Audio Interview, Alan Davidson, June 1, 2012

KEVIN INDOVINO: Auction.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Auction days.

KEVIN INDOVINO: When we used to do auction on the air.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh dear god, a lot of fun.

Fun, fun.

EVELYN BAILEY: Alan--

KEVIN INDOVINO: I remember you and your crazy hat what was it?

ALAN DAVIDSON: My hats?

KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah crazy-- or you had more than one right.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I still have and wear crazy hats.

I'm the hat man.

I was going to wear one of my crazy hat--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Every night during an auction

he'd wear some crazy hat.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I still do that.

EVELYN BAILEY: Where you were born in Rochester?

ALAN DAVIDSON: I was born in Chicago,

but I came to Rochester when I was six weeks old.

I'm a twin to a sister.

And I have remembrance of my mom,

coming off the train in her fox coat, fur coat, with both of us

in her arms.

So yes, I am a Rochesterian.

EVELYN BAILEY: So you grew up here?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh yeah.

I only came here when I was six weeks old,

so I don't remember Chicago very well.

EVELYN BAILEY: OK.

And when would that have been?

I mean when were you born?

ALAN DAVIDSON: I was born in '36.

I'm seventy-five happily young years old.

EVELYN BAILEY: Wow.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I can't believe it but yes I am.

EVELYN BAILEY: When did you come out?

ALAN DAVIDSON: I came out in the late 70s.

EVELYN BAILEY: Really?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah.

EVELYN BAILEY: Did you know before?

ALAN DAVIDSON: No that's another story.

We could do a story on this if you're interested,

Kevin, someday.

But in the Reader's Digest version,

I was married for twelve and a half years.

Wonderful, wonderful marriage.

Straight as an arrow.

Did the typical suburbanites things.

Had a great marriage.

Fortunately, I have a wonderful eight and a half year old,

I had an eight a half year old daughter.

But my wife died, when she was thirty-two years old,

from cancer.

And when she died it took me a little time

to get myself organized.

People told me that I have to keep going

and I realized I had to keep going because of my daughter.

And I'm a Jewish boy, and there was a group forming

at the JCC called Our Gang.

And this was for singles, and divorcees, and separations,

and anybody single.

So they asked me if I would come to a meeting,

and I came to a meeting.

The second time that I came, I was elected

president of the organization.

It was a brand new kind of thing,

I got involved with that.

Just giving you a--

And then I started dating again.

But, a strange thing was happening, as I was dating.

This is talking about like mid- 70s then.

and I didn't really enjoy it for several reasons.

Number one, I felt very pressured.

All I was looking for was companionship, adult

companionship.

And the women that I were taking out--

and I enjoyed their company-- did want two things from me.

One they wanted to get married, and I wasn't looking for that.

Or they just wanted to have sex, and I wasn't looking for that.

I was a buyer for McCurdy's at that time.

EVELYN BAILEY: Oh wow.

KEVIN INDOVINO: So they wanted three things, clothes.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Pardon me?

KEVIN INDOVINO: So they wanted three things really.

Clothes.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah, that's true.

So I took myself, my wife and I would drive by Jim's, and we

would always say, oh look at the queers.

You know that day queer was very wrong that was a bad word,

today it's a great word.

And we would say, look at the queers,

and we would make fun of them.

And then for some reason, and I don't know why,

and that I can't answer, I took myself to Jim's.

And Lo and behold, when I walked in there,

I saw at least eight people that I knew, quite well.

I'm going to throw out names, but we won't use names.

Just to give you the background here.

Joe--

EVELYN BAILEY: Joe.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Joe and Tom, from Edwards.

Joe was a salesman of mine, and that's how I knew him.

And Richard Mancini, decorator.

A couple other people that worked in the store.

And they said, what are you doing here?

I said, I don't know, and I started talking and meeting

a few more people.

A couple of weeks went by and I got a call from Joe

and said he was having a dinner party,

and would I like to go over there and join him?

And Lo and behold I did.

And I walked in and there were twelve men

around a dinner table.

I thought it was a little strange, but I sat down.

By the time the evening ended, I felt very, very comfortable

in the situation.

And a couple of weeks later, I got a call

from one of the gentlemen that was at the dinner party,

and asked me if I wanted to go out to the movies

and go to dinner.

And I said yes, and I did.

And I went to Jim's, after dinner, with him.

