A Hatemongering Pastor Runs For NYC Mayor

James David Manning, the pastor of the Atlah World Missionary Church in Harlem, has recently announced that he is running for mayor of New York, declaring that as mayor he would (unilaterally) eliminate local sales tax and raise the minimum wage to $27.

Over the years, the church's outdoor message board has posted numerous homophobic, racist, and false statements like the one that said, "YOU VOTED FOR OBAMA AND HE TURNED YOUR SONS GAY, TURNED HARLEM WHITE, EMPTIED CHURCHES, FILLED SHELTERS WITH WOMEN & CHILDREN."

Such wild and misleading statements have prompted others in the community to tie handwritten signs to the church's fence that said, " Hate Is Not A Community Value" and "Hate Breeds Violence," and to organize a picket line whose participants represented the city's diversity.

It's hard to see anyone taking Pastor Manning's run for mayor seriously. It's also hard to believe anyone who calls themselves a true Christian being a member of this hatemongering church.

Give "Queer" The Boot

When I was on an elevator in an office building here in New York, it was either in the late seventies or early eighties, I rode with three other men. The one standing in front of me kept turning around to look at the two men standing in a corner. As soon as he got off on his floor, one of the men said to the other, "He must be a queer." Needless to say, he didn't use the word "queer" as a term of endearment. From then on the word "queer" has become cringeworthy.

I refrain from using it whenever possible because it's such an ugly word. Even dictionaries still describe it as offensive, as a pejorative. If the gay and lesbian community continue to embrace that word, they should also be willing to embrace "faggot," "bulldagger," "fairy," and "pansy." Like "nigger" and "kike," they are equally ugly, hateful, evil, and disparaging.

There are many highly educated gay men and lesbians. You would think someone within that segment of the gay and lesbian community could come up with terms that are more edifying and life-affirming. Trying to "reclaim" hurtful terms does not erase or sanitize their negative histories.

Note: This blog post originally appeared on my Facebook page on April 19, 2023. I've made a few minor changes.

Karmic Justice

The June 11, 2021 issue of The Week magazine published this item: "Good week for: karma, after a boatful of Memorial Day revelers on Washington state's Moses Lake shouted slurs and gave the finger to another boat that was flying Gay Pride flags. Minutes later, the harassers' boat exploded, and they swam to the other boat to be rescued while shouting 'Help us!'"

This item would make an excellent basis for a short story or film short.

Gays And Lesbians Were A Part Of "The Twilight Zone" Series

In one biography of television writer Rod Serling, it was stated that he was homophobic.If that was true, he obviously didn't let that keep him from hiring for his iconic science fiction/fantasy series The Twilight Zone those who were either gay or lesbian.

For example, Justis Addiss directed episodes for The Twilight Zone and Keogh Gleason designed sets for them. (Addiss's life partner was actor Hayden Rorke of the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.)

Among gay and lesbian actors who appeared in the show were Richard Deacon, Agnes Moorehead, James Daly, James Milhollin, Alan Sues, and Cesar Romero.

So if Serling was homophobic, he was a benevolent homophobe.

Note: Today is the beginning of Black History Month. 

A Street-Corner Escort Ad In Harlem

In Harlem, I've seen handbills attached to lampposts, mail boxes, storefront windows, and even on trees for a variety of reasons--to announce a death, to offer a reward for the return of a lost pet or wallet, steering people to employment opportunities or apartments for rent, etc. But I have never seen a handbill soliciting clients for an escort/massage service. This particular handbill was pasted to a lamppost at the corner of Lenox Avenue and 121st Street. The advertiser was a handsome young man named Jayson, age 19, of black/Puerto Rican heritage. At the bottom of the page was his phone number, in the 914 area code (presumably he was from Westchester County). His photo was at the top.

A few days after I saw Jayson's ad, someone--a homophobe, no doubt--came along and scratched out the phone number with a key or something sharp. This was in 2012. I recently checked that location. There is no trace of the handbill.

The closest  thing to this ad that I've seen was when I worked at the Mount Morris Baths in Harlem.
Some of the customers would write their name and phone number on the back of the door of the room they occupied.

Now that Harlem has become more gentrified and many more gays (and lesbians) are moving in (to the disapproval of the homophobic Atlah Church, down the street from where I saw the handbill), I expect to see more such advertising on lampposts, bus shelters, and on the side of buildings.

