Video Interview, Jay Stratton, May 23, 2012

CREW: I am ready and rolling, sir.

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK Jay, just for a microphone check,

give us the correct spelling of your first and last name.

JAY STRATTON: J-A-Y. S-T-R-A-T-T-O-N.

KEVIN INDOVINO: We're making you look the best.

JAY STRATTON: Thanks, I need it.

CREW: I want to even out the tan.

JAY STRATTON: I've got my farmer tan, don't I?

Probably.

CREW: I am rolling, sir.

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

So Jay take me back to January of 1974.

You're now a grad student at the University of Rochester.

You're trying to come to terms with who you are

as far as sexual identity goes.

Talk to me about that period.

Talk to me about being a student at the U of R

and what was going on with you back then.

JAY STRATTON: Well I'm Jay Stratton.

I came to Rochester in September of 1973

to be a graduate student at the University of Rochester.

I had previously attended the College of Forestry

in Syracuse.

I was a twenty-two-year-old virgin and I was dealing with

coming out issues.

I had never really met gay people before.

I'd heard about them.

They were yucky.

Things like mortician's, chiropractors,

beauticians in my hometown were reputedly gay.

And but, I was too afraid to talk to them really

about anything like that.

Why would you talk to someone who

was twice your age and yucky looking, or so I felt.

And I tried to come out when I was still at Syracuse

University but I was--

I was too fearful.

There was a gay table in the dormitories there.

It wasn't a gay lib kind of thing,

it was just a bunch of gay people

that happened to eat together.

And I would get to hear them being mocked out by my supposed

friends all the time.

"Oh look at those queers over there.

Oh aren't they disgusting?

Aren't they this is, aren't they that?"

And I would say to myself, "No I can't be one of those.

No, I can't be one of those."

But I showed all the signs of becoming one of those.

The weirdest story was once I was on the shuttle bus and one

of these people from the gay table got on the bus

and he came and he sat in front of me.

He didn't know me from Adam, so to speak.

And when he sat in front of me, I

got all sexually aroused, so sexually

aroused that I didn't dare stand up and get off at my stop.

I just had to sit there and hope it would go away.

But a few days later I said, "No I am probably bisexual.

I'm not gay."

And I'd go through this internal dialogue

with myself all the time.

And it was still going on in the fall of '73

when I moved to Rochester.

And then I realized that it was messing my life up.

By not being who I was, I was messing my life up

far more than I would mess it up by being who I am.

So I decided-- it was kind of a New Year's resolution--

that I was going to come out.

And early in 1974, I went to my first meeting

of the University of Rochester Gay Liberation Front,

in the hill.

And there were maybe ten people there.

I didn't know any of them.

And I just walked in and sat down and said who I was

and that I was gay and I'd never been to anything before.

And things just took off from there.

KEVIN INDOVINO: I want to talk a little bit more

about the experience of walking into that first meeting.

What was going on with you emotionally, mentally?

What were you were hoping to get out of it?

JAY STRATTON: Well I was hoping to get friendship, sexuality,

friendship too, out of it.

I'd had problems making friends because I couldn't, you know,

be myself or tell them everything I was thinking.

So I was hoping to find people that I

could talk about the things that I was thinking.

I was nervous, of course.

But it was so late at that point that I wasn't as nervous

as many others were.

You know, you'd have sweats and the heartbeat goes up

and everything like that.

Well that's what happened to me when

I tried to go to meetings of the Gay Freedom League--

or tried to call the Gay Freedom League in Syracuse

on the phone.

I would just go into a cold sweat

and have to give a hang up call--

I did the hang up call routine.

And everything like that.

So by the time I finally arrived at the GLF it was kind

of anti-climactic and I wasn't--

I wasn't really that nervous.

But many other people, many other people were.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Can you talk to me

about some of the things that were being

talked about at that meeting?

What were the discussions like?

And what were you-- what were you hearing?

JAY STRATTON: The things that I liked

to hear most at the meetings were

of course talking about sex, talking about coming out,

talking about--

people would talk about the reactions of their friends

when they would find out this or find out that.

I remember one woman had somebody following her

around trying to see if she went to the GLF meetings or not.

There was another woman who was--

she faked being a reporter so she could go to the meetings.

And I don't know if she ever came out as gay herself,

but she wanted to spy and see if her roommate was

at the meetings.

