By Dr. Leo Louis Martello
Gay Power Newspaper, issue no. 8


    The love of money is the root of all good. How many starving stomachs can a penniless person feed? How many homeless gays can be helped by the person without income? How big can any homosexual's “consciousness” be if he is preoccupied with the bare necessities of life? Just how “giving” can any gay be who hasn't got for himself? How effective are the “brother keeping” bullshit artists who are flat broke themselves? What good is all the anti-capitalist propaganda when the critics themselves have nothing to offer in return? What good is all the Leftist ideology when it doesn't help to make things right in one's own life? And what good is all the Rightist propaganda when you're out in left field?
    “Not by bread alone shall man live.”  Of course not. He needs money to buy the bread. “It's better to give than to receive”...as long as you're on the receiving end. “Turn the other cheek” only when you're in bed. Do you believe that you are your “brother's keeper?”  If so how do you propose to keep him without money? Do you relish the idea of being kept? And as for certain “Brothers and sisters” blowhards if they were related to me, I'd be forced to disown them.
    Certain gay militants have set themselves up as moral guardians: They have attacked both Gay Power newspaper [1] as “exploitative” and Gay newspaper [2] as “establishment.”  They have “suggested” in strong terms that all writers connected with the former resign without offering anything in return. The “good of the cause” (their cause) requires sacrificial victims, and further, the victim's consent. Some of the most vociferous opponents to both newspapers are also the same ones [3] who stole another gay community publication, paid for by the parent organization's treasury, and this theft was aided and abetted by the “silent majority” of members who said nothing, did nothing. This same group [4] tried to pass a “censure” ruling on Gay Power. “Censure” of  course is just one step from “censor.”  Strange that none of them thought to “censure” themselves for their own amoral actions. Disguised as altruism, sugarcoated as “higher consciousness,” masked as morality, denigrated as “capitalistic” and “exploitative” these homosexual humbugs hope to hide their power lust. Instead of concentrating their energies on producing a better product they vent their spleen on all competitors. They try to instill an unearned guilt in fellow gays, using the same “sanction of the victim” techniques and tactics of the establishment they attack. Blithely they refer to all homosexuals who don't think their way as “enemies.”  As I've said from the first: “It's not my enemies that bother me. It's my so-called friends that I have to worry about.”  And further: “I've always been very fussy about who likes me.”
    To paraphrase the oldie “People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones” I say “People who steal newspapers can't condemn other newspapers that weren't stolen.” Gay Power and Gay, whatever their faults and limitations, are professionally produced publications that pay their writers and their staff. Unlike another publication, they aren't parasites hoping to get everything for nothing. For those who dislike either their typography or their content they have one sure method of showing their disapproval: Don't buy these newspapers. That's true meaning of “FREE ENTERPRISE.”  For those tho know that they can't compete, who have little to offer, there's only one alternative: Collectivist control. And even assuming the most idealistic of motives the fact remains that it takes professional know-how, business acumen, and money to produce and sell any kind of newspaper. Gay Power and Gay are in a position to reach thousands of gays. They present features and news coverage, plus distribution, that an amateur publication cannot. True GAY POWER IS IN PAY POWER: Paid writers, artists, photographers, staff, distributors.
    For all those idealistic anti-capitalists let me point out one thing: If you accept any interest on your money whatsoever you're a capitalist. Practice what you preach. Refuse all such interest (assuming you have anything to get interest on). But if you are one of those nonworking, no-income, little-left-over idealists just what good are you when one of your “brothers and sisters” is homeless or needs bail money? To whom to you turn when in need: The have-something capitalists who earned it or the have-nothing anti-capitalists? How much self-esteem and self-respect can any homosexual have if he has to live on handouts? GAY POWER...means earning and paying one's own way.... PAY POWER...the best way to fight Establishment oppression.

NOTE: Dr. Leo Louis Martello is ex-chairman of the Gay Liberation Front, author of two new published books, The Weird Ways of Witchcraft and The Hidden Worlds of Hypnotism, and currently finishing his contracted book on Gay Power, to be published Spring, 1970.


NOTES (by John Lauritsen)
1. Gay Power newspaper started publishing in the fall of 1969. In the first year of publication, under editor John Heys, it published many excellent articles and poems by such people as “J.Z. Eglinton” (Walter Breen), Marion Z. Bradley, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Taylor Mead, and Charles Ludlam. After a year, Heys was replaced as editor, and the paper became nothing more than sex-industry sleaze.

2. Gay newspaper also started publishing in the fall of 1969. It was edited by Jack Nichols and Lige Clark, long-time activists in the pre-Stonewall homophile movement.

3. The accusation of theft refers to members of the June 28 cell, who expropriated ComeOut!, the publication of the Gay Liberation Front.

4. Again, this refers to the June 28 cell.



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