Pre-Gay L.A.: A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights

9. Conclusion(s)

9 Conclusion(s) And soon, quite soon now, in two years, in five, in forty, it will all be over, and one by one we shall all be drawn into the planet beside each other; let us then hope better of our children, and of our children’s children; let us know, let us know there is cure, there is to be an end to it, whose beginnings are long begun, and in slow agonies and all deceptions clearing. —James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men After years of mutual antagonism, Don Slater and W. Dorr Legg eventually buried their hatchets (after first having to remove them from each other’s backs) and declared a truce between them. It is fair to wonder if their newfound respect for each other came more from having endured so many years of tenacious onslaught than from any rekindled sense of friendship. Perhaps age itself is a social lubricant. My experiences with the elders of ONE suggest that people in their later years—in this case in their seventies and eighties—no longer exasperate each other as much or spend as much time picking at each other’s wounds. Although some may be too proud to instigate reconciliation, they often welcome it once the opportunity is presented . For the aging pioneers of this history, the process of compiling this book has presented a chance for a renewed friendship and understanding that has been welcomed. Through modern technological inventions such as the Internet, fax machines, and cell phones, many of these surviving elders continually communicate with one another and always feel close at hand when needed. conclusion(s) . 201 Passions run strong in the course of a human life. It is hardly irrelevant in a social history to speak of bonds built on love, hatred, and love renewed. In focusing only on strife, we lose the value of reconciliation, where some of the greatest lessons may be discovered. A person could view the division of ONE, Incorporated, as a process of growth—the natural and perhaps inevitable social process of corporate fission, whereby a small nonprofit corporation passed from an extended period of unity through a period of factionalism, from which two new, discrete organizations emerged. During this extended history, the participants themselves aged and their needs and desires shifted accordingly, so personally, this has also been a story of how allies turned into adversaries and then changed back into allies, through the process of what Myerhoff and Simić have called “life’s career” (1978). Anthropologist Sally Falk Moore has noted that “social relationships may be accumulated over time” and, through cumulative social processes and an extended reputation and history within a particular social arena, a profound sense of love, respect, and sense of belonging can develop in old age that arises from renewed or lifelong friendships (1978, 25). I certainly witnessed this as my consultants began working with each other again after several years of isolation. Most of the vignettes in this chapter are brief. While my purpose in this book has been primarily to relate a narrative history of ONE, Incorporated, this conclusion provides a cursory overview of what has happened to ONE and HIC between 1980 and today to give a sense of what these people were like in their later days and to present them as I have come to know them. I hope to be able to flesh out the post-Stonewall era in a subsequent book, because although the history of many of the significant events and institutions has been recorded elsewhere, the story of the rise of the gay movement in Los Angeles has yet to be compiled in one narrative whole that adequately expresses the humanity of these key players, the institutions that they formed, and the friendships that they shared. For now, let us return to the matter at hand and consider some of the significant events of these pioneers since the organizations that they founded lost their impetuous and standing within the Los Angeles movement. HIC Closes Shop HIC moved from its office on Cahuenga to the Outpost Building, 6715 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 210, on November 9, 1975. Their old location had sold and the new owner intended to raise the rent considerably. The new office 202 . pre-gay l.a. gave HIC a new personality. More people would walk in from off the street, but many of the traditional monthly discussion...