And things like that would happen.

So all that was very interesting for me to hear,

reactions of friends and of family,

you know, whether your mom knows,

whether your brother knows, or things like that is--

is what I wanted to hear first.

KEVIN INDOVINO: And from that initial first meeting

you chose to become a regular, you actually

chose to be more involved with the GLF.

What were you getting out of it?

What was it doing for you?

JAY STRATTON: Well I was kind of atypical,

I suppose, because I was a virgin.

I had never had any kind of sexual experience

and there I am going to a GLF.

You know, hey I'm here, I want to get liberated.

You know, who's going to liberate me?

Well nobody liberated me the first time, or the second time,

or the third time, or the tenth time.

But I just kept on going.

And finally I did meet someone who liked me

and who wanted to be with me and we stayed together

for eight years.

So that was really something.

I think I was lucky to have found the GLF because most

men when they think back about their first experience,

you know, they don't know who it was with,

or they haven't seen him in years,

or that person isn't gay anymore, or never was,

or some story like that.

Whereas for myself I got a relationship out of it

that lasted for eight years.

I think I was very, very lucky in that respect and different

from other people who had a more streetwise kind of entry

to the gay community.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Just waiting for a train to go by here.

In retrospect, what was the significance or the importance

of having a group like the GLF on a university campus?

What made it so special?

JAY STRATTON: Well the best thing

about having the GLF on campus there

was you got to meet your peers, people

that were just like you that were grappling

with the same kinds of issues.

It wasn't a therapy context, it wasn't, you know,

sneak around in the bathroom kind of context or, or even

a bar context.

I never really got into the gay bar

scene and all of that or the tricking and cruising scene.

I'm kind of a glunky motormouth so I didn't--

just, that kind of a scene didn't go over well with me.

So I could sit there, I could listen, I could talk,

I could see other people.

One of the most interesting things for me

was meeting gay women.

I'd never even really thought about gay women before

and there they were.

And I became friends, I think, with gay women

before with gay men.

Perhaps it was the sexual tension or whatever.

But that's what I liked about the GLF.

Inside the university community it was all young people.

It wasn't overly sexually charged or anything like that.

It wasn't overly politically charged either.

Although, you know, nowadays when you look back at-- you

think, oh my god, what they did, oh they were so political.

And all through the seventies and eighties people

would say "Oh, yeah Jay you, oh- you were so political.

Oh you were so brave to go up there

and say this and do that."

And no, I wasn't brave.

I was just stupid.

I just didn't know what else to do so I went and did it.

KEVIN INDOVINO: You were able to be open and be yourself

at those meetings, but was that possible

in the rest of the campus?

In the dormitories, I mean, was there still that factor

of maybe leading a double life or trying to still

be partly in the closet?

JAY STRATTON: In some sense it--

KEVIN INDOVINO: What was life like as a gay person

on the campus as a whole?

JAY STRATTON: Many of the GLF members

were closeted in their private lives,

their roommates didn't know, their mom didn't know,

their dad didn't know, their best friend didn't know.

Things like that.

I was lucky in that I had just become an adult, quote unquote.

I had my own apartment for the first time in my life.

I had a job for the first time in my life.

I was a student but I was also a teaching assistant,

an instructor there.

So I had both of that.

It wasn't exactly that I was out to my students,

but I just didn't care.

I didn't worry about it.

If they happened to go to Psych 101

and saw me up there talking about something,

oh well they found out.

If they went to the main dining center

and ate and looked over at the gay table and there I,

was oh well, they found out.

I just-- I stopped worrying about it.

The one thing-- I did worry about it, of course,

a little bit with the professors that I had because most of them

were not very gay positive about things.

And that did have an impact on my studies,

and not getting my degree, and things like that.

But mostly I just--

I would refuse to worry about it with what I said.

I was a little bit closeted with what

I would write because while my career was as a teacher--

and of course at that time they were

trying to pass laws saying that gay people couldn't

be teachers, and you could be blacklisted forever,

and blabity blabity blah.

So I would play this coy little game where--

because I wrote a few things for the Empty Closet and letters

to the campus times and things like that--

I would play this coy little game

where I wouldn't go down in print as a gay person.

I would say it, I would get recorded saying it.

I would go on the radio and say it.

But I wouldn't do it in the print medium at first.

So that was-- I guess I was closeted that way.

