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FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned
from Joseph Campbell: The
Myth
of the
Great Secret
III
FINDING
GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD: The Journey Expanded
GAY
SPIRITUALITY:
The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness
GAY PERSPECTIVE:
Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the
Universe
SECRET MATTER, a sci-fi novel with
wonderful "aliens" with an
Afterword by Mark Jordan
GETTING
LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE:
A
Fantastical Gay Romance set in two different time periods
THE FOURTH QUILL, a
novel about attitudinal healing and the problem of evil
TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with
the
Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams
CHARMED
LIVES: Spinning Straw into
Gold: GaySpirit in Storytelling, a collaboration with
Steve Berman and some 30 other writers
THE MYTH OF THE GREAT
SECRET:
An
Appreciation of Joseph Campbell
IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE
SEXUAL UNDERWORLD: A Mystical Journey
Unpublished manuscripts
About ordering
Books on
Gay Spirituality:
White
Crane Gay Spirituality Series
Articles
and Excerpts:
Review of Samuel
Avery's The
Dimensional Structure of Consciousness
Funny
Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco"
About Liberty Books, the
Lesbian/Gay Bookstore for Austin, 1986-1996
The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate
A
Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality
Why gay people should NOT Marry
The Scriptural Basis for
Same Sex Marriage
Toby and Kip Get Married
Wedding Cake Liberation
Gay Marriage in Texas
What's ironic
Shame on the American People
The "highest form of love"
Gay Consciousness
Why homosexuality is a sin
The cause of homosexuality
The
origins of homophobia
Q&A
about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness
What
is homosexuality?
What
is Gay Spirituality?
My three
messages
What
Jesus said about Gay
Rights
Queering
religion
Common
Experiences Unique to Gay
Men
Is there a "uniquely gay
perspective"?
The
purpose of homosexuality
Interview on the Nature of
Homosexuality
What the Bible Says about
Homosexuality
Mesosexual
Ideal for Straight Men
Varieties
of Gay Spirituality
Waves
of Gay Liberation Activity
The Gay Succession
Wouldn’t You Like to Be Uranian?
The Reincarnation of
Edward Carpenter
Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality
as Artistic Medium
Easton Mountain Retreat Center
Andrew Harvey &
Spiritual Activism
The Mysticism of
Andrew Harvey
The
upsidedown book on MSNBC
Enlightenment
"It's
Always About You"
The myth of the Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara
Joseph
Campbell's description of
Avalokiteshvara
You're
Not A Wave
Joseph Campbell Talks
about Aging
What is Enlightenment?
What is reincarnation?
How many lifetimes in an
ego?
Emptiness & Religious Ideas
Experiencing experiencing experiencing
Going into the Light
Meditations for a Funeral
Meditation Practice
The way to get to heaven
Buddha's father was right
What Anatman means
Advice to Travelers to India
& Nepal
The Danda Nata
& goddess Kalika
Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva
John Boswell was Immanuel Kant
Cutting
edge realization
The Myth of the
Wanderer
Change: Source of
Suffering & of Bliss
World Navel
What the Vows Really
Mean
Manifesting
from the Subtle Realms
The Three-layer
Cake
& the Multiverse
The
est Training and Personal Intention
Effective
Dreaming in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven
Gay
Spirituality
Curious
Bodies
What
Toby Johnson Believes
The
Joseph Campbell Connection
The
Mann Ranch (& Rich Gabrielson)
Campbell
& The Pre/Trans Fallacy
The
Two Loves
The
Nature of Religion
What's true about
Religion
Being
Gay is a Blessing
Drawing Long Straws
Freedom
of Religion
The
Gay Agenda
Gay
Saintliness
Gay
Spiritual Functions
The subtle workings of the spirit
in gay men's lives.
The Sinfulness of
Homosexuality
Proposal
for a study of gay nondualism
Priestly Sexuality
Having a Church to
Leave
Harold Cole on Beauty
Marian Doctrines:
Immaculate Conception & Assumption
Not lashed to the
prayer-post
Monastic or Chaste
Homosexuality
Is It Time to Grow
Up? Confronting
the Aging Process
Notes on Licking
(July, 1984)
Redeem Orlando
Gay Consciousness changing
the
world by Shokti LoveStar
Alexander Renault
interviews Toby
Johnson
Mystical Vision
"The
Evolution of Gay Identity"
"St. John of the
Cross & the Dark Night of
the Soul."