And had a wonderful time.

Let my hair down.

Thank god I wasn't promiscuous.

At that stage I wasn't interested in promiscuity,

or sex I should say.

I just wanted to be with adults, and get myself going again.

EVELYN BAILEY: What year are we talking?

What year?

ALAN DAVIDSON: What year?

We're in about '77 '78.

EVELYN BAILEY: OK

ALAN DAVIDSON: And I really liked it very, very much.

So about six months I did this scene.

And then I said to myself you know,

is this what I really wanted?

So I decided to go back dating again, females.

And sure enough the same thing did happen,

I was perhaps even more turned off.

And I just wasn't comfortable with the situation.

So I went back to Jim's.

And met more and more people, and became very involved

in the community.

And then I don't know if this is what you want to hear,

but OK I'm trying to give you my chronological.

Then late 70s, I'll have to give a shout out

to miss Anita Bryant.

This starts my gay life.

Thank you Anita, for letting me see how ignorant and how stupid

and how uneducated people are on homosexuality.

Because if you recall she came out,

and she was very flamboyant about homos

being bad people, not good citizens,

and it just got to me.

EVELYN BAILEY: Save the children.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Exactly, so I said to myself,

you know this is terrible, to have this woman say this

when I'm really one of these people

that she's talking about now.

So I called a couple of my straight friends,

and I called a couple of my gay friends.

And I said, hey you want to do something and get together

and see if we can maybe get people educated

on what homosexuality is about?

Or what discrimination is about, I'll

use that word but better off, because that was the term.

And we formed an organization called Coalition for Change.

I don't know whether this is in your records or not,

but it was Allen Copenhagen, Craig Nuo, Patti Evans,

I mentioned Patti's name, myself, can't remember some

of the other people, I'm sorry.

But we formed this organization Coalition for Change.

And this basically was an organization

to just let people know that there's people out there that

are gay, and that they have certain rights,

and they have certain feelings, just like normal human beings.

And one of the biggest things we did,

which was a tremendous success--

and I really felt rather than just going to Jim's and having

a good time--

I wanted to really do something besides just being a party

animal and having fun.

I thought that this was important to do it

at this time.

We had a rally downtown.

In Crossroads Park.

And the name Leonard Matlovich, I

don't know that means anything, might not mean anything

to Kevin, but let me tell you Leonard Matlovich,

was the very first military officer

to come out as a gay individual.

EVELYN BAILEY: Right.

ALAN DAVIDSON: And I said to the group

I said, you know wouldn't this be great to have Leonard

come speak to us at our rally?

They said oh you'll never get him.

At this time he was very popular in the news.

And I said, well you know lets--

I'm going to try it.

So I wrote him a letter, and I got an answer back from him.

And he said yes he would come.

And he came to our rally and we publicized it very well.

One of our adversaries was the name of Mancuso.

I don't remember his--

EVELYN BAILEY: Michael.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Michael, thank you.

Michael Mancuso, who was our if you

wanted to have the right corner and the left corner,

we were both in different corners if you know.

He had his group.

We had our group.

And he was there protesting when we

had Leonard Matlovich. there.

And we had hundreds, and hundreds of people

attend this rally.

It was just one of the most, first,

I would say demonstrations.

Or rally, rally would be a better word--

to be held in Rochester, New York,

and it was a very successful rally.

EVELYN BAILEY: Now I want to stop you for a minute,

because I have done some research on this.

That rally was in opposition to Anita Bryant

coming to Rochester.

Is that correct?

ALAN DAVIDSON: No, it wasn't in--

I don't believe that she had plans to,

you know what, now that you mention it--

EVELYN BAILEY: She was to perform at the Dome Arena.

ALAN DAVIDSON: You know what?

You are right.

EVELYN BAILEY: In Henrietta.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That is, yes.

EVELYN BAILEY: Now--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Al, you can have some water if you want.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yup.

EVELYN BAILEY: The Empty Closet, records that.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

EVELYN BAILEY: But one of my archival consultants

went out to the Dome Arena.

ALAN DAVIDSON: OK.

EVELYN BAILEY: They don't have any record of her ever

saying she was coming.

ALAN DAVIDSON: But yes what you're telling me

is true, because I do now remember that.

That was one of the reasons that we

were going to have the rally.

Whether she came or not--

my memory--

KEVIN INDOVINO: The easy answer to that

is, it maybe never got to the stage

of an actual contract signed.