KEVIN INDOVINO: In your memoirs I read about--

occasionally there would be discussions in one

of the pysch classes and about gay issues

and gay liberation movement and such.

And at one time there was some African-Americans

in the class who got upset because there

was a comparison between the Black Movement and the Gay

Movement and they didn't like that.

Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Ring any bells with you?

JAY STRATTON: Well there were some people of color

who didn't like the gay issues being equated

to oh, how should I say--

they didn't like gay issues being

equated to Black oppression or Latino oppression and things

like that.

But we had people of color that were in the GLF

and were perfectly well accepted by the other gays,

but not so well accepted by their own community.

I mean, I know nowadays there's the whole thing about how they

talk about they're going to drive

a wedge between the blacks and the gays and blabity blah

as the way of stopping the gay marriage and issues like that.

But back then I didn't really feel it that much.

People-- I myself felt it more like,

like a universal kind of a liberation

that we were for Black liberation,

we were for Native American rights,

we were for the revolution, the counterculture,

we were against evil Nixon and the war and everything

like that.

And as a white person you feel a lot of solidarity

which maybe people had not felt with the other movements up

until then.

So we just felt like it was all part of the same thing.

KEVIN INDOVINO: I asked you a little while ago--

back in the other room there--

in your memoirs you talk about the gay table.

Tell me about the gay table.

I mean, was it a designated gay table

or did the rest of the campus-- straight people on the campus--

know that it was a gay table?

Or was it just the typical table that you

and your gay colleagues just typically sat at all the time.

JAY STRATTON: Well, so far as the gay table--

in the dining halls at college--

the first gay people I saw at Syracuse University--

that was a gay table but it just happened to be a bunch

of friends who sat together who got mocked out by--

my friends who I was sitting with

and that's how I knew that they were gay.

Those were the first gay people I saw, ever.

The gay table at the University of Rochester

was a function and one of the most important functions

of the Gay Liberation Front.

I believe it was Marshall Goldman who

came up with the idea and he'd say, "Oh, we've

got to get out there.

We've got to show everyone on campus, you know,

that we're not ashamed.

That we can go, that we eat food just like, you know,

ordinary people do and that we can go to the dining halls

and sit there and people would get to look at us."

And the idea was that if they looked at us and they saw us

maybe they would dare come to a meeting

or maybe they would dare talk to us

if they saw us in the library or something like that.

So every week-- I believe it was Wednesdays,

but it changed around-- it would be advertised

I believe in the campus times and maybe we

made posters for it.

But everybody knew.

It would change around, we would go to the different dining

halls, and people would just come together and eat there.

It was the only time I ate in the dining hall

because I was a graduate student and I wasn't

too fond of the cafeteria food.

But on that day I would always--

sometimes I would pack a lunch even, a little brown bag,

and go in there to eat at the gay table.

Other times I would splurge and pay

the two dollars or whatever the school

dinner cost at that time.

KEVIN INDOVINO: You became actively involved

with the Gay Alliance, right?

Or did you--

JAY STRATTON: Peripherally.

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

Well I guess at first your main involvement was with the GLF.

(Stratton nods)

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

But you worked--

I'm just trying to clarify this for my own sense, here--

at the office at the GLF, were you--

you working the phones, or?

(Stratton nods)

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

Do you remember was it the GLF or the Gay Alliance,

when they were off campus?

(Stratton nods)

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

So talk to me a little bit about that, then,

working and getting involved in working

with the office at the GLF, and some of the things

you had to deal with, people calling,

people coming in, and helping them out

in ways of trying to direct them to whatever they were seeking.

JAY STRATTON: Well in the beginning,

the GLF at the University of Rochester

was-- it was the first gay organization in the city.

And it was open to anyone in the city.

And they used to have huge dances and big meetings

and dozens or maybe even hundreds of people would come.

But the point at which I joined, the Gay Alliance

had just separated from the University

and the GLF was just a student organization.

But we were told about the opportunities

that there were in the community.

I was taken--

OK we're going to go to a gay bar--

and we would go and see this gay bar,

we would go and see that gay bar.

I was taken to Gay Alliance meetings over in the burned

out restaurant in 1974, to see what that was like.

Because the people in the group wanted newbies like myself,

you know, to be exposed to all the different aspects

of gay life.

You know, the bars, the dirty bookstores,

the organizations in the community,

as well as the organizations on campus.

