GAYS ON HAY!

[February 27th, 2002] Who the hell is Harry Hay?

A queer pioneer, Harry is the major architect of the modern gay-rights movement and the genius behind the first successful gay-rights organization, the Los Angeles-based Mattachine Society, which he founded in November 1950. He's our Rosa Parks.

So you'd expect every homo in P-town to know the 411 on this fabulous figure, right?

Well, you'd be wrong.

A casual sampling of Southwest Stark Street's most illustrious night-lifers tells me that some of our most out-there brethren don't have a clue when it comes to our collective history--or at least don't have any idea who started the whole ball rolling.

For example Meesha Peru, one of Portland's most titled drag queens, swore to me at her weekly Silverado shindig that Hay had to be that "guy in the Harry Potter movie."

Likewise, Misha Rockafeller, another super-busy (and somewhat dizzy) drag queen, was completely stumped when the same question was posed. "I'm the trivia queen," said Misha, "but I have no idea who he is. His name sounds like one of the nearly naked, bushy guys I met at Mardi Gras."

DJ Alex, who spins his disco-flavored discs at Panorama, got a wee bit closer when he thought Harry might be a "mayor of some town." But, leave it to Kurt, a 27-year-old Silverado stripper/philosophy student, to come up with the only response that even remotely resembled the correct reply. "He's a liberal of some sorts," said the hunky dancer. "Isn't he a right-wing Democrat?"

Well, at least you got half the answer right, my dear Kurt. Harry is a liberal, but I don't think you could ever consider him a conservative friend of Bill and Hillary.

The truth is, Harry's a complex individual. And the confines of this column don't allow me to do him any sort of justice. That's why I am glad we all have an opportunity to learn more this Sunday when Eric Slade presents his compelling documentary Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay at the Hollywood Theatre.

Starting with his love affair with the Communist Party (and actor Will Geer--a.k.a. television's Grandpa Walton), the film lets old, but very much alive, Harry reflect on his life. The documentary covers everything from his wedding a woman (he considered himself a gay man throughout his entire marriage) to his co-founding the hippy, dippy Radical Faeries. It's a sweet film, and everyone who considers himself a freethinking homosexual should see it. If we don't, who else is going to tell our history to our children?

Slade's documentary of Hay will be screened at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 2 pm Sunday, March 3. $8 advance, $10 door (movie); $20 advance, $25 door (movie and reception). Tickets available at Gai-Pied and In Other Words bookstores.