Avalokiteshvara
at the Baths
Eckhart's Eye
Let Me
Tell You a Secret
Religious
Articulations of the
Secret
The
Collective Unconscious
Driving as
Spiritual Practice
Meditation
Historicity
as Myth
Pilgrimage
No
Stealing
Next
Step in Evolution
The
New Myth
The Moulting of the Holy Ghost
Gaia
is a Bodhisattva
The Hero's
Journey
The
Hero's Journey as archetype — GSV 2016
The Gay Hero Journey
(shortened)
You're
On Your Own
Superheroes
Seeing
Differently
Teenage
Prostitution and the Nature of Evil
Allah
Hu: "God is present here"
Adam
and Steve
The Life is
in the Blood
Gay retirement and the "freelance
monastery"
Seeing with
Different Eyes
Facing
the Edge: AIDS as an occasion for spiritual wisdom
What
are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel?
The Vision
The
mystical experience at the Servites' Castle in Riverside
A Most Remarkable
Synchronicity in
Riverside
The
Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis
The Techniques Of The
World Saviors
Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the
Tar-Baby
Part 2: The
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
Part 3: Jesus
and the Resurrection
Part 4: A
Course in Miracles
The
Secret of the Clear Light
Understanding
the Clear Light
Mobius
Strip
Finding
Your
Tiger Face
How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated
Joseph
Campbell, the Hero's Journey, and the modern Gay Hero— a five part
presentation on YouTube
About Alien Abduction
In
honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke
Karellen was a homosexual
The
D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance
Intersections
with the movie When We Rise
More
about Gay Mental Health
Psych
Tech Training
Toby
at the California Institute
The
Rainbow Flag
Ideas for gay
mythic stories
People
Kip and Toby,
Activists
Toby's
friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta.
Harry
Hay, Founder of the gay movement
About Hay and The New Myth
About
Karl
Heinrich Ulrichs, the first
man to really "come out"
About Michael Talbot, gay mystic
About Fr. Bernard Lynch
About Richard Baltzell
About Guy Mannheimer
About David Weyrauch
About
Dennis Paddie
About Ask the Fire
About
Arthur Evans
About
Christopher Larkin
About Mark Thompson
About Sterling Houston
About Michael Stevens
The Alamo Business
Council
Our friend Tom Nash
Second March on
Washington
The
Gay
Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the "Statement
of Spirituality"
Book
Reviews
Be Done on Earth by Howard
E. Cook
Pay Me What I'm Worth by
Souldancer
The Way Out by Christopher
L Nutter
The Gay Disciple by John Henson
Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry
Coming Out, Coming Home by Kennth
A. Burr
Extinguishing
the Light by B. Alan Bourgeois
Over Coffee: A conversation
For Gay
Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson
Dark Knowledge
by
Kenneth Low
Janet Planet by
Eleanor
Lerman
The
Kairos by Paul E. Hartman
Wrestling
with Jesus by D.K.Maylor
Kali Rising by Rudolph
Ballentine
The
Missing Myth by Gilles Herrada
The
Secret of the Second Coming by Howard E. Cook
The Scar Letters: A
Novel
by Richard Alther
The
Future is Queer by Labonte & Schimel
Missing Mary
by Charlene Spretnak
Gay
Spirituality 101 by Joe Perez
Cut Hand: A
Nineteeth Century Love Story on the American Frontier by Mark Wildyr
Radiomen
by Eleanor Lerman
Nights
at
Rizzoli by Felice Picano
The Key
to Unlocking the Closet Door by Chelsea Griffo
The Door
of the Heart by Diana Finfrock Farrar
Occam’s
Razor by David Duncan
Grace
and
Demion by Mel White
Gay Men and The New Way Forward by Raymond L.