And I worked a little bit for the Gay Alliance,

but that was kind of later on.

In the beginning I just worked for the GLF

and the work was going to meetings

and hanging out and going to the gay table

and getting to know other people that were there.

And then when I felt more confident,

I had an office shift.

That year the GLF had a little tiny closet size

office in Todd Union.

And we had a telephone, and file cabinets, and a mini library.

It was like everything the Gay Alliance

has today but in miniature.

Lots of those things had been donated by the community.

So we were kind of ahead of the other student

organizations at that time.

And I would just go there, I had my regular night,

and other members would come and visit and talk with me.

We had a log book and we would put down

everything that happened.

You know, whether people called up for counseling or people

came by to visit.

But usually new people wouldn't come by

and there would be a lot of hang up calls, breather calls, which

was what we would call them.

If people were to call up to masturbate or something

like that, we would go, oh, we got a breather last night.

And we'd talk about that.

Sometimes you would get people that had a lot of difficulties

and we would try to tell them, oh, it's

OK or oh, you can go here and talk

to this person or that person.

We weren't really making counseling referrals

at that time but that was what we were--

we were trying to do.

We were not trained at all.

We were just talk-- we would talk about ourselves

and try to get the other person to talk

about himself or herself.

So I started-- and it was evening hours,

something like, I don't know, seven to ten or something.

You would just sit in the office--

other times I would go to the office during the day

and hang out there or take the mail out of the little cubby

hole and read it.

And we had our little mailboxes inside the organization.

Oh, Marshall Goldman should get this.

Oh, you know Marge and Liz would want to see that.

You'd divide things up.

Oh what else did I do?

I did the telephone, I did having the--

KEVIN INDOVINO: I want to hang on the the telephone a little

bit here, because I'm trying to get

a sense of the kind of calls that would come in.

I know that people that would call in there

were looking for counseling, they

were looking for some way of trying to find out information

about who they may be.

You know-- that you used to get calls,

on occasion people who have been arrested

and are trying to find some sort of resource

or trying to figure out what they should do, do then.

If you could, just kind of talk to me about maybe so--

some of the types of calls that you would get.

JAY STRATTON: The types of calls that

would come in, some were from students and others of course

were from people outside the university community.

Some were people seeking legal aid

because they'd just been arrested

doing something they shouldn't have done in a park,

or something like that.

And then, those kind of calls we would just say "Well, here,

call up the Gay Alliance they have referrals to lawyers,

and stuff like that."

Usually you would just talk about your own feelings,

about your own self, and try to get the person

on the other end of the phone to open up

about their feelings about themselves.

There were also-- a bunch of calls would come

for information about where the bars are,

or when the meetings are, or does this other college have

a--

have a group yet or not, things like that.

So we were-- we were doing referrals to the gay bars.

Because we didn't know the names of them,

we didn't know the names of the counselors or the lawyers,

but we did know the names of the gay bars,

so we'd refer people to there.

KEVIN INDOVINO: This is just a fishing question at the moment.

Without mentioning specific names

or getting too specific, in that time was

there-- was there any kind of call

that ever came in that really hit home with you,

that really kind of left-- was there any particular call

that you-- that really stuck with you because it was either

really dramatic or really emotional

or, or knowing that you really kind of helped that person

get through something.

JAY STRATTON: When you get a phone call from somebody

that you don't know that won't identify themselves,

and maybe they'll never talk to you again later,

I can't say that I've followed through or that those were--

that they really resonated with me in any way.

But things that did resonate were people who would come in

to visit and they would be visibly shaken

or sweating or some-- just to walk in a room, to talk to me.

I don't think I'm that threatening or anything

but of course for the context, it was.

And you know, they would come sneaking in at quarter of ten

when nobody was going to be on that floor of the student

union.

And they would come in, and they would look both ways,

and close the door or sit out of sight of people passing by.

And I did meet a number of people who were like that

and I felt really proud of myself

to have made them feel more comfortable being themselves.

This one man in particular, I remember,

who came in and he'd never talked to a gay person before

and he really did enjoy talking to me.

Not that I'm that great a counselor or anything,

but I was just telling him my own feelings.

And he said, "Oh, yeah I did that too.

I felt that way as well."

And this person that I'm referencing was--

I mean, he already knew about the gay bar scene

and he'd had lots more sex than I

had and everything like that with a girlfriend

and a boyfriend.