If there's already opposition for her coming here,

maybe their people went, OK we're not going to Rochester.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Possibly.

KEVIN INDOVINO: So that's why there'd be no record of it.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I don't know, but you are so, so right

by refreshing my memory.

I don't remember everything.

But this rally, I know, I can just see it right now.

And this Leonard Matlovich, was such a gentleman.

I mean he stood up for his rights, you know?

And this was a big thing back then because this was--

EVELYN BAILEY: There were close to 1,000 people.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yes absolutely, you do remember.

You remember that?

EVELYN BAILEY: I've read.

I wasn't there.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh you read, you weren't,

you couldn't of been there, no.

OK you read.

Oh OK, OK.

EVELYN BAILEY: In The Empty Closet,

you see forty years are online now

at the University of Rochester.

You can access them.

But in preparing for this documentary,

and preparing to write the history.

These are the incidents' that the community responded

to, in such a way that it was extraordinary.

The DNC even had an article about it.

Which the Democrat and Chronicle,

did not usually report on gay activity or--

ALAN DAVIDSON: That is correct.

So that was very successful.

And what happened to the group I'm

not quite sure how we ended.

But the next step with me, which was shortly after that,

was that Rochester, New York believe it or not

was the first city to want to put in law

an anti-discrimination law.

Which was anti-discrimination against homosexuals

in housing, education, schooling, jobs,

anything that had the same rights as quote

"the straight community."

This had to go to city council.

So once again, we had a little group

that went to city council.

Now this you will find believe it or not,

because I remember this picture, in the Democrat and Chronicle

of me speaking to city council and telling them

why they should pass this law.

After several debates, and that several meetings,

this law became--

this act, became a law in Rochester, New York.

Rochester, New York was one of the very first cities

in the country, not just the state but the country to pass

an anti-discrimination law--

EVELYN BAILEY: Protecting.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Protecting our rights.

And this was--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Is this under Ryan?

Mayor Ryan?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Mayor Ryan.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Or was it Johnson already?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh no--

EVELYN BAILEY: It was Ryan.

ALAN DAVIDSON: It was Ryan, it wasn't Johnson.

No, no this is-- you're talking once again, early 80s so

to speak.

But we were, are you aware of this?

EVELYN BAILEY: Yes.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That we were one of the first cities--

KEVIN INDOVINO: One of the first yeah.

ALAN DAVIDSON: One of the first cities to have this law.

Thanks to, I think, our efforts of being forceful and being

forthright and coming forward.

So that was a tremendous thing.

EVELYN BAILEY: Do you recall the opposition to that?

ALAN DAVIDSON: It was still Mancuso believe it or not.

Oh yeah, definitely I remember him.

He hung in there.

I got to give him credit for that.

He hung in there, but he very rarely won the battles.

We won the wars.

Maybe he won a few battles, but we won the wars.

KEVIN INDOVINO: I wonder if I'm related

because I have a lot of Mancuso's that are cousins.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I don't know.

EVELYN BAILEY: Were you involved at all

or do you recall the CETA funding?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Mm-hm.

Mm-hm.

I wasn't involved in any of that, but I do recall that.

Mm-hm.

EVELYN BAILEY: And that was in the late 70s.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That is correct.

That is correct.

EVELYN BAILEY: So we have Anita Bryant coming.

we have the CETA funding.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Correct.

EVELYN BAILEY: I think out of that came

the anti-discrimination laws--

ALAN DAVIDSON: You are absolutely

correct in your chronological--

EVELYN BAILEY: Was Charlie Schiano still on city council?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yes Charlie Schiano Someone

that still is, what is his name?

I just love him, but I can't think of who-- he just

was in the news recently too.

Who was it?

EVELYN BAILEY: Still on city council?

ALAN DAVIDSON: No, not on council

anymore, but still active.

EVELYN BAILEY: Paul Haney.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yup, oh Yeah that's how I got to know Paul.

Through city council as a matter of fact.

EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah yeah, he's been around a long time.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Then--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Was he an advocate or?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh he was on council,

KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah, but--

EVELYN BAILEY: He was an advocate.

ALAN DAVIDSON: He was an advocate.

KEVIN INDOVINO: For us?

OK.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah, but he also had to be very, very--

EVELYN BAILEY: Discreet.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Discreet in being an advocate,

but everybody knew he was an advocate at least our side knew

he was an advocate.