Rigoglioso
The
Dimensional Stucture of Consciousness by Samuel Avery
The
Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love by Perry Brass
Love
Together: Longtime Male Couples on Healthy Intimacy and Communication
by Tim Clausen
War
Between Materialism and Spiritual by Jean-Michel Bitar
The
Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion by
Jeffrey J. Kripal
Esalen:
America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal
The
Invitation to Love by
Darren Pierre
Brain,
Consciousness, and God: A Lonerganian Integration by Daniel A
Helminiak
A
Walk with Four Spiritual Guides by Andrew Harvey
Can Christians Be Saved? by Stephenson & Rhodes
The
Lost Secrets of the Ancient Mystery Schools by Stephenson &
Rhodes
Keys to
Spiritual
Being: Energy Meditation and Synchronization Exercises by Adrian
Ravarour
In
Walt We
Trust by John Marsh
Solomon's
Tantric Song by Rollan McCleary
A Special Illumination by Rollan McCleary
Aelred's
Sin
by Lawrence Scott
Fruit
Basket
by Payam Ghassemlou
Internal
Landscapes by John Ollom
Princes
& Pumpkins by David Hatfield Sparks
Yes by Brad
Boney
Blood of the Goddess by William Schindler
Roads of Excess,
Palaces of
Wisdom by Jeffrey Kripal
Evolving
Dharma by Jay Michaelson
Jesus
in Salome's Lot by Brett W. Gillette
The Man Who Loved Birds by Fenton Johnson
The
Vatican Murders by Lucien Gregoire
"Sex Camp"
by
Brian McNaught
Out
& About with Brewer & Berg
Episode One: Searching for a New Mythology
The
Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons
Out
on
Holy Ground by Donald Boisvert
The
Revotutionary Psychology of Gay-Centeredness by Mitch Walker
Out There
by Perry Brass
The Crucifixion of Hyacinth by Geoff Puterbaugh
The
Silence of Sodom by Mark D Jordan
It's
Never About What It's About by Krandall Kraus and Paul Borja
ReCreations,
edited by Catherine Lake
Gospel: A
Novel
by WIlton Barnhard
Keeping
Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey by Fenton Johnson
Dating the Greek Gods by Brad Gooch
Telling
Truths in Church by Mark D. Jordan
The
Substance of God by Perry Brass
The
Tomcat Chronicles by Jack Nichols
10
Smart
Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives by Joe Kort
Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same Sex Love
by Will Roscoe
The
Third Appearance by Walter Starcke
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann
Surviving
and Thriving After a Life-Threatening Diagnosis by Bev Hall
Men,
Homosexuality, and the Gods by Ronald Long
An Interview
with Ron Long
Queering Creole Spiritual Traditons by Randy
Conner & David Sparks
An Interview with
Randy Conner
Pain,
Sex
and Time by Gerald Heard
Sex
and the Sacred by Daniel Helminiak
Blessing Same-Sex Unions by Mark Jordan
Rising Up
by
Joe Perez
Soulfully
Gay
by Joe Perez
That
Undeniable Longing by Mark Tedesco
Vintage: A
Ghost
Story by
Steve Berman
Wisdom
for the Soul by Larry Chang
MM4M a DVD
by Bruce Grether
Double
Cross
by David Ranan
The
Transcended Christian by Daniel Helminiak
Jesus
in Love by Kittredge Cherry
In
the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson
The
Starry Dynamo by Sven Davisson
Life
in
Paradox by Fr Paul Murray
Spirituality for Our Global Community by Daniel
Helminiak
Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society by Robert A.
Minor
Coming Out: Irish Gay Experiences by Glen O'Brien
Queering
Christ
by Robert Goss
Skipping
Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage
The
Flesh of the Word by Richard A Rosato
Catland by
David Garrett Izzo
Tantra
for Gay Men by Bruce Anderson
Yoga
&
the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main
Simple
Grace
by Malcolm Boyd
Seventy
Times Seven by Salvatore Sapienza
What
Does "Queer" Mean Anyway? by Chris Bartlett
Critique of Patriarchal Reasoning by Arthur Evans
Gift
of
the Soul by Dale Colclasure & David Jensen
Legend of the Raibow Warriors by Steven McFadden
The
Liar's
Prayer by Gregory Flood
Lovely
are the Messengers by Daniel Plasman
The Human Core of Spirituality by Daniel Helminiak
3001:
The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Religion and the Human Sciences by Daniel Helminiak
Only
the
Good Parts by Daniel Curzon
Four
Short
Reviews of Books with a Message
Life
Interrupted by Michael Parise
Confessions of a Murdered Pope by Lucien Gregoire
The
Stargazer's Embassy by Eleanor Lerman
Conscious
Living, Conscious Aging by Ron Pevny
Footprints Through the Desert by Joshua Kauffman
True
Religion by J.L. Weinberg
The Mediterranean Universe by John Newmeyer
Everything
is God by Jay Michaelson
Reflection
by Dennis Merritt
Everywhere
Home by Fenton Johnson
Hard Lesson by James
Gaston
God
vs Gay?