A Moment Of Silence For Gay Terror Victims

No doubt there will be a moment of silence during this year's Pride March in New York City to honor the dead and the injured in yesterday's terror attack at Pulse, the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Harlem Church's Foreclosure Auction Postponed

The sign outside Harlem's homophobic ATLAH Church had this gloating message: "WE KICKED THE SODOMITES ASS ONCE AGAIN YES WE HAVE NO FORECLOSURE WE HAVE NO FORECLOSURE TODAY."

A judge postponed the February 24 foreclosure auction until April 21, according to the Gay City News. So the church is not out of the woods yet.

Two LGBT Groups Interested In Acquiring Harlem Church

According to an article in  the Gay City News ("Sending a Message to the Hate Pastor of Harlem," February 18-March 2, 2016), homophobic pastor James David Manning's  Harlem-based ATLAH Church "has unpaid debts in excess of $1 million, including water and sewage charges owed to the city, in addition to overdue taxes and other liabilities."

The church is now in foreclosure and will be auctioned on February 24. The Ali Forney Center, an organization catering to homeless LGBT youth and the Rivers of Living Water Ministry, an LGBT church, are both interested in acquiring the property at the auction and have raised funds toward that goal.

Gay City News noted that Pastor Manning claimed that his church is tax-exempt, however he was unable to provide proof. "That particular status," reported GCN, "is reserved only for churches that use their space exclusively for public worship--Manning has mentioned that his church provides additional services as well, outside of prayer."

The ATLAH Church's messages of hate are so troubling that the church next door, Greater Bethel AME Church, has posted a sign above the door that says, "THIS CHURCH IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE CHURCH ON THE CORNER. WE SUPPORT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA."

Pastor Manning is right when he said that payback is a bitch.

There Are Many Gay Lifestyles

People should stop using the term "gay lifestyle" because like their heterosexual counterparts, gays and lesbians do not live cookie-cutter lives.

Lifestyle is about socio-economics, not sexuality. The many lifestyles of gays and lesbians of means are vastly different from the many lifestyles of gays and lesbians who are not so financially blessed.

People who use the term"gay lifestyle" do so as a way to deride and demonize a beleaguered, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multiracial community.

Homophobic Buffoonery At ATLAH Church

One word accurately describes both the weather and Rev. James David Manning's attitude toward the "Love Not Hate" demonstrators outside the ATLAH Church in Harlem on November 23--chilly.

For months  the church's outdoor message board carried homophobic rants like the one on display that evening--"YOU SODOMITES AND FREAKS HAVE SOILED HARLEM. BUT YE SHALL BE MOVED. PAYBACK IS A  BITCH."

As the ethnically and racially diverse demonstrators held anti-hate signs aloft, Rev. Manning , standing inside the church 's gate, under the watchful eye of the police, an open Bible in one hand, a microphone in the other, railed against his opponents. Next to him stood a handful of his congregants, silent witnesses to the high emotions on both sides of the gate.

For a while it was impossible to hear what he was saying because his voice was drowned out by the protestors shouting "Shame on You!" and "Love, Not Hate!"

A flyer was distributed among the 75 or 80 demonstrators that told them if Rev. Manning "responds to our rally in an aggressive and/or insulting manner, DO NOT ENGAGE HIM. LEAVE HIM BE. We don't want to give  ATLAH any of video of  'clash' [sic] they crave for their own purposes." But the demonstrators could not resist confronting Rev. Manning's open hostility. Especially when he called one female protestor "a witch" and beckoned to another one with "Come here, lesbo. Come here, lesbo." During all of this a male demonstrator sang We Shall Overcome. Rev. Manning mocked him by saying "Niggers are always singing We Shall Overcome." The demonstrator ignored him and kept on singing.

Rev. Manning's buffoonish behavior revealed him as unchristian and undignified. It made me wonder about the character of those who chose to join his church of hate.

An obviously unrepentant and unenlightened Rev. Manning now boasts on the message board that "NOVEMBER 23 [IS] A DAY TO REMEMBER WHEN JESUS VERBALLY STONED THE SODOMITES THAT ATTACKED ATLAH CHURCH."

What he fails to see is that his messages of hate have won the "Love Not Hate" rally organizers allies. Along Lenox Avenue some merchants have posted in their windows a blood-red "Love Not Hate" poster.

ATLAH, The Church Of Hate

Along Lenox Avenue in Harlem, from 110th to 125th Streets, there are numerous churches, of various denominations, large and small. The only one that consistently spews hatred toward gays and lesbians is the ATLAH Church. (The letters in the name could easily stand for Always Target Lesbians And Homosexuals.)

