Free GAY REALITY : THE TEAM GUIDO STORY by John Chaffetz Page A

understands that the one million dollar prize was not nearly as important to me as is our relationship.
    “In the gay scenario there’s never any ‘contract’. One can leave at any time, so it’s different. Joe and I know each other so well. It just works. Fifteen years is the proof!”
    Doctor Richard Levak, a pre-eminent expert on what makes couples successful, made the following appraisal of Team Guido to me in his office in Del Mar, California:
    “They are a great example of an ideal homosexual couple. In fact, they are as perfect as any heterosexual couple that I have ever known or heard about. They have the same values, they solve problems together, they are absolutely together in every way. They are exemplary.”

GAYNESS—TODAY  
    ALL THROUGHOUT the writing process I persistently solicited comments, opinions and observations from both straights and gays on the state of gayness in the United States today. No one held back as you are about to read:
    • Joel Herzer /owner of Woody’s, a very popular and successful, primarily gay, restaurant/bar in Laguna Beach.
    “The biggest advancement for gays is visibility. Growing up I didn’t know any gays. They were there, for sure, but they weren’t visible. AIDS forced so many people out of the closet. The gay movement wouldn’t have been as fast without AIDS, which is sad but realistic.
    “Now there’s a feeling that the advancement may be over. People aren’t dying every day. I see people every day who are fighting the disease, but there is complacency. Everybody is burned out on it. People may be tired of being safe all the time. I liken the gay movement to the women’s movement, you know, struggling for equality. But I perceive burn out in that movement as well. Some women just want to be women.
    “Minorities, and gays are certainly that, always needing to fight for what is right. There is resentment from some, maybe rednecks for example, so they prey on people’s fears and they are unrelenting.
    “Laguna Beach has always been kind of a gay town, but even now, we still have the baiters who drive by here and yell ‘faggot’! They’re the same ones who, in other places, yell ‘kike’ and ‘nigger’.”
    • A Female CPA (heterosexual)
    “Over my lifetime I have seen the gay community come out of the closet. It is now possible to go to places like Palm Springs and Rehoboth, Delaware and feel totally out of place for being a hetero. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a homophobe. I’ve been dancing a number of times in gay bars and wow, was I surprised who was there. The sheer numbers surprise me at times. I’m glad that the gay community is a little more comfortable and accepted than it was 30 years ago.”
    • A Former Newspaper Sports Columnist (male, heterosexual)
    “Growing up in the Midwest, I don’t recall ever knowing a gay person, or ever hearing of one. About 99% of my classmates got married and had families. After moving to the Bay Area the word homosexual, or gay, became very big. I have gay friends and they are great, but there always seems to be sort of a wall between us, imagined or otherwise.
    “The gay lifestyle is out of the closet and the media stupidly makes too much of it. Who cares? It’s a non-story in my opinion. I don’t much care for gay marriages, or gays in the military, and I especially don’t want taxpayer money spent on promoting their lifestyles.”
    • Bill LaPointe , Publisher, Gay Magazine (“The Blade”)
    “Whether gays like it or not we are securely manacled to the AIDS crisis in the minds of straight America. If this country was really serious about eradicating AIDS there would be barrels of condoms at every high school social function! Radical? Yes, but how can we not do something radical? This is serious. What an awful situation, but it’s here. We need to stop blaming the victims and intensify our efforts to erase this horrible disease.
    “What do we do and how do we do it? How do we get past the