by Jay Michaelson
The
Gate
of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path by Jay Michaelson
Roxie
&
Fred by Richard Alther
Not
the Son He Expected by Tim Clausen
The
9 Realities of Stardust by Bruce P. Grether
The
Afterlife Revolution by Anne & Whitley Strieber
AIDS
Shaman:
Queer Spirit Awakening by Shokti Lovestar
Facing the Truth of Your Life by Merle Yost
The
Super Natural by Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J Kripal
Secret
Body by
Jeffrey J Kripal
In
Hitler's
House by Jonathan Lane
Walking on Glory by Edward Swift
The
Paradox
of Porn by Don Shewey
Is Heaven for Real? by Lucien Gregoire
Scissors,
Paper, Rock by Fenton Johnson
Toby
Johnson's
Books on Gay Men's Spiritualities:
Gay Perspective
Things Our [Homo]sexuality
Tells Us
about the
Nature of God and
the Universe
Gay
Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated
by Matthew Whitfield. Click
here
Gay Spirituality
Gay Identity and
the Transformation of
Human Consciousness
Gay
Spirituality is now
available as an audiobook, beautifully narrated by John Sipple. Click here
Charmed
Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling
edited by
Toby Johnson
& Steve Berman
Secret
Matter
Lammy Award Winner for Gay
Science Fiction
updated
Getting Life in
Perspective
A Fantastical Romance
Getting
Life in Perspective is available as an
audiobook narrated by Alex Beckham. Click
here
The Fourth Quill
originally published
as
PLAGUE
The Fourth Quill is
available
as an audiobook, narrated by Jimmie
Moreland. Click here
Two Spirits: A Story of
Life
with the Navajo
with Walter L. Williams
 Two
Spirits is available as an
audiobook narrated by Arthur Raymond. Click
here
Finding
Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph
Campbell
The
Myth
of the
Great Secret III
In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld
The Myth of the Great
Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell.
This
was the second edition of this book.
Toby Johnson's
titles are
available in other ebook formats from Smashwords.
|
A Quality Bookstore for Lesbians and Gay
Men
Austin, Texas —
1986-1996
 1986
- Tom Doyal founded Liberty Books & Liberty Press. The bookstore
was at 11th and N. Lamar, behind Sound Warehouse Records, in a former
repair bay of an auto dealership repurposed by Austin real estate
development (and good guy) Perry Lorenz. (In 2024 the front building
is Whole Earth Provisions.)
- Early on, Mark Weaver, a
preacher with the American Family Association, picketed the store and
brought media attention. Tom commented that "Mark Weaver was better
than a dancing bear" to announce the opening of the bookstore.
1988 - about 18 months into the life of the store, in
order to free him up to be attorney for the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of
Texas and
Publisher of Liberty Press, Doyal invited Toby Johnson and Kip Dollar
to buy the business from him. They moved from San Antonio to Austin and
took over running the store in October 88.
- Tom's faithful employee,
Kenneth Lloyd, stayed with the bookstore and trained Johnson and Dollar.
1988-1993 - The store flourished during
this period — a high point in gay genre publishing nationwide. Several
new employees were hired who worked along with volunteers (mainly U.T.
students), including Eric Ganther (who wrote a history of gay/lesbian
Austin for a thesis in the History Dept & later the Guidebook
to
the Stevee Postman's Cosmic Tribe Tarot Deck). Liberty Books
became one of the major lesbian/gay bookstores in the U.S. John
Dulworth, who'd been manager of the successful gay cardshop Sparks,
joined the staff as financial manager & buyer.
- During this
period,
Liberty Books was a sponsor of the Men's Movement spin-off, Shaman's
Circle with its Radical Faerie-like gatherings in the woods.
- In those days, Liberty
Books' bulletin board functioned like a "gay google," where gay/lesbian
oriented businesses and services could post their business card. Those
business cards formed the basis for an Austin gay-business association
(called together by Curt Foulkes), which has grown into the Austin
Gay/Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
- Since Liberty Books was
often the
first stop for tourists, visitors and newcomers to the city to find out
about gay Austin, Toby & Kenneth, who worked the front desk in the
morning and late afternoon respectively, served as semi-official
greeters to Austin's gay community. Kip was bookkeeper and business
manager, and worked in the back office and so was a little less
visible, though was the real talent behind the business operation.