People from the other side knew he

was but they didn't really pronounce it some

what, you know what I mean?

EVELYN BAILEY: He was closeted.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah, yeah.

But in our side, very, very helpful.

EVELYN BAILEY: Right.

Now I want to go back just a little

Alan, when you were invited to Joe and Tom's house,

On would you say or do you recall at that time

that most of the socializing that happened in the community,

if you weren't at the bars there were these small parties?

There were these social gatherings at people's homes,

and they were usually professional businessmen--

ALAN DAVIDSON: Absolutely.

But not prior to going to Joe and Tom's home.

I had no idea that there was such a thing as that.

After going to Joe and Tom's home for dinner,

and being invited in that group, I

found that to be very prevalent.

As a matter of fact, I know this--

I'm going to say it, might sound strange--

but sex was not the concern or the interest

of most of my friends to be honest with you.

It was more of a camaraderie, bonding, male companionship,

kind of thing.

Does that make sense to you?

At that stage, you know at least in the group that I was with.

EVELYN BAILEY: Were you still working at this time?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yes, oh sir, I was the buyer

for McCurdy's and a buyer for Foreman's.

EVELYN BAILEY: OK so after the anti-discrimination battle--

ALAN DAVIDSON: OK.

Then we come to the next step in my activism

if you want to call it such.

I have a very good friend by the name

of Don Scillaia who went to New York City to become a doctor.

And he called me one day-- we're talking about like '81 '82--

and called me and said Alan, have you heard about AIDS.

And I said to him, I remember distinctly, I said AIDS?

You mean that diet pill that everybody is taking now?

That's what I said to him.

He said no.

In New York City, we have a disease--

did he say disease, I'm not sure exactly the word--

disease that has hit the gay community.

And it's called AIDS.

I said what are you talking about?

And then he went on the phone to tell me some of the details.

And he said I'm coming to Rochester next week,

and I'd like to get together with you

and talk to you about it.

So I said, sure.

You know I said it sounds rather interesting.

So I called Sue Cowell who Sue and I knew each other from,

just from the community per se.

And I called her and I told her--

because she was a friend of Don's also--

I said, well Don told me about this AIDS thing

in New York City.

And he's coming in to talk to me about it.

Do you think you would like to partake in our conversation?

Because she was a nurse at that time.

And she said, oh my god, yeah why don't you guys come over

to the house and we'll talk about it

and have a little snack or something.

I said fine.

So we arranged a meeting on Sue's porch.

The three of us.

And we talked about AIDS.

And Sue and I decided--

Don was in New York City, that's where he lived--

that we would try to do something, to maybe--

I meant, at that time, it was strictly

like an educational kind of thing because she was a nurse,

but I certainly didn't have any medical things.

But if we could educate people what was

happening around the country.

And it looked like, from what he said it was not only going

to be a New York City, but it was spreading

throughout the country.

And that's our concern was.

So she and I got together with oh I'd

say about eight people roughly.

And we talked about it.

And what we would have to do to actually form

a legitimate organization.

And get in touch with New York state

and get bonded and funding, because that's

what we would need to do.

We took the ball and we did that.

And we met at people's homes as we started.

And we grew and then we met in top of Tara's.

They had a room upstairs.

And that became sort of our headquarters.

And we did it in a way that basically our thrust

was education and telling the public what

it was about, and also from a medical standpoint

that if people needed help medically because they

got sick, what we could do.

So I'll take credit for this I organized the very first AIDS

benefit at Friar's Inn on Monroe Avenue,

to raise money for the event--

or for the purpose of helping out the community.

And it was very successful.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Do you remember which year?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Believe it was like '82 '83 roughly.

And once again, you should find this in the archives you know?

EVELYN BAILEY: The EC, yes.

Now what I wanted, '82 '83--

ALAN DAVIDSON: Right.

EVELYN BAILEY: You really didn't begin the hot-line

though until a little later.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh absolutely not till later.

These were just little ad hoc kind of little things

that we were doing.

But once again that came shortly afterwards.

Yeah.

EVELYN BAILEY: Mm-hm.

So the first AIDS benefit was at Friar's.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Mm-hm, mm-hm.

EVELYN BAILEY: And was--

who was involved at Friar's.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Friar's.

Jesse Vulu who was very, very instrumental in a lot of AIDS

work.