And well, not a regular boyfriend, but.

And he said to me, he said, "Oh Jay, you're so brave."

And I go, "Brave?

What is there to be brave about sitting

in a seat, late at night, in a empty building,

talking, you know?

There's nothing brave at all like that."

But he thought I was brave.

He never did dare come to an open kind of meeting.

But I think I helped him out a lot.

Another thing that sticks in my mind

was I had a radio program for the GLF.

It was called Gay Waves.

And I didn't know that anybody listened to it or anything

like that.

But, we made it anyways.

It was from WRUR, the student radio station there.

And there were several hosts.

I was the rock and roll host.

And so we made this program and it was only a half

hour, once a week.

But it was one of the first--

it was the second gay radio program in the area.

The first was made by Bruce Jewell at one

of the mainline stations.

So anyways, I had this little program and I would play,

not like bar dance music kind of stuff.

But I would try to get lyrics that were gay

or that were interesting-- interesting kind of rock

and roll kind of things that had a gay subtext to it,

not just things that I liked.

And we had another host who would

do gay classical composers and stuff like that as well.

And we also did political kind of discussions.

But anyways, after I'd had that program for a while

there was someone who started coming to the meetings who

had heard my program.

And I felt like, oh, wow, you know?

Oh, I had felt like I'd really done some good.

And then this person was Jean who later changed her name

and her sex both.

And I think oh wow, Jean started on her road by hearing me.

And she was living at home with mom and all that at the time,

and going to college.

And that I was like, a window of opportunity for something

that was very, very important to her and that

might even have saved her life.

And that was a really good feeling for me.

KEVIN INDOVINO: In what year you were doing the radio show?

JAY STRATTON: Oh probably 1975 was when Gay Waves was on.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Are there any recordings around that you know

of?

Were any of the shows recorded?

JAY STRATTON: I don't know if WRUR kept recordings of it.

But it was made--

it wasn't a live show so it was made via recordings.

There was a closeted person--

semi-closeted-- Andy, who worked at the station.

And he knew how to do everything and he would

pretend that he didn't know us.

And we would go in--

KEVIN INDOVINO: So you don't have

any of your own personal tapes?

JAY STRATTON: I don't have any of my own personal tapes,

but I know that a tape of one of those programs--

which is me talking at Psych 101 or something,

and other people as well--

is in the time capsule at the U of R

for the building of the Wilson Commons.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Oh, we'll just go dig it up.

JAY STRATTON: Yeah, who knows if it'll

sti-- when they dig it up, who knows if it'll still run.

But the station might have some of the old recordings.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Just get some information

so I can check into it.

CREW: Hang on a second.

Two o'clock?

KEVIN INDOVINO: Oh, the two o'clock bell.

At least we only have two bells this time.

(pause in recording)

CREW: And, rolling.

KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.

I want to just talk about some fun stuff for a second.

The first gay dance that you went to.

Talk to me about that.

It was a gay dance for the GLF, or?

JAY STRATTON: Let's see.

The GLF-- one of the GLF's prime things to do

was to have the dance.

That dance of the year.

Usually, I think there were two, or maybe just one.

My memory is getting foggy on that.

But in the past they'd been--

when they were open to everyone in the community and everyone

used to come from the whole city they were kind of wild

and a lot of fun.

But by the time I came out at the U of R

it had dwindled down to just the student groups.

So mainly it would be a dozen gay people,

a dozen friends-- straight friends of gay people

and then far more gawkers.

Gawkers would come.

And we would have it in a dining hall.

And we would get there early and take back all the chairs

and tables, and hire a big band, and get refreshments.

At that time they had-- they had liquor for the students

and they would even have kegs of beer.

And we'd have all this fancy food and a fancy band

and we'd be all ready to go and then

nobody would come except for perhaps a dozen of us.

But we would try not to let it faze us and just go on dancing.

And try and-- talking to people and having a good time

and eating the food and drinking the beer.

And then at a certain point in the evening

you realize you've bought three dozen too

many donuts or half a keg would have done or whatever.

And they would kind of throw it open

and then all the gawkers would come in to eat the food

and drink the beer and make fun of us.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Besides just being a social event for gay

and lesbians on campus, what other impact

did an event like that have?

JAY STRATTON: The biggest impact of having the dance, I think,

was getting out there, showing that we weren't afraid.