- It was store policy that
Liberty Books should feel like a safe place you could bring your
mother. That was partly because mothers—and a wide of variety of
non-gay people—did indeed come to the store in search of information
about AIDS. During the height of the health crisis, Liberty Books was
an important resource. Liberty Books was catacorner to Castle Hill Cafe
which at the time was one of the most popular restaurants in Austin
(Ann Richards was a regular Castle Hill Cafe patron, noticeable coming
through the parking lot by her big hair.). Part of the cafe's chic was
that there was no waiting area inside, so people waiting for a table
stood out in the parking lot and on the sidewalk looking into the
bookstore's windows. In those days, Liberty Books was the "face of the
community" to many Austinites.
Inscribed (by John Framer) on the wall above the front door was this quote:
Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.
Dag Hammarskjöld
- High points in that
period for Dollar and Johnson also included performing in Doug Dyer's
gay-activists musical-comedy review "I Pass for Straight" and the
couple's being invited by LGRL to apply—and be turned down—for
marriage licenses in 1991, and then being the first male couple to be
Registered Domestic Partners in Travis County in 1993. (The first
female couple, who actually registered first, was Dianne Hardy-Garcia
and Mary Anne Messina. Dianne had been head of LGRL and had been behind
the County's development of the Domestic Partnership registry.) Toby's
popular
and Lammy-winning sci-fi novel Secret Matter was published in
1990 by Lavender Press, a gay publisher in Connecticut, and Getting
Life in Perspective the next year.
- Along with Pete Robles, Kip was one of the organizers of
the first Gay Pride celebration, Gay Fiesta, at Fiesta Gardens
in 1990, serving as Treasurer and Grand Marshal, and then Grand Marshal again in 1991.
- Austin's revered and
long-lived feminist bookstore BookWoman, owned by Susan Post, moved
from Neches & 6th Street to 12th & Lamar, next to The Tavern
and catacorner and down a block from
Liberty Books. The two stores complemented one another and referred
customers back and forth in a demonstration of lesbian/gay community
cooperation. A history of BookWoman is included in the 2016-released
book The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and
Feminist Accountablity' by former BookWoman staffer Kristen Hogan.
1994 - Book People
announced the opening of a new
"Superstore"—with a gay/lesbian section almost as big as Liberty
Books—five blocks down Lamar. (What was originally said would be 700
sq ft turned out in reality to be 70 linear ft of bookshelf.) AND Lobo
Books from Houston announced they would be opening a store in Austin
that would be primarily a video rental outlet catering to gay
men, but would also stock books. Liberty Books did not carry the porn
videos that were the bread
and butter of Lobo's business, so the Houston store seemed like real
competition for a limited market. Johnson and Dollar decided to "save"
the
store and the
employees by selling the inventory to Book People and getting them to
hire Liberty's staff.
- Just before that
happened, Crossroads Market — a Dallas-based gay bookstore that also
had an outlet in Houston competing with Lobo — reached out to buy
Liberty Books to bring the competition between the two chains to Austin.
 1994
- At mid-year, Crossroads Market purchased Liberty Books and, though
they brought in an outside manager, kept the core staff. And kept the
name Liberty Books because of its historic renown in Austin.
1996 - Crossroads operated the
store
for eighteen months, then closed it for good at the end of 1996.
The Liberty Books logo was designed by John Farmer. "Our Lady of
Liberty"
Here's a photo of Armistead Maupin at a Liberty Books booksigning
Toby Johnson, Kip Dollar, Terry Anderson, Armistead Maupin
—————————-
Chris Zimmerman Law
was the TWT representative for Austin in those days.
He has accumulated an extensive collection of photos.
Here're Psychologists Stephen Finn and John Driggs signing
copies of their 1991 book
Intimacy Between Men
Behind them all is the famous Liberty Books Bulletin Board
Gay History in Austin
Here's a list of topics in Austin's LGBTQ community
history. These were events, organizations, and people who were
important in the heyday of Gay/Lesbian Austin from the 1970s to the 90s. These
are grouped loosely by topic but are listed in no particular order.
UT purge of gay teachers in the 40s and 50s;
The Chateau, 1959: Old
mansion, now on UT campus, home of Arthur Pope Watson & Robert
Garrett, flamboyant homosexuals who threw fabulous parties for Austin
"socialites."