And unfortunately, I don't know how--

I trust you people use discreetly certain things

and things are checked.

He was the very first person that died of AIDS,

and was a very good friend of mine, in Rochester, New York.

The very, very first one, he didn't even

know that he had AIDS.

At that time the disease was so, so strange

that people didn't realize that they had this.

Because the symptoms were the diarrhea, and vomiting,

and losing weight.

I mean I can see him now, in the hospital, and it's rough.

But anyway so he was the very first person,

but he was very, very big on doing things.

And one of the very first things that we did, was we

formed our first AIDS walk.

And that was like lets see, I guess it was '82 '83.

You'd have to double check the date to be sure.

I can't really give you the exact--

EVELYN BAILEY: I think it was '82.

ALAN DAVIDSON: '82 '83 was the very first day's walk

and I'm going to brag again that--

I have this at home to show you--

that I raised the most money as the number one

person getting the most donations for this walk.

And as you well know, this walk just built, and built,

and built, and built, and built. And became a very, very

successful tool, that all--

KEVIN INDOVINO: There's another one this weekend I think right?

EVELYN BAILEY: Yes.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That all these organizations, around

the whole country now do AIDS walk.

I'm not saying that we were the first AIDS walk

but we were the first--

that's when we started our AIDS walk so it's been going on

for umpteen years.

The AIDS thing, since we're on the AIDS,

like I was saying to RJ too that it

was tooth and nail to fight to get money from New York State.

It was really Jackie Nunn, who I think you all know that name.

She was very helpful in doing this AIDS thing too.

Grant writing and everything you had to do it.

EVELYN BAILEY: Right.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I didn't have that expertise,

so I wasn't involved in writing the grants.

But we're talking about how to raise money,

for not only education, but from the medical standpoint of it.

And Bill Valenti just to throw out names.

Which I'm sure this is a little bit in the future.

But I think through our efforts at the very beginning

stages certainly was the tip of the iceberg for people

to go forward and go forward and go forward.

But because it became not just a little tiny organization,

but grew so fast and so big rapidly,

that it was really out of control almost.

So we needed really the professional end of it.

We were just all layman in this.

EVELYN BAILEY: Right

ALAN DAVIDSON: And that's how AIDS Rochester came about.

EVELYN BAILEY: The hot-line I think came in around '83.

ALAN DAVIDSON: About '83 I would say.

Yeah.

EVELYN BAILEY: And then AIDS Rochester itself formed.

And you went to Tara's.

You have an office--

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yes that's is correct.

EVELYN BAILEY: --upstairs in Tara's.

Talk to me a little bit about Buddy Wegman.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Buddy was extremely generous and kind

in everything that he did.

He once again got behind the organization by doing benefits,

by having dances that would raise money

that money would go to AIDS.

He was a very giving kind of guy really.

Let us use his facility.

EVELYN BAILEY: And after Tara's, you moved around the corner,

on Liberty Pole Way right?

ALAN DAVIDSON: No, after Tara's, believe it or not then we--

where did we go?

It wasn't University Avenue either.

I mean it wasn't--

where East Rochester was.

Where else did it go?

EVELYN BAILEY: I think it was on, around Chestnut Street?

No.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Wasn't it at the Sears building at one time?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh, thank you.

It was at the Sears building.

But I don't think it went to those from Tara's, it

went someplace else.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Before it went to Sears, yeah.

ALAN DAVIDSON: And then was--

EVELYN BAILEY: It was down by Varga printing.

Varga printing was on--

if you come out of--

ALAN DAVIDSON: Was it on Liberty Pole Way?

EVELYN BAILEY: Harro East?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Harro East.

No, we didn't go to Harro East.

EVELYN BAILEY: But it was across from Harro East, I think.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That was Tara's.

EVELYN BAILEY: Then--

ALAN DAVIDSON: I can't think of where we--

EVELYN BAILEY: I think it was near Varga printing, which

was on Gibb's Street--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Over a little cross the way on Chestnut.

EVELYN BAILEY: Chestnut.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I don't know.

EVELYN BAILEY: You had a storefront, I think,

on Chestnut Street.

It was a hole- in- the- wall office.

ALAN DAVIDSON: You know what?

I just have a mental--

I don't know.

EVELYN BAILEY: And Jackie Nunn became executive director.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That is correct.

EVELYN BAILEY: And were you on the board?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah.

