Not Just Another Queer
Memoir from the Third Sex
by
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At the time I heard the rotors above me I was groggy, but all I could think was that I must find my way out of there to stop the noise so the neighbours wouldn't be disturbed. Alas I was a little too late for that. That stunt got me a week in the lock up ward at the Psych Hospital in London Ontario. I was ashamed and totally deprived of any energy. The suicide attempt was not so much about losing my man, although the two were pretty much one and the same, as it was the loss of my house and finally after such a long and hard search, - the inability to find another. It was an enormous dead end for me.
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About the Book
Every person is unique. At least we believe ourselves to be. Many of us have a heightened sexuality. With the latter group, a common denominator must exist in the pulsating intensity and grinding confusion I have found in the rollercoaster ride which has been my sex life. As a homosexual man who has breathed in more than half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Centuries I have experienced some priviliged moments, always with the knowledge of being a man set apart, mostly because I am a Queer. Looking back on my life I recogonize it as a rich tapestry of favourable experiences - my work as a successful hairdresser in the film industry in Toronto with celebrity acquaintances, my family, my friends, my pets, home, music, travel, and my lovers. Well, the lovers don't all fall into the success category but do add colour to the picture. Because of the dark wings of Depression which have hovered over me throughout much of my life, the element of Joy has been elusive in spite of a splendid endowment of entitlement ( or plain old fashioned good luck) - bestowed on me by Fate. My addiction to the pursuit of sexual gratification which has ruled my social patterns and actions since I was a child is all part of the story. Sometimes I think it is my story.
About the Author
Born in Chatham Ontario and raised in a small village called Highgate in the southern most part of Canada I finished High School and spent an eye opening year in Toronto at the Ontario College of Art with no great success. Following that, hairdressing school was something to be gotten through.This was the late sixties. I had so much to learn. Work in a couple of upscale hair salons resulted in contacts that led to my becoming a hairdresser by the early seventies for TV commercials, television variety shows, and then I went into hairdressing for films. This is not a book about celebrities although I have worked with many famous personalities including Diane Lane, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Ryan Phillippe and Felicity Huffman. With 36 years in my film Local 873, IATSE, the list goes on. My travels have been extensive and my world view much enlarged by wonderful social and artistic opportunities experienced. Although I was a kid from a small town working class family, I am aware of the good fortune that has allowed me the luxury of so many adventures. I had great parents. Plagued with depression I have to remind myself constantly of my rich and rewarding if sometimes dramatic life. This book, my first, will be published in my sixty third year. I still have so much to learn.