UT rejecting
Randy Wicker, an openly gay candidate, for Student President in 1960;
Purge of gay students at UT in 1962;
Gay Liberation Front forms at UT in 1969 in the wake of the Stonewall Riots in New York City;
The first national Gay Liberation Conference here in 1970; Dennis Paddie, Jim Denny
Hippie Hollow as a gay nude beach;
Gay-themed plays at Chicago House Theater (playwright Dennis Paddie)
First black lesbian Student Body President at UT, Toni Luckett, in 1990
Modern Gay liberation first spread nationally in the wake of events in
New York City, L.A. and San Francisco (like Stonewall, the Black Cat,
and Compton's Cafeteria) as peer-support organizations formed that
allowed gay and lesbian people to talk openly about their consciousness
of themselves as differently sexed — some organizations, like GLF,
especially in the context of the anti-war, youth rebellion of the late
60s & early 70s, had activist/political/protest as their organizing
principle; many others had peer-counseling/self-help/ psychological growth as theirs.
Because one of the first great successes of the gay rights movement was the
American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality from the list
of mental disorders, gay/lesbian groups all had "psychotherapy" and
"consciousness raising" as a component and openly gay therapists began
to surface offering variations of "gay-oriented psychotherapy." And
early gay groups, almost like "neighborhood associations" within the
bars and self-help "rap-groups" began health-related projects, like VD
testing in the bars and peer-counseling, long before AIDS. (The
National Gay/Lesbian Health Conferences began in 78 or 79.)
Gay-oriented psychotherapy developed in Austin with several openly gay
therapists; several of them had offices in the complex of restored old
Victorian houses off Bee Caves Road at Montebello.
Setting the theme for the great efflorence of gay and lesbian culture
during the 70s (before AIDS), gay-oriented psychotherapy sought to
emphasize the positive aspects of homosexuality and downplay (or
dismiss) the negative ideas and misunderstandings in mainstream society
of what it meant to be gay. "Gay is a gift." "Being gay means being
special."
In 1983 one of these gay-oriented therapists, Paul Clover, started Waterloo
Counseling Center with its Waterloo Counseling Halloween Balls (major
fundraising events); When AIDS appears in the early 80s, WCC added The
AIDS Project component;
In 1987 AIDS Services of Austin spun off; The Octopus Club developed as
a fundraiser for ASA (with annual events ArtsErotica, OctoTea Dance,
Viva Las Vegas; Dining Out for Life, and Oscar Parties); Lew Aldridge, Jim Lomorri; Janna Zumbrum
AIDS Walk;
Hill Country Ride for AIDS; David Smith
Informe-SIDA was an AIDS service organization focusing on the Hispanic population and welcoming all people of color;
Care Communities and The Central Texas AIDS Interfaith Network;
Project Transitions;
Top Drawer Resale Shop for Project Transitions;
Christopher House Hospice;
The Sansing Dental Clinic;
AIDS Quilt;
The Advocate Experience in Austin;
The Body Electric in Austin;
Shaman's Circle (Michael Ganther & John Dulworth);
PFLAG Austin;
Gay Olympics — became Gay Games — several Austinites participated (Clifford Ueshley sp?)
Prime Timers; Woody Baldwin
OutYouth;
ALLGO; (Saul Gonzalez, Dennis Medina)
Ebony Connection; (Boyd Vance)
The UT Gay Students Association;
Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT)
Gamma Mu ("Gay Millionaires" club)
Austin L/G Political Caucus (ALGPC); Pat Cramer
Texas Human Rights Foundation;
Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby;
Paid Gay/Lesbian Community Lobbyist started in mid-80s;
(Bettie Naylor was lobbyist for the milk industry and for the Texas
Tavern Guild—of gay bars; before LGRL she was the defacto, and
volunteer, lobbyist on LGBT issues.)
the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) dinners;
Austin ACT UP;
Glenn Maxey, Texas State Representative
The several attempts to form Community Centers, including the building on Red River which lasted several years;
Metropolitan Community Church (in 3 locations with moves being major events in financing and fundraising);
Dignity (Gay Catholic);
Integrity (Gay Episopalian);
Gay Lutherans;
Protestant churches beginning to welcome LGBT;
UT Catholic Student Center;
Austin Lambda (AA);
Gay Community Services;
The American Family Association (Rev Mark Weaver) crashing
AIDS-education events and trying to pass legislation that would have
outlawed gay/lesbian businesses anywhere near a church or church-owned
property;
Travis County granting Partner Benefits, then the religious reaction
and referendum which revoked the benefits but left the Domestic
Partnership registry in place, the first such recognition of same sex relationships in Texas;
The Capitol City Men’s Chorus; Mark Weigle
Gay Bowling Leagues;
Gay Square Dancing Club;
The Gay and Lesbian Business Association (which evolved into the LGBTQ
Chamber); the business association was first organized from the Liberty
Books bulletin board by Curt Foulkes.