I was still active and not as active as I used to be,

but I still was active on it.

Tim Tompkins, too got involved, at that time.

EVELYN BAILEY: And then it went to Sears.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Ellingwood, what's his name?

EVELYN BAILEY: Mark.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Mark Ellingwood, became involved.

I'm thinking of just key people that were--

but I don't remember that location.

But I do remember eventually going to Sears,

and then eventually going to--

EVELYN BAILEY: University.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Behind Wegman's.

What's that, University?

Yeah and that's--

EVELYN BAILEY: On the corner where the V--

KEVIN INDOVINO: University and Blossom.

EVELYN BAILEY: Blossom.

Yeah.

ALAN DAVIDSON: And I did think of something else

that I left off, but I wanted to just finish, and then

go to another thing too.

EVELYN BAILEY: OK.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Should I jumped to my other thing?

EVELYN BAILEY: Sure.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh we got to talk about the gay picnic.

Because, that was one of the fun things that I did.

I was known as the raffle man.

EVELYN BAILEY: Yes.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I had all these raffle tickets.

And I would take them my around my neck.

Hundreds and hundreds of tickets I'm sure you remember.

EVELYN BAILEY: I remember.

ALAN DAVIDSON: And I would go around,

and of course we had the community donate prizes.

We didn't pay for them.

And then we raffle them off.

But people would see me and they say

oh here comes that raffle man, or here comes that pest.

But I was sort of a nice pest, because I

wouldn't leave until everybody bought a ticket.

Believe it or not it did work, because I

remember raising hundreds and hundreds of dollars

just in the raffle.

And that raffle money of course, went 100 percent to the GAGV.

Which was really good.

That time I became president of the GAGV.

EVELYN BAILEY: Right.

KEVIN INDOVINO: What year was that?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh my god.

You're going to have to help me.

Probably the late 80s.

EVELYN BAILEY: Yes, It was after Jackie Nunn,

had been president.

ALAN DAVIDSON: I think it was right after Jackie

as a matter of fact.

If I'm not mistaken.

EVELYN BAILEY: So '86 '87.

I have a list.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah, you'll have to get the exact date.

EVELYN BAILEY: And at that time we're at the Genesee co-op.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh yeah.

EVELYN BAILEY: Up in the sunken room.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That's exactly where we met.

Yeah

EVELYN BAILEY: And The Empty Closet was--

ALAN DAVIDSON: Right next door.

EVELYN BAILEY: --right next door and you

came in along the long alley.

By the side of the house--

by the side of the firehouse and out the back.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Now I remember those.

EVELYN BAILEY: Was Susan Plunkitt, Jazzberry downstairs

at that time?

ALAN DAVIDSON: No, No but eventually it was.

Memories, oh my god.

EVELYN BAILEY: And then was Horace Lethbridge president

after you?

ALAN DAVIDSON: He was after me.

EVELYN BAILEY: Yeah, yeah.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yep.

God, you're good.

KEVIN INDOVINO: So, talk to us about being

president at the GAGV, what was going on at that time?

ALAN DAVIDSON: OK, at that time, we

were making strides in a lot of the things

that we tried earlier.

You know when I mentioned of the anti-discrimination thing.

And it really wasn't so much negativism.

I think we were gaining some, I know

we were gaining some strength and some people were

listening to us and it wasn't as when I was there.

And this is-- this might sound strange,

but the late 80s, early 90s, it was

becoming to become more spoken about not looked down upon.

I think because of basically our positive attitude on things.

We weren't looking to take the world by storm,

we just knew it was going to be a slow, slow kind of thing.

And we're just looking for equal rights you know?

And that's what it basically boiled down to then.

We sort of needed--

I hate to say it-- but we sort of

needed another Anita Bryant to shake our boots

a little bit because my era was a little bit

calm compared to other eras.

And I think one of the things that gets people going

is when you have adversaries against you.

And during that time, it was just sort of low keyed

and we were just plotting in our own little thing.

And just doing our own thing it--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Well you eventually got Gingrich,

and Limbaugh, and all them.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah

EVELYN BAILEY: Right

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah so it was just--

EVELYN BAILEY: And AIDS was still the focus?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Oh AIDS was still prevalent, absolutely.

But AIDS was being the forefront and still being talked about

and still being a concern and still

was not anywhere near the success that it is today.

