me . I was scar ed, and sh e was too. I was just glad to find out I co uld d o it. But after t ha t . . . wow!" " When d id you sta rt turning o n to gu ys ? " "Fi ft een. There was this guy in my class I went su rfing with a lo t. One d ay we start ed fo o lin g aro und ." " What do you ge t out of sex wi th guys?" " Same kind of thing I get out o f sex with girls. You ca n get real close t o some body , and t hen you get you r ro cks off. Th ere 's so me thin gs I can d o with gu y s that 1 can't do with gir ls - an d vice ve rsa bu t I th in k th ere 's m o re diffe ren ce b e tween particula r people th an there is between t he sex es. " " Wha t kind o f role do y o u pl ay wi th gu ys ? Active or passive ?" " De pe n ds o n what mood I'm in rig ht th en, and wh at m o od he's in . Sa me th in g with girls. We 'r e all jus t people: Som e girls re all y dig getti ng it on wi th a lo ose bisexu al, be cause he's been where th ey arc." "Can pe ople tell what y o u r sce ne is, jus t by watching you ?" " Yo u m ean be cause I have a high voi ce, a n d ' I d o n 't lo o k real m asc uline, an d m y hair is long? Sh it, m an , lo o k arou nd you. This p lace is full of gu ys who lo o k just like m e. So me o f t he m are straight, so me are bi, an d a fe w are strictl y gay . Yo u 've be en a ro u nd; can you tell wh o 's wh o ?" UN o, I gues s n ot." " Maybe so m e gu y who's on a heavy mach o trip sees me, and he says, ' Lo ng-hai r hippie fag.' He doesn ' t know me; he do esn 't know my trip . Wha t he 's reall y saying is, 'Please tum th e clock back a nd ge t you r hair cu t an d play su perstud, like t he y tau gh t me to pl ay.' He kn ows th e rul es have chan ged , and he doesn 't know how to pla y by the new rul es, an d h e can ' t handle th at." "Do you ge t it on with any of th e other moto cro ss racers?" " Do yo u think m any o ther racers are into your trip?" " I don 't know an ything about anybody I don 't go to bed with m yself. Most of my frie n ds live a ro u nd here , and they 're surfers. Some of them have street bikes . So me ride in th e desert. Most of th e racers I see are at racetracks, and I d on 't go around ask in g them, 'Hey , man, wherc 's your head at .abo u t sex ?, ',' C . . 1 , ... t: , • J

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