Gay Rodeo in Austin;
the HOWDY Parties; Kerry O'Quinn
Gay Pride festival at Fiesta Gardens beginning in 1990
which became Austin Gay Pride with occasional parades in addition to
the Fiesta Gardens Festival; Diane Russell, Pete Robles, Kip Dollar
Queerbomb;
first as protest, then as popular street party marching up 6th St.; PJ
Raval, Curran Nault, Paul Soileau (Christeene Havermeyer)
Outsiderfest;
Gay by GayGay (at SxSW); partly protest that SxSW doesn't have much LGBTQ content.
AGLIFF Gay/lesbian Film Festival;
The “I Pass for Straight” gay activist musical/comedy review in 89 and again in early 90s; Doug Dyer
Cleigh Nease's Waterloo Compound, gay housing complex off Red River;
Gay Bars of Austin (this is a bigger topic, all of its own, as the bars have opened and closed and moved over the years);
The "United Court of Austin" with Emperor and Empress;
Bars opening on 4th St and rise of Boystown, a few blocks from the 6th Street Nightlife district;
First and Last Splash at Lake Travis/Hippie Hollow sponsored by the bars
Gay Baths on West 16th;
Gay Baths on Airport Blvd;
The businesses (beyond the gay bars and lesbian bars) around which the community coalesced:
Liberty
Books (1986-1996) (Tom Doyal; Toby Johnson & Kip Dollar) and
BookWoman (1975-present) (Susan Post) (both with bulletin boards that
gave identity to
the community), and later Lobo (1994-2003??), making gay genre
literature available;
the Texas Triangle Newspaper;
later L Style G Style Magazine;
the lesbian-owned Eastside Cafe on Manor Rd and G/L popular Las Mañitas Cafe on Congress;
Lesbian-owned Celebration gift & card shop on 43rd St;
Gay-owned Sparks gift & card shop on Guadalupe; Flint Sparks
Chances Bar on Red River as a "community center" (owner Sandra Martinez);
Mexicarte as gay-welcoming community center;
Alma de Mujeres Retreat Center(s) for women at the lake and outside San Marcos;
Lesbian printers Mcgillicuddy Press and Kestrel Printing;
The gay doctors (Phil Richardson & Tom Smith) & dentists (Ralph Branch & Chris Fabre).
Read about The Memory Project – LGBTQ History of Austin sponsored by the Austin LGBT Coalition on Aging.
Invitation to Participate in the Austin History Project
Toby Johnson invites you to contribute your story to the History Project
July 2022
Dear Austinites,
Several history projects are going on in Austin these days. I'm writing
to tell you about a couple of them that I'm involved with through the
Public Library's History Center and the University of Texas.
Additionally, there are similar projects to collect local history
through Queerbomb, through The Little Gay Shop, and through Oakwood
Cemetery Chapel.
I invite you to participate in at least one or two of these.
In collaboration with the Austin History Center, the LGBT Coalition on
Aging is hosting "The Memory Project: LGBTQ History in Austin." There
is a webpage at https://algbtcoa.org/the-memory-project/
Dennis Paddie, Dean Carpenter Turner, and I are working with the
History Center to expand their LGBT collection. There is a description
of the collection on the webpage. Dennis is our main contact with the
History Center staff (specifically librarian Kelly Hanus); Dean and I
will be conducting interviews through Zoom; and I am doing the
inviting, hoping that most of you will remember my name from Liberty
Books days and trust email from me enough to open it.
For this project, to make the facts and bits of memory easier to find,
listen to, and understand, we are inviting contributors to tell brief
(5 or 6 min) stories about some specific event they knew about,
witnessed, or were part of in our collective community history that
reveal some facet of the past that ought to be remembered and/or that
changed the course of history. ☺️ Participants would be welcome to tell
several such stories in several different clips. We'll do these over
the computer with Zoom. It should be easy and fun. As we collect these
stories, we'll save them (probably to disk) and add them to the Austin
History Center's collection. Staff at the History Center are
enthusiastic about expanding this collection.