The latest homophobic rant on its outdoor message board has this warning: "YOU SODOMITES AND FREAKS HAVE SOILED HARLEM BUT YE SHALL BE MOVED. PAYBACK IS A BITCH. PSALMS 37:10-23."

In response to this demagoguery, an organization called Harlem Against Violence and Homophobia has scheduled a "Love Not Hate" rally that is to take place in front of the church. The rally will be on November 23, 2015, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

For further information, go to www.harlemagainstviolencehomophobia.mydagsite.com.

A Church Hides Behind The Word "Homo"

The illuminated message board outside the Atlah Church on Lenox Avenue and 123rd Street in Harlem had this pronouncement: "Say goodbye to black barber shops, churches and funeral homes to make way for homo gentrifier restaurants and condos." The frequent use of the word "homo" in the church's many messages over the past couple of years is code for "white people." Not wanting to be labeled racist, the church hides behind the homophobic slur because being anti-gay can be seen as following the teaching of the Bible.

Church Homophobia In Harlem

The following are my Facebook comments regarding the homophobic message board in front of the Atlah Church on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. The message on the message board advocated the stoning of  homosexuals. My comments on Facebook were posted on March 20, 2014. Regard this as the early draft of a longer essay on this issue.


"In the 1980s and '90s, such blatant homophobia would have been confronted by mass demonstrations. It seems like the LGBT community is too concerned with being mainstream and too mesmerized by the latest trivia on social media to get out in the streets and let their feelings be known, loud and clear. Alas, many of our boldest, as well as best and brightest, activists like poet/playwright Assotto Saint were mowed down by AIDS. Their absence has definitely weakened the resolve of the LGBT community. When a church states on its message board that 'Jesus Would Have Stoned Homos,' then it is time to carry picket signs while chanting 'Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go!'

One other thing, this church has a breakfast program for school-age children. It makes me wonder if they indoctrinate the children with homophobia as they serve them their morning cereal."

Thomas Glave's Fight Against Homophobia

Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent by Thomas Glave (University of Minnesota Press, Illustrated, 280 pp.)

Thomas Glave describes himself as "a Jamerican," a term reflecting his Jamaican and American backgrounds. As a result, Glave often has difficulty reconciling this dual identity. Traveling back and forth between the two countries, he often "[wonders] which passport to use on this trip or that one, Jamaican or U.S.--which citizen will I be this time (re-)entering 'my' country?"

The 17 essays in Words to Our Now, many of which were previously published in literary journals like Callaloo, deal with this vexing identity problem from the standpoints of race, identity, and sexual orientation. Glave, who teaches at the State University of New York at Binghamton, offers many disturbing examples of challenges to and attacks on a person's or a group's sense of identity. These attacks have taken the form of torture, rape, lynching, and homophobic murder.

One's self-worth and self-image, as well as how one moves through the world, is inextricably linked to culture, a social construct composed of customs and beliefs out of which a person's identity is formed. Historical and social circumstances also have their part to play in further determining how one sees oneself and those inside and outside the group.

Glave's lead essay, "Baychester: A Memory," is partly a remembrance of his Bronx childhood. In it he discusses his quiet, reflective Jamaican-born father, who lovingly tends to his vegetable garden. Glave reveals his love and reverence for the older man, but unfortunately he does not explore their relationship in any depth. His father sounds like a fascinating individual, who deserves more attention than is offered here. I wanted to know more about the roots of his tolerance of his son's sexuality, if he had himself developed a friendship with any gay men in his early life, and how he came to live in the United States. What we get instead is an essay that digresses to a discussion of black gay literature and a trip to Latin America.

Because of Glave's academic background, the prose is often overly ornate and convoluted. It's too bad that the notes in the back of the book are more straightforward and reader-friendly than the texts they are linked to. His two essays about gay murder victims, one of them written for a newspaper audience, are more readable, if a bit too graphic for the squeamish. In his tribute to his friend, Brian Williamson, a Jamaican activist and a founding member of J-FLAG, a local gay group, Glave describes Williamson "as a laughing man: a man with 'a head of silver coins' as I sometimes joked with him about his head of curly silver-gray hair."