But it was still there, but it wasn't being in the GAGV,

not that I'd switched my allegiance or priority,

but my priority went to the GAGV rather than to AIDS.

Because I felt that--

sometimes it's also good to have other people's other views

to do things.

I mean I think at that time, I was

sort of getting burnt out to be honest with you.

EVELYN BAILEY: And HPA began.

ALAN DAVIDSON: And HPA began, that's right.

Helping people with AIDS.

EVELYN BAILEY: In '86.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yup, yup.

But to answer your question directly,

it just was sort of a lull before all the storms of quote,

"gay marriage," that was probably the next--

KEVIN INDOVINO: Family values.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Family values, thank you, yes.

But I could never regret or forget the memories I had

and the wonderful times I had.

And I'm not tooting my horn, but I

think because of my efforts and efforts

like myself and other people, not just me, that we are very

strong Rochester, New York.

Because of us, I'm just saying that I

think we had a very, very, very strong group of people working

on the rights issue.

And that's basically what it was.

It was still the human rights and discrimination,

and that's what that main thing was.

But I think we did well.

EVELYN BAILEY: Can you share a little bit with us

about the actual working of the Alliance at the time.

Was there a youth group?

Was there a coffee house?

Was there a--

ALAN DAVIDSON: We had, yes, to answer

your questions at that time we did have a coffee house.

And we had movies.

We had once a week, if people just wanted to come,

there was a certain get off your chest week or day.

I forget a Monday or Tuesday or whatever it was.

We started a youth group at that time.

It wasn't very active.

But it was just starting the youth group.

Because we did find that that was one of the concerns

that we were concerned with.

When I say there was nothing to be concerned about,

that was one of the main things that we found.

That the youth was really being stepped on.

I mean here it is bullying, and that still hasn't changed

you know as we all know.

But yeah back then it was still, maybe

it wasn't called bullying, but there was definitely

a need for the youth.

And that was one of our focuses that we did do.

Just try to think what else we did.

We did have activities where people would play cards.

We had a card night.

It really wasn't that well attended none of the activities

were really well attended then.

I think we were just starting to try to get people involved.

And it was an uphill battle, whether they didn't want

to come out, or be out publicly, or they just didn't--

we just couldn't get things really started to well.

I'll admit that.

It was a struggle, a real struggle.

KEVIN INDOVINO: Was there a gay pride parade by this time yet?

ALAN DAVIDSON: We had no parade and we

didn't have any of the cultural event afterwards.

It was just a picnic we did have the picnic every year.

The picnic was always there and the picnic

kept growing and growing and growing.

That was very successful.

Extremely successful.

Yeah.

EVELYN BAILEY: Do you recall, during your presidency,

or during the time you you're involved

with the Gay Alliance, the police

liaison with the gay community?

ALAN DAVIDSON: I certainly do, his name was--

very great, great guy.

Do you know his name?

Walker?

No.

EVELYN BAILEY: Gordon Urlacher?

ALAN DAVIDSON: Urlacher, thank you.

Gordon Urlacher.

EVELYN BAILEY: So it was still Urlacher?

OK.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Gordon Urlacher.

Extremely, extremely important.

Because at that time, when I was president of the Alliance,

I did my retailing stuff.

And then I went into the bar business.

And I opened up The Liberty.

Which was one of the first really--

KEVIN INDOVINO: I didn't know that your bar.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Yeah.

That was my bar.

You remember The Liberty?

EVELYN BAILEY: Yes.

KEVIN INDOVINO: It was my first, no it was not first gay bar

that I went into.

Rosie's was the first gay bar I went into.

I think Liberty was the second.

ALAN DAVIDSON: OK, we open up The Liberty.

And in a way I sort of wanted to give back also something

to the community from just being in the gay movement

and everything I figured that was a good way to do it.

So Tim and I opened up The Liberty.

And we're very successful bar.

It was great, we picked the name,

and we had a Statue of Liberty right in the middle of the bar.

And stood for liberty and it was really very successful.

KEVIN INDOVINO: She used to guard our drinks.

ALAN DAVIDSON: Used to what?

KEVIN INDOVINO: She used to guard our drinks.

ALAN DAVIDSON: That's right.

And then after The Liberty, we opened up Heaven.

Which wasn't quote, " a gay bar,"

but it was a bar for everybody.

Certainly it was known as the Cadillac of bars.

And I don't think there'll ever be another bar like Heaven

ever, in Rochester.