People would come and stare at us and we didn't care.

That we were just having fun with our own friends.

It was a place where men could dance with men and women could

dance with women.

And even in the gay bars at that time

that was kind of a risque thing to do.

That was still the era of raids and stuff like that.

And there were bars--

especially in other states, not so much in New York,

but in other areas-- where they wouldn't even let you do that

or they didn't want you to do that.

And here we were doing it right on campus.

That was a liberating experience for us

to be able to just be ourselves right in front of everybody

and not care what they thought.

KEVIN INDOVINO: This documentary called Shoulders to Stand On,

it's largely about people whose shoulders

that we stand on who--

the forefathers, the foremothers of the gay movement

here in Rochester.

So I'm just going to throw out some names to you.

And just kind of get your impression of these people.

Who they were, what importance do

you think they have within the gay liberation

movement, in the history of the gay liberation movement

here in Rochester.

The first one, obviously, is going to be Marshall Goldman.

Talk to me about Marshall Goldman.

What was he like?

What was his impact?

JAY STRATTON: Well Marshall Goldman

was one of the founders of the GLF.

When he was a freshman, he was an awful brave freshman

to do that.

That was before I even came to Rochester.

So I knew Marshall, I guess it was his senior year

when I met him.

And he was kind of toned down since then,

since the beginning.

The pink hair had gone to the side.

But there was a lot of the outrageousness

that was still there.

Marshall was brave for doing what he did, as a freshman,

to say I'm going to be part of the GLF.

And I'm going to be one of the founding fathers.

And he was there for the group and he was really worried

that the group would go under when he wasn't there.

He would say things like, well you've got to keep it going.

We've got to get out there.

We've got to be at the gay table.

We have to have the dance every year.

You know, he was the guiding force like that.

But he was rather controversial because lots of people

didn't like him.

He was a little bit overly wild, maybe overly queenie.

Maybe overly sex-oriented, shall we say.

But he was the driving force behind it

that kept things going.

Other people would drop out of the group

rather than be seen around Marshall with the pink hair

or something like that.

But it was too bad for them.

It was too bad for them that they

couldn't deal with someone who was

a little bit more flamboyant.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Liz Bell?

JAY STRATTON: Liz Bell was our slinky lesbian.

She had a super short haircut that she got from Buren

that she was real proud of.

What can I say about Liz Bell?

She had kind of a spiritual outlook on things.

I didn't know until many, many years

later that she did become a preacher.

And she is a preacher today.

But she wasn't studying that back then.

I don't know what to say about Liz.

She was just the archetypical slinky lesbian.

And she was always waving her tongue around

and doing facial expressions and being outrageous.

And she wasn't going to let anyone

tell her there was anything wrong with her

and you better not pick on me or anybody else later

and she'd be right there next to you, standing up for you.

KEVIN INDOVINO: How about Bob Osborn, did you--

JAY STRATTON: I didn't really know Bob Osborn.

I met him a few times.

He was a graduate student there but he was more involved

with the Gay Alliance and he only came to a few meetings,

so I barely recognized him.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Michael Robertson?

JAY STRATTON: Well Michael Robertson

was a member of the GLF, but not a member

of the U of R community.

So he was off at the Gay Alliance at that time.

But I met him early in 1974.

The biggest thing that I remember about Michael

for myself was that I had seen his photograph

in the Empty Closet that was another big barrier--

do you dare to have your face published in the Empty Closet?

It was one thing to have your name in print,

but to have your face there too.

And Michael had his face in there and he was quite cute.

And I used to think about him in impure ways sometimes.

And then when I met him, what I liked the best about Michael

was that he had a southern accent still at that time.

And I grew up down south and I associated southern accents

with people beating me up and picking

on me because I was a little Yankee faggot, you know?

But Michael was so nice and so polite and just

to hear that accent that was the nicest thing, that I

liked about Michael for me.

But that was like a personal reaction.

KEVIN INDOVINO: What are your fondest memories of that time?

JAY STRATTON: My fondest memories

of the U of R and the GLF times.

Well there's a lot of unfond memories from the GLF

times of emotional trauma and not being able to meet somebody

and feeling totally different from everybody.

Even I thought, you go through the door, you come out,

OK that's it, it's all over.

But it wasn't quite like that.

And I languished as a virgin at GLF for many, many months.