Among the most interesting, thought-provoking and possibly controversial, essays is "Regarding a Black Male Monica Lewinsky, Anal Penetration, and Bill Clinton's Sacred White Anus," in which Glave offers a hypothesis, from a gay perspective: "[H]ow would the U.S. public feel about the possibility of a black penis entering President Clinton's (or president George W. Bush's, or any president's) white, presumably exclusively heterosexual anus?" What if the White House intern had been a black gay man instead of a white heterosexual female? In Glave's view, it would have undermined the popular notion of the U.S. presidency as "icon/symbol of white heterosexual maleness 'unpolluted' by either blackness (or any other color darker than whiteness) or homosexuality/queerness."

Throughout Words to Our Now, Glave hammers at the insanity of homophobia, in Jamaica and elsewhere. He sees it as fueling gay self-hatred. To persecute and kill gays and lesbians is to attack individuals who are a vital part of society and who daily "serve your food in restaurants, clean your streets, fix your cars, and bury your dead." In the end he prophesizes, "[t]he future world will rightly view Jamaica's hatred of homosexuals as the equivalent of Nazis' hatred of Jews...."

He also doesn't mince words when critiquing American foreign policy, which he sees as representing "the vicious neoimperialistic militarism of 'president' George W. Bush, a successful election thief and warmongering, would-be despot."

I share Glave's disdain for the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, but Glave would have been better off focusing on the lives and concerns of gays and lesbians in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean region. There is a dearth of material about this population. And Glave, who is also a fiction writer, could have provided us with a book of creative nonfiction, illuminating the lives of gays and lesbians using fictional techniques. That would have made the book much more valuable to general readers and scholars alike.

With that said, the most impressive and memorable essay in this Lammy-nominated collection is "Again, the Sea," which depicts African slaves throwing themselves overboard rather than be in captivity: "they knew once they jumped they would awaken back there, over there again from whence they had been taken/the sea provided them the chance.... We will not live forever in chains...." [Glave's italics] The Caribbean Sea "speaks" as the bodies splash into its waters: "One of you bobbed upon me with the strokes of a cruel whip upon your naked back, the scars of manacles on your wrists, and did I not slowly pull you into the nothingness that is utter calmness, the complete tranquility of nonbeing?" If there is ever an anthology celebrating the Caribbean Sea, I believe this would be one of the selections, which reveals Glave's love for and fascination with this part of the world.

Despite the aforementioned flaws, Words to Our Now, with some forbearance, yields a gay-positive, uplifting message. And that's something we can always use in these homophobic times.




This book review was previously published in the Gay City News (June 22-26, 2006) and the Gay and Lesbian Review (July/August 2006).

Mrs. Ralph Ellison's Gay Blind Spot

In Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray (The Modern Library, 2000), I came across this startling passage in a memo from Fanny McConnell, Ralph Ellison's wife, to Albert Murray*, dated June 9, 1952:

"We caught a glimpse of [filmmaker/anthropologist Maya] Deren Friday evening strolling along a [Greenwich] Village street with five men. I use the word 'men' euphemistically."

No doubt the five men she referred to were gay and probably effeminate. In 1950s America such homophobic statements could be uttered without the fear of censure or ostracism. Today, in our more enlightened (we hope) times, such language would be frowned at.

Ellison's wife was probably a very nice person but in this one area she had a blind spot.


*NOTE: Albert Murray, an essayist and a novelist, died in his Manhattan home on August 18, 2013, at the age of 97. Ralph Ellison, also an essayist and a novelist, died in 1994.

Committing Bullycide

TXT TK

I'm planning to post a short essay in this space regarding author Anthony Heilbut's use of the word "bullycide," in his lengthy essay about black gay men in the church which appears in his fascinating book, The Fan Who Knew Too Much.

AIDS Forum For Black Gays Slated For Black History Month (1984)

An ad hoc group of black gay and lesbian activists is sponsoring an AIDS forum to be held February 1 [1984] at Hunter College [in New York City]. The group was formed, said DeWitt Hoard, a social worker and group member, because they "had attended several symposiums and noticed that there was a lack of blacks in the audiences and among the symposium participants." This lack of participation is attributed by many to a widespread belief among black gay men, as well as the black community in general, that AIDS is a white disease, a perception fostered by the exclusive media attention given to white gay men with AIDS. The fact that 26 percent of those with AIDS are black is an indication that "we've been hit just as hard by this epidemic," said Isaac Jackson, another group member, "and it is vitally important that information be disseminated throughout our community."

