... from the perspective of a black man ... 2005
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My first visits to the DC Eagle was in the summer 1978 when it was located on 9th Street between New York Avenue and H Street which is where the Old DC Convention Center once was but is now in the process of being demolished. It would also be where, in the fall of 1978, that I would meet my second partner, Herb, shortly after breaking up with my first lover, Rick who I would have a three year relationship with and with whom I'd share several Easters. All which I have flinches of fond memories. Or, none, Thank God, that stand out as being tramautic. With the exception of the fact that on many occasions when his friend Roger would drop by I, being black, had to hide or leave the apartment. Had I been white but certainly not black Rick's mother and his friend would have been more accepting of me and our relationship.
And, yet, had I not been black Herb would not have had any interest in me. And had he not had any interest in me I assure you that I would not have resigned from my government job in December of 1978 to join him in his real estate development firm on Capitol Hill. I mention these specifics because they are most important to my story. On one hand and in very pronounced ways I am approached, specifically, because I am black. And, yet, it is because I am black that I am, then, negated and treated just the opposite then if I were white.
For a period of time beginning in the spring 1985 I actually would work at the Old DC Convnetion Center which would began shortly after Greg and I had seperated after he had wooed me back from NYC over Thnaksgiving of 1984 but would go ballisitc and move in with Champ after my night with Jim Garrason on Easter Saturday of 1985. Which was the same Easter weekend that he and Champ would go to Richmond together to visit both their families. And, of course, to do cocaine together.
As they had been during cocaine together almost a year by then. And were much closer than Greg and I had ever been. It would be Champ who would drive me home from Tracks after Greg and I got into a fight on New Years Eve in the parking lot of Tracks when I thought that Greg was far too drunk and cocked out to drive he and I home that we shared with Mike and Smitty in Mount Vernon.
It was also Easter of '85 that Mike would spend the night out in some corn field with a guy that he met while driving on the road and would come home the next day with his pants caked with mud. And though Smitty certainly was upset he and Michael did not even consider seperation and years later would laugh at the matter. I mention this fact because though I regard Michael and Smitty and their friends from Richmond Jimmy and Edward as really nice people and folks who I had the utmost respect and love for the relationships that they enjoyed as gay white men was in sharp contrast to any relationship that Greg would have with any black man.
And it is that very contrast that not only defines the relationships between gay white men and the colored men that they integrate with but it is that very indifference with men of color that dismantle and destroy the lives of men of color. Shortly after our meeting at the Eagle in Exhile in February 1992 which was days after I had moved back from NYC to WDC and he had moved from Richmond to WDC I would drive down to visit his family in Richmond over Easter of 1982. And in a similar way as I had met Greg in Feburay of 1982 when I would move back to NYC in March of 1984, two years later, as a resullt of a catering company paying me very differently than they paid the white guys ... I would meet Tom on the very night that I arrived in NYC. Like Greg Tom was an acoholic but unlike Greg who snorted Tom preferred shooting it up. I would meet Tom at the Everhard in a similar way as I had met Greg at the Exhile. And he would henceforth have a similar relationhip with me as had Greg. A few weeks later and if my memory serves me correctly, over Easter Weekend 1984, Greg and Champ would visit me in NYC begging me to reconsider and come back to DC. And after he'd visit me again in NYC jjust after Halloween I'd visit him, in WDC, over Thanksgiving. And as a result I would relocate back to DC resigning from my governemnt job in NYC in December 1984 in a similar way as I had in December 1978 to join forces with Herb who, by Easter of 1979, would also flip-flop on their position.
I mention these specifics because they play a most important part in my story as a 51 year old gay black man.