So I guess my fondest memories, of course,

are meeting my first boyfriend Louis, which

I did at a GLF coffee house.

You know, passing the guitar around

and Michael Robertson was there, and Tim Mains is singing songs

with his guitar.

And he had his long hippie hair at that point still.

And so my fondest memories of course

are of meeting Louis at that time

and going out on my first dates and going skating.

For me that was something totally new that someone

you could dance with, you can go out to restaurants with,

you could kiss them, you could go skating with them,

you could hold their hand and stuff like that.

That was totally new for me.

And Lou, well he went kind of back in the closet later

because he was a teacher too.

But at that time he was, oh I don't care,

I'm going to have fun philosophy.

And we went out one time we both liked to roller skate

and we went to a roller skating rink across the river

from the U of R someplace.

And paid our money and got in and we're skating around

and then they had a couple skate.

And we were a couple so we decided we

would go to the couple skate.

So we held hands and started skating around the rink

and then the announcer came on and specified

that a couple would consist of one young man and one

young lady and nothing else.

And we were asked to leave the floor so rather than cause

a riot or anything we did.

And then when couple skate was over-- we

were going to get our money-- because we were both very

poor at the time, we're going to get

our money's worth-- we're back out there skating around again

you know.

And then, oh, another couple's skate.

We'd have to sit it out.

Well, that's what we did the first time

and we complained about this.

And we mentioned it at the Gay Alliance and the GLF meetings.

And so we arranged to go back for a little Zap

with about a dozen people--

some male couples, some female couples and we went there

and we pretended we were heterosexuals for a while.

And they had their couple skate thing that would come on

and we went out there pretending that we were straights.

Then suddenly we switched to who we

wanted to be skating with us, and there were about a dozen

gay couples out there.

And they didn't make an announcement that time,

they didn't know what to say.

And they were like hmm.

They said nothing.

And who was it--

so we did that, we skated around for a while.

And then people started leaving, and I

think it was Michael Robertson says, "Well we've

made our statement, and they've accepted us, and accepted it,

and they haven't said anything back."

And so everybody says, "OK.

That was a Zap well done."

And they go off.

Well we were going to stay and get our money's worth.

So we stayed when everyone else was gone.

And then they started, look at those faggots

out there, hey honey.

And we got a lot of verbal harassment as we were leaving.

But we didn't let it faze us because we

felt very victorious.

KEVIN INDOVINO: If it wasn't for the GLF,

what direction do you think your life would have taken?

JAY STRATTON: If I hadn't been able to meet other gay people

through the GLF, I don't really know what direction

my life would have taken.

Not a good one.

Not a good one.

I would have continued on falling in love

with straight friends who didn't want to have anything

to do with me in that way.

Perhaps I would have gravitated to the bathroom scenes which

were very prevalent at the University of Rochester,

probably still are, mainly for older, married kind of guys

that go there and have sex or meet sex partners

in the bathroom, or sneak around in the bushes, and things

like that.

Maybe I would have gotten drawn into that.

I think there would have been a lot more burden of shame on me.

But it was-- that's the best thing,

that I was able to be around people who aren't ashamed.

And then I came to share those kind of feelings.

KEVIN INDOVINO: So out of your involvement

in your activities in those years, what are you most proud

of, personally?

JAY STRATTON: What am I most proud of that I did for GLF?

Well that's kind of hard to say.

I guess I'd be most proud saying that perhaps I

helped some people not to kill themselves.

I don't know the exact details of it or anything like that

but I get that feeling.

That's what I'm most proud of.

Because I know I considered things like that myself

and that I could have helped somebody else not to do

it was very important to me.

KEVIN INDOVINO: And if you were speaking to the younger

generation now, things are very different for them now.

We are visible, we're on TV, we're on Twitter, wherever.

If you were to speak to them now,

what would you want them to know about the generation that

was before them?

What do you want them to know about the kind of things

that you did to set the ground for where they are now?

JAY STRATTON: Well I had a career as a teacher

and during-- in the city school district here--

and during my last year I did have the privilege

of going to a gay group at a high school,

and meeting young gay people.

And I was just blown away that people

who were seventh or eighth graders would come up to me

and go, oh yeah, I'm gay.

And that's-- I can't imagine having that much

self-awareness.

If I'd had that much self-awareness

myself when I was in seventh grade,