The group decided  to hold this forum on the first of the month because it is the beginning of Black History Month, a date which becomes "quite significant," said Gwen Rogers, the forum's moderator, "when you consider that we, as black lesbians and gay people, certainly are concerned about all aspects of our oppression. This will be the opportunity for us to raise the issue of the struggle against AIDS, to raise the issue of AIDS as a health concern, to raise the demand that health care is a right, and to highlight the fact that as lesbians and gay people, we've certainly been a part of the struggle and this is a way to be very visible and active."

The ad hoc committee see the AIDS issue as being part of the overall concern for better health care delivery with the total black community. They also see the socio-economic ramifications of the AIDS epidemic. "We have seen a number of attempts," said Rogers, a psychologist, "either by people who are talking about funding for AIDS research or by other anti-gay people to say 'Why should there be funding for AIDS research when there isn't funding for sickle cell?'"

"Gay issues for blacks," said Hoard,"take a third stand and maybe even lower on the totem pole." There are people, he further said, who see this attitude as an indication of black homophobia, however Hoard sees it as more of "a prioritizing situation wherein the black community is many times focusing on employment and housing. I think," he continued, "it's important that somehow we begin to put all of the problems that we have within the black community together under an umbrella situation. Somewhat like under oppression because oppression certainly gets involved in unemployment, in housing, and it also gets involved in a situation like AIDS."

The forum, which is being co-sponsored by the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Hunter College, will deal with the following topics: "The medical Facts on AIDS," "AIDS and the Crisis in Black Health Care," "Social Services for People with AIDS," "The Impact of AIDS on the Haitian Community" ("There's been a great deal of racism," said Rogers, "that's been whipped up in terms of our Haitian sisters and brothers, primarily by the government and the press."), and "Personal Reflections of a Person with AIDS." There will be four panelists at the forum. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentations.

The forum is free of charge and open to the general public. It starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m. in Room 615 of the West Auditorium at Hunter College, located at Lexington Avenue and 68th Street, in Manhattan. The school is accessible to the IRT Lexington Avenue line.

Note: I wrote this article on January 15, 1984. It was subsequently published in the New York Native.

An AIDS Forum At Hunter College (1984)

An AIDS forum for black gays, sponsored by an ad hoc group of black gay and lesbian activists, was held on February 1 [1984] at Hunter College [in New York City]. One of the purposes of the forum was to counteract the widespread belief among black gay men, as well as the black community in general, that AIDS is a white disease, a perception fostered by the exclusive media attention given to white gay men with AIDS thereby causing blacks to take less of an interest in AIDS forums.

The first of the month was chosen because of its significance as the beginning of Black History Month. It would show, said Gwen Rogers, the forum's moderator, that black gays and lesbians were "concerned about all aspects of our oppression." The forum, she continued, provided "the opportunity for us to raise the issue of the struggle against AIDS, to raise the issue of AIDS as a health concern, and to raise the demand that health care is a right."

The audience, numbering between 90 and 100, some of whom were white, heard the following panelists: Leonard Brown, MD ("The Medical Facts on AIDS"); Raymond Jacobs, resident recreation therapist at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York ("Psychosocial Issues"); Jessie Cadet ("The Impact of AIDS on the Haitian Community"); and Bruce Hall, a black person with AIDS ("Personal Reflections of a Person with AIDS"). Also Diego Lopez, a social worker, who was called to speak at the last minute, expressed his concern for quality health care and asked the audience to help him and others to reach the black community with AIDS information.

The ad hoc committee while planning this forum, said Rogers, a psychologist, did "not view the AIDS crisis in isolation" but saw it as being part of the overall concern for better health care delivery within the total black community. They also saw the socio-economic ramifications of the disease, which, according to Dr. Brown, has a 40 percent mortality rate. Rogers saw the forum as something that will help unify the gay as well as the black community.

Much of the medical information given has been around awhile. Jessie Cadet's presentation was short and to the point: there is an urgent need for more money for AIDS research and the oppression of Haitian immigrants by U.S. officials must end.

The two speakers who gave the most interesting presentations, in terms of information, if not style, were Hall and Jacobs.

Hall, a 29-year-old ex-New Yorker, now living in Chicago, was diagnosed as having AIDS in September of 1983. He felt, following the diagnosis, that it was unfair for him to have come down with this disease, especially after several years of abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and sex with multiple partners. He is presently involved in a monogamous relationship and, although he and his lover have not refrained from having sex, they do not exchange body fluids. Hall is also in a self-imposed program of hypnosis, weight lifting (two 40-pound dumbbells), and bicycling (18-30 miles a day). It's part of his battle against AIDS, although he's not sure if any of it works.