Dr Lauren Gutterman is a professor in the University of Texas LGBTQ
Studies Dept; she also teaches interviewing skills. Working with Lisa
Moore and Karma Chavez, Gutterman is getting her students to interview
a wide range of LGBTQ+ Austinites about their lives and experiences.
These are likely longer interviews about a variety of topics, including
subjects' personal lifestories. These interviews, also probably
conducted by Zoom, will be archived at the University and shared with
the Austin History Center (and maybe even the Library of Congress).
Please think about contributing your stories to these projects. We have
lived through a remarkable time in human history; especially within the
LGBTQ world we have seen unimaginable success and unquenchable sorrow.
Let's get our experience into the collective mind.
On the-memory-project webpage, there are instructions for donating
papers and memorabilia to the History Center. Even if you don't want to
record an interview, maybe you’d send in papers or documents that will
otherwise be lost at your passing.
I'm currently a contact for both these projects. Please reply and let me know what you think.
Toby Johnson
PS I have a page on my website about Liberty Books with a brief
chronology of the store. Also on that page is a list, in somewhat
random order, of things in gay/lesbian Austin of the 80s and 90s.
Reading that list might jog your memory, and it might remind you of
something I left out. If so, please let me know. I would like to keep
expanding this list.
https://tobyjohnson.com/libertybooks.html
toby
Toby Johnson
ALGBTCOA Steering Committee member
Austin City Council Approves an Historical Marker for LGBTQ Austin in the 4th and Colorado "Boystown" District
Here's a pdf of the resolution
List of Names of Individuals
Here are some people who contributed to the history of
LGBTQ Austin. Some--or all--of them deserve to be included in any kind
of Historical Marker. And there would be many other names I am not
including here. So if you, dear reader, know of such names, please let
me know.
Bettie Naylor
Glen Maxey
Tom Doyal
Bunch Brittain
Jim Denny
Dennis Paddie
Janna Zumbrun
Doug Dyer
Pat Cramer
Saul Gonzalez
Dennis Medina
Boyd Vance
Randy Wicker
Paul Clover
Lew Aldridge
Jim Lommori
Toby Johnson & Kip Dollar
Susan Post
Sandra Martinez
Diane Russell & Kathy Cook
Dara Gray
Diane Hardy-Garcia
Pete Robles
Mark Weigle
P J Raval & Curran Nault
Scott Dinger
Jimmy Flannigan
Ana Sisnett
Here's text I submitted to the City for consideration:
As queer as you want to be.
This historical marker commemorates
the contributions, struggles, and successes of Austin's LGBTQIA+
community, whose once -denigrated members have always spanned all
genders, races, classes, creeds, generations, and origins.
In earlier times, people lost their jobs, social
standing, and sometimes even their lives for being sex- or
gender-variant. Outside of the isolation of private homes, downtown
bars and nightclubs offered secret, safe havens for LGBTQIA+ people to
gather.
Social justice movements in the 1960s advancing the
struggles for justice, acceptance, equality, and freedom for women and
racial minorities gave rise to a national gay and lesbian rights
movement. Austin was quick to respond. A local chapter of the Gay
Liberation Front was founded in 1970, with the first National Gay
Liberation Conference hosted here in 1971.
A vibrant culture evolved with restaurants, bars,
retail shops, bookstores, theaters, churches and a wide variety of
professionals and service providers. In the 1980s, a nightlife scene
developed in the old warehouse district around 4th Street and Colorado.
Clubs with drag shows, entertainment, and dances provided opportunities
for gathering and community building. During the AIDS crisis of the 80s
and 90s, the clubs offered occasions for sex education, counseling, and
fundraising—and solace. In the 21st century, as the movement evolved to
recognize all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer, Intersex,
Asexual, and other segments of the community, these blocks of bars and
coffee shops became integrated with the rest of downtown—much like the
assimilation of queer representation into mainstream culture.
With many of the political and social dreams of the
leaders of past decades realized, Austin remains a vibrant place for
all communities to call home.
Houston LGBT History
JD Doyle has created a website for LGBT history in the Houston TX area.
This is similar to what we want to do for Austin.
Here's HOUSTON LGBT HISTORY .ORG
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