LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Talk |
by Bill Sievert |
Gay Prison Gangs Confirm We Really Are Everywhere
Surfing hundreds of cable TV channels in a desperate hunt for something worth watching can freeze your brain faster than the repetitive thumb motion numbs your first metacarpal. But occasionally the seemingly endless clicking pays off with an oh-wow moment. That's the feeling I have after stumbling onto "Love and Hate," an episode of the MSNBC documentary series Lockup-Raw. The segment on my screen is about prison gangs, and my first thought is, "Ugh, move on." But before I can press the button I am introduced to Clement Contreras, a chubby and slightly effeminate man who proudly identifies himself as a member of the Gay Boy Gangsters. Showing off the gang's name tattooed boldly on his wrists, Clement talks about his brotherhood. The GBG is "a group of men who are gay. We don't get into fights, but we have a pretty good following. We're pretty much respected." Clement says that gay men are introduced to the GBG in county jails or when they arrive in various units of the California State Prison system, such as at Corcoran where he is an inmate in the Sensitive Needs Unit. "Our 'car' [gang affiliation] is gay and we stand for our own," he adds with a genuine smile. Though Clement says that most GBG members aren't violent, some disagree. "Most Gay Boy Gangsters are former gang members who got kicked out because of their sexual orientation," says Nicholas Turner, aka Demon. "You have to be able to fight to get into the GBGs." Demon, heavily tattooed with the gang's moniker scrawled atop his eyebrows, is a former skinhead. He has yet to give up violence as a means of protecting his friends. "Anybody that tries to forcefully take property, rape or hurt a homosexual, that's when we step in," he says of the GBG. "We tell them, check this out, this is your one and only warning. Do not put hands on our people or we will step in. You will get hurt." Demon means what he says. He has just been released from the security housing unit for trying to stab a guy who "beat up a gay boy." I can't help but smile as I watch Demon, his physical appearance tough and intimidating with a Mohawk patch of hair sprouting from the center of his shaved head, sashay through the prison hall, waving at other prisonersa purposeful hint of swish in his swagger. In addition to its depiction of a gay gang, the documentary shows us how life for homosexual men behind bars can mirror that on the outside. Clement, age 38, has a young lover named Angel Gallardo, 23, and the two have applied to move in with each other as "cellies." "To be honest, I like him and it's never going to change," says the smitten Angel. "He's the person I was looking for." But when prison officials delay approval of their plan to live together, the two men have a spat after taking a long walk in the prison yard where Clement boasts of having kissed Angel "at least 50 times." Three couples already have been split up by the warden, Clement says, and Angel is soon transferred to another area. Clement admits that he is not able to wait for Angel. Like most prison relationships, his love is "all about sex," he concedes. "It's hard to have a relationship with somebody that's not going to be in my cell. I don't see Angel and I cell-ing up together. They're not going to let that happen." Angel remains hopeful that things will ultimately work out. But a short time later Clement embarrassedly tells the camera, "What happened was I had sex with my cellie [cellmate], then I've come out here every night to tell Angel nothing's going on. I'm lying....It's wrong. I really feel guilty...I really, really feel bad. Am I going to tell him? Of course not." Rarely has television given us so much insight into the realities of being an "out" gay prisoner in Americaand it is a revelation to me that gay inmates feel empowered enough to publicly proclaim a gang of their own. Many of us on the "outside" have a deep-seated fear of being sent to prison; it's the deterrent effect that prevents most people from acting on their worst instincts. A prison sentence could activate our agraphobia (fear of sexual abuse), our claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) or our lygophobia (the fear of being in dark or gloomy places). Or it could trigger any of more than 200 phobias recognized and being treated by California's Dr. Howard Liebgold, who affectionately refers to himself as Doctor Fear. While phobias can be debilitating to the one suffering from itand some, like homophobia, are often injurious to those who come into contact with a sufferer many of the terrors cited by Doctor Fear are likely to make most of us feel a little better about our own worries. I can relate to telephonophobia (fear of telephones), especially if it's a cell phone in the hand of a distracted driver. But, while I acknowledge that most of us drive too much, I've never met anyone with basiphobia, the fear of walking. I thought I might have a problem with papaphobia, but it's not the fear of a brand of pizza that sometimes gives me gastrointestinal distress; it's actually fear of the pope. Pogophobia has nothing to do with jumping sticks or the old comic strip by Walt Kelly, but rather is a fear of beards. I definitely don't have that one or peladophobia, fear of bald people. In this economy, I definitely have peniaphobiaand no it's not about my manhood. It's a fear of poverty. That's almost the opposite of chrematophobia, fear of money. Although I don't read as much as I'd like, I don't think I suffer from bibliophobia, the fear of books. And given the brightness of my wardrobe, chromatophobia (fear of colors) doesn't seem a problem. As an environmentalist from way back, I can hardly imagine dendrophobia, fear of trees, and while I rarely hit the disco floor anymore, it's not because I have chorophobia, fear of dancing. Curiously, one phobia I could not find on Doctor Fear's list is latrophobia, which is fear of going to the doctor. It's all enough to give me a frightful fit of phobophobia. Yes, you guessed it. That's the fear of fears. For all of you attending Sundance this Labor Day weekend, shake off your chorophobia and have a gay old time.Bill Sievert can be reached at billsievert@comcast.net. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 12 August 22, 2008 |