Empathy for John Martin ( Feb.21 )

I could empathize with your art writer John Martin after reading

    his painfully revealing column today( " Tinky's tale rings true if you've

    ever felt the heat. " )

           No I won't wallow in some TELL ALL mess. But briefly, I was never

    by any standards I accept GAY. When I was at a still asexual age - 11 ? -

    I was conned into a vulgarly familiar sex in the men's room of a Church

    that sponsored THE BOY SCOUTS. The " seducer " was a dirty old man of

    14 named Larry. What was in it for me ? A cheap baseball and bat !

          Anyway Larry could not wait to let the whole town know WHAT I WAS.

       My own brother interrogated me on this ABOMINATION : " Did you ? "

        " No ", I never touched the creep.

        It seemed that for a year or two  - it was not paranoia - I could

    hear whispered taunts on the baseball field.  When I began my true

    adolescence I felt no special attraction to the male sex. But the word

    was already out : I was not just a fag, but a legendary fag .

          Today- not by accident - my best friend IS gay . He is just my FRIEND!

          Just last year I tried to track down Larry on an internet phone

    number service. I am not at all bitter about this today. I was just

    curious to know what had become of him. Two years after our first

    sexual " adventure " he arranged to share the same tent with me at Scout's

    camp in Westerly. By then I was wise to him. Still he was a funny guy -

    always good for a laugh.

         The only Larry that fits his description now resides in Hollywood .