New Horizons For Fifty - A Different View of Things

An interview with Aric Wilson,  Mr. SoCal Leather 2019 by Eric Crow (Aric wears the Leather, it doesn't wear him.) In January, Aric Wilson became the current  Mr. SoCal Leather and went on to place first runner up at Los Angeles Mr. Leather in March. I met him in person backstage while volunteering, and he had a way about him, a certain glow, that spoke beyond words. We all saw that glow later on during the physique section, sporting that barely there singlet. All that...personality...gave us  all   our life that night. As for the person wearing the singlet, it's been fun getting to know him online and in person, and to hear him speak, you wouldn't know that he's a relative newcomer to the scene--"just over a year and change," he says. There are echoes of his journey in my own, and I think that's what drew me to him. Aric is a member of Onyx SoCal-SW , and goes by the name  Puck Onyx . When I asked why, his answer came quick. ...

by Eric Crow July 12-14 marked the 45th anniversary of San Diego Pride, and as with all other Pride events, celebrated the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.  The first year of Pride was march of just 25 people who marched with bags over their heads to conceal their identity (fear of being outed and then fired and/or evicted was very palpable then). The next year, 400 showed up for to march (organizers managed to secure a permit) ending with a rally at Balboa Park.  ( https://sdpride.org/1974-2/ ). In 1999, San Diego Pride turned 25  and had the tear-gas incident along the parade route, which nearly shut down the parade. Once everything was cleared, the parade continued and attendees had  a double-headline bill of Berlin and Joan Jett and the Black Hearts with the fabulous Judy Tenuta taking the stage just before Joan Jett. I managed to secure the opening slot on the Youth Zone stage that year, and returned the next year in the same slot. 2000...

by Eric Franklin Crow After parting with Chuck on Monday morning,  I just couldn't get him off my mind. I called the next day, and on the third try, he actually answered, bringing all the butterflies right up to my throat. “I want to take you to dinner tomorrow night. I have something I want to discuss with you. Where would you like to go?” I did that composure thing that happens in sitcoms, a bundle of excitement on the inside, but calm and collected on the outside. “I get off work at 9, but wherever you want to take me is just fine.” He asked what my favorite foods were and I brought up Sorrento's, an Italian restaurant, on El Cajon Blvd., between 40th & Central, a block from home and almost next door to the adult bookstore I'd come to know so well (torn out over the course of the 90s to make way for a freeway overpass. “Done,” he responded. I'll pick you up at 9:15 pm." Ladies and gentlemen, I'd just been asked out on my first date.  I don't...

by Eric Franklin Crow One.  My first gay pride was in San Diego in July 1995, nine months after I'd moved back to San Diego. I moved back in with my parents with the idea of salvaging what time I had left—this was a year before the first protease inhibitor cocktails (for HIV) were made available to the public. In the meantime, all they could do at Owen Clinic was prolong the lives of their patients and make them  comfortable. In the time since I'd left the abusive relationship, I started singing with the choir at Imperial Beach United Methodist Church (the first time I met another gay minister, and the first man after Chuck that I had a crush on). I also started volunteering at Being Alive San Diego, where I took on the position of Assistant Editor to the newsletter.  As the result of the second last all-nighter I had on meth, I started writing poetry, just like I did in the months before I came out (only then it was song lyrics) and had about a hu...

by Eric F. Crow In the nine months it took to graduate from business college (Legal Word Processor was my major), I'd had experienes with men of varying ages, colors and shapes, and it was pretty obvious what I liked, but the physical was still as far as it went for me. I liked the GL Times, but I was too busy looking at the models and reading the personal ads to read any of the articles. As for influences, I had Liberace, Wayland Flowers and Madam, Jack Tripper, Monroe Ficus and Prince, so I knew what camp and kitsch was, at least implicitly, but  I didn't have any regard of the kinds of things Romanovsky and Phillips would be proud of, like Torch Song Trilogy, Divine, etc. I had read those few books in the library, but I knew nothing of LGBTQ culture or history. I knew about ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) because of the die-ins they had to get the government to release more funding and create treatments. That was about it in the references department,...