Jim Andris, Facebook

Audience impressed by Matlovich speech

By Althea Bruce
Alestle Staff Writer

"Here I am back here," called a tall, neat figure at the rear of the Meridian Ballroom. The applause rose as Leonard Matlovich trotted to the front and strapped a mike around his neck.
“I’m paranoid about stages," he said, "so I'll just stand down here."
Matlovich, 32-year-old, ex - Air Force technical sergeant, spoke to a near capacity crowd last night. His approach was casual and friendly. He frequently launched into a semi-discussion with the audience as he gave a personal, first-hand account of the psychological and social pressures faced by homosexuals.
“Faggot, queer," he said in tones louder than one is accustomed to hearing those words exclaimed. "It takes a faggot to know a faggot, so I'm going to walk through the audience and point out the faggots. When I point to you, will you please stand. I'll start in the back."
As Matlovitch slowly wandered down the aisle, the first lessons of the evening for straight and gay alike, were those of shock and fear.
He said that society made him fear what he is. Even today society finds homosexuality shocking. Although he knew he was homosexual since the age of 12, he was afraid to act on that knowledge until the age of 30.
He talked of the myths about homosexuals that society had given him.
"I thought being gay meant I had to molest little children or walk into bathrooms to watch people. I thought I had to wear a dress, and I don't look good in high heels. The first gay bar I went to, I expected whips and chains, and masculine-looking women and feminine-looking men, but there were none and the men looked like men and the women looked like women. Nobody even followed me into the bathroom."
Matlovich describes himself as once having been a right wing, white racist, flag-waving American.
"I used to hate, but most of all I hated myself. I needed a homosexual image to pattern my
life by. Straights have Gerry Ford or Dick Nixon. Who've we got? Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci …”
From the far side of the room came "Oscar Wilde."
From the center section came, "Tennessee Williams!"
"Elaine Noble!"
"Tschaikowsky!"
"Gay power!"
Applause, applause.
The lecture began to take an overall tone of a pep rally. Matlovich quoted a Marine who once said, "They gave me a medal for killing two men and a dishonorable discharge for loving one."
Applause,
applause.
Cheers, cheers.
He said, "Lets teach the future generation how to love."
Applause, applause.
During the question and answer (or show and tell) session each questioner meticulously prefaced his or her comments with a declaration of sexual preference, i.e. "I'm gay" or "I'm straight." One confessed straight asked Matlovich how he knew he was gay, if he had had no sexual contact with anybody until he was 30 years old.
Matlovich replied, "I had no sexual contact with anybody until I was 30 years old. Then, he asked the questioner how he knew he was heterosexual before he had sexual contact.
As the questioner persisted, demanding a straight (no pun intended) answer, a deep voice from the front yelled,
"You dreamed, didn't you."
The questioner sat down.

Ex-Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, who spoke to a near capacity crowd, here Wednesday night, sees some amusement in the crowd's response.