Jacobs spoke of the isolation and psychological crisis AIDS people endure, leaving them feeling angry, guilty, and ashamed. There is the tendency to moralize and believe the disease resulted from the wrath of God.

Jacobs placed AIDS people in three categories: those with the disease who have not contracted  major illness, those with a major illness who are working their way towards death or dying, and those, like Hall, who have recently been diagnosed.

Hall told this reporter in a later interview that he visits AIDS people in the hospitals so that they know that someone out there cares and that there are people with AIDS who are functioning. He felt that these visits "might give them some hope."

A question-and-answer period followed the presentations.

Note: I wrote this unpublished (?) article on February 9, 1984. An earlier version was written in January of that year, probably for the New York Native.

Bruce Hall Fights To Regain His Airline Job

Before Bruce Hall was put on what he calls "forced medical leave of absence," he had been a flight attendant for a major U.S. airline. Management made the decision to relieve him of his duties when they learned of his AIDS diagnosis not because they believed AIDS is spread by casual contact--they don't--but because, says Hall, in a telephone interview, "They're worried about the public perception should the public find out that this airline is flying people who have AIDS." The fact that the airline informed its 8,200 flight attendants "that there's no reason for them to fear someone with AIDS on board the airplane," he continues, means that "they have destroyed their own case."

Hall wants his job back. And he is putting up a courageous three-prong fight: against AIDS itself, the perception that the disease makes those it strikes vulnerable to all viruses and bacteria instead of specific ones, and job discrimination toward people with AIDS.

His battle with the airline is quite involved. Simply stated, it consists of complaints filed with the following organizations: the union (his case is tied to a similar one in Los Angeles with the same airline), the state human rights commissions in New York and Illinois (New York, he learned later, rejected the complaint after he told them about the Illinois complaint; a complaint, explains Hall, filed in one state is binding in all other states. He filed in both states because "I'm between both addresses."), and the U.S. Department of Labor, Division of Federal Contract Compliance "because the airline flies the U.S. mail. I gave them the background story the other day." And, according to Hall, the department agreed that discrimination did exist in this case.

If these complaints are "resolved unfavorably," Hall intends to go to the state courts, and if necessary, to the federal level.

Regarding his condition, he vigorously and enthusiastically reports that he is "feeling healthy as a pig."

This article was originally published in the Boston-based Gay Community News on December 8, 1984.

Learning To Live With AIDS

September 1983. The date may not have much significance to many people but to Bruce Hall, a 29-year-old black gay man, it had profoundly changed his life, perhaps forever. That was when he went to his doctor with a temperature of 103 and throat thrush and was diagnosed as being among the 3,210 people with AIDS, a disease, says Leonard Brown, MD, of New York's Community Health Project, with a 40 percent mortality rate.

To Hall, a native of New York City, now living in Chicago, the diagnosis was unfair. Especially after years of abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and multiple sex partners. He had even quit smoking cigarettes. (Although during the interview in a Greenwich Village restaurant, Hall bought a pack of cigarettes and chain-smoked four of them. he attributed his smoking to nervousness caused by the interview. He later left the pack of unsmoked cigarettes on the table.) But none of that seemed to matter. He had to learn to live with a disease that not only debilitated its victim but also intensified homophobia and mass hysteria. These last two cost Hall his job.

He had known about AIDS for a long time. He just didn't think that he would get it. His black gay friends deluded themselves by thinking of AIDS as a white man's disease. They don't anymore.

However, Bruce Hall is a fighter. He says he doesn't want to live his life in a bubble, being afraid of everybody and everything. To counteract that feeling, he has put himself through a self-imposed physical fitness program involving bicycling 18 to 30 miles a day, lifting two 40-pound dumbbells up to one and a quarter hours a day, and much walking. He is also undergoing hypnosis, although he is not sure of its effectiveness against AIDS. In the past few months, Hall has seen a vast improvement in his weight and he has not caught any colds, he says, since the diagnosis.

Hall graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1977 with a B.A. in sociology. He is presently attending Loop College in Chicago where he is studying for a certificate that will enable him to counsel alcohol abusers.

Recently Hall delivered a presentation, with three other panelists, among them Dr. Brown, at an AIDS forum for the black gay community in the West Auditorium of Hunter College [in New York].

This excerpt is from an article about the late Bruce Hall. It was originally published in the New York Native in 1984.