Jim Andris, Facebook

Galen Moon (Midcontinent Life Services Center)

Carol Cureton's Introduction

[Applause.] We spoke a while ago about the young people of our community being mobilized, and showing us the wisdom of their youth. We are also blessed in our community with wisdom from a generation that’s at least older than mine. I have grown to appreciate the wisdom of the man who will speak to us now. He came to our community when he was a youngster of about, oh, 69 or 70. We put a few years on him since then, and I think probably a few more gray hairs, or at least caused him to lose a few. Perhaps you were there then, but he’s done this lovingly and willingly because he believes in the future of our community, the future of the gay community in our nation. The President Emeritus of the Mid-Continent Life Services Center; it was the Metropolitan Life Services Center until the insurance company got a little jealous of our name: President Emeritus Mr. Galen Moon. [Long applause.]

Galen Moon's Remarks

I don’t deserve all that, but as Rick Garcia was up here, I thought how wonderful it would have been to have conditions that he is expressing now, impossible to me at about this age. For at least 60 of my 75 years, I have known who I am, and what I want out of life. I have been an aware gay person, and during those 60 years, I experienced many different phases of life. I have known the terrible depression and oppression of the closet, which seemed to be necessary if I were to succeed in the business world. I’ve known loneliness, and I’ve known ridicule, and all this time even sometimes doubting myself and thinking maybe there was something wrong, something that could be changed, a different sort of person could evolve out of this body and this mind. I never was able to get away from it.

And finally came a time when I dared to stand up and say, “This is who I am; if you don’t like it, it’s too bad.” [Applause.] And I have a great deal of pleasure in the work that gay people are going to do. I dream now of all the gay groups and many individuals pitching in to getting together and correlating and coordinating their efforts in educating the public and getting rid of the lies and the myths and the stereotyped pictures that are portrayed everywhere, and coming up on top. It’s a reference to the black liberation movement; we can learn some things from them; I’m sure.

I have to say something about Anita Bryant right here, because I know quite a bit now. [Laughter.] I know, for instance, that when Anita Bryant started out as a gospel singer in Oklahoma; that the person who worked with her was a gay man. I have to say that along the way, Anita Bryant has used gay people to further her ambitions, and to put her where she is; she’s used their talents, their abilities, and assumed them as her own and presented them as her own. She had them in their entourage almost all the time, especially since she won the beauty pageant. [?] were working with Anita Bryant. There are three people I know of in Missouri, in the area, who have worked with Anita Bryant. They will tell you many things about her. But this is what I want to say: Anita Bryant is not working out of conscience. Anita Bryant is an ambitious woman, ambitious politically and financially, and that’s all she’s concerned with, and she’ll turn on anybody if she thinks it will win her some clout in political life. [Applause.]

So what we need to consider right now is that Anita Bryant’s action is pure political. She is trying to build herself a political body of power which will enable her to get a place in the big political machine. That’s what she’s working for: where she’ll have power and have an opportunity to bring in more dollars. We need to face that fact in the way we oppose her. We need to reveal this side; we need to make the public aware of what it’s all about. It’s not because Anita Bryant believes that gay people molest children; she knows better. It’s not because Anita Bryant really believes that gay people can’t be Christian. It’s not because she really feels that they shouldn’t have any rights; it’s because Anita Bryant wants to become a political power. I’m going to leave it at that.

I want to say here within St. Louis and the surrounding area there are many people who can become effective in developing organizational work that can change the situation in this state. There can be a great deal done in St. Louis proper. The speaker’s bureau that Martin spoke of has really done a great deal in their appearances before college classes, with church groups and even some high school groups and other specific organizations and so forth. And after each one of those appearances by members of the speaker’s bureau, there has been a response from people who said, “Thank you. I didn’t know what it was all about.” They call on the telephone and leave some notes.

So there has been a great deal done, but much more has to be done. It has to be done state-wide, it has to be done in the rural areas as well as the urban areas if you’re ever going to get the people to believe that we are human beings who deserve the same rights as anybody else. I think you can do it. I will continue to do all that I can. And I certainly want to encourage all these young people who are stepping up and taking part. I only wish I had had an opportunity when I was that young. Thank you. [Applause.]

Transcribed by Jim Andris August, 12, 2017 from a copy of a tape made of the event provided by John Hilgeman.