Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code existed from 1871 to 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime. The Nazis expanded the law in 1935 and this allowed for the filling of the concentration camps. They were not originally made for Jews but were made for Male Homosexuals of Berlin, Gypsies, and Communist.

Female homosexuality was not included in Paragraph 175. In fact Female homosexuality is accepted in most, if not all, primitive cultures. Since women were considered the weaker of the species and could still reproduce they were ignored then, as they are much so today. Most primitive cultures consider that for "Sex" to occur an insertion by a male sex organ must also occur.

The Gay Sailor reference in "Last Picture on the Roll" portrayed by the Performance Artist Leigh Waltz

Front Street Coffee House

Throughout the middle nineties Front Street was the major poetry venue. I only frequented the coffeehouse during poetry night and knew the other people that came during that time. It was every week and scheduled for about two hours from eight to ten in the evening. Front Street Coffee House was divided into two sections. The front section consisted of tables and booths as well as a bar. The back section was a square room with tables. The small kitchen was between the two.

There was no alcohol served and bus routes would take you to it. Because of this there were a lot of under twenty-one clientele.

There were a lot of young gay boys that frequented the readings but I don’t recall many of them actually reading. Many gay and lesbian adults did participate. Some of the young gay boys were there every reading and I did know them by name. One time Josh was sitting at a four person booth with another boy of sixteen or so. I saw him with a photo album and ask him if it was his photographs. Josh replied, “Yes, I took them”.

I said, thinking they were well composed art type photographs, “Can I see them?”

He replied, “Yes” and turned the album toward my standing position.

The photographs were of him naked with other boys. I said. “I thought maybe they were art photos and not personal ones.” I commented that I really was not interested in that kind and walked away. I had learned to keep my cool, even when shocked, because I never knew what was going to happen at Front Street.
 

Another time I was in line for the bathroom. There was only one bathroom but rarely a line. It seemed like I had waited forever when finally a boy came out so the first person in line took a step toward the bathroom when another boy came out.

The front street readings were not gay poetry readings. They were a gathering of all sexual orientations. One older guy did hang around a lot. I talked to him a couple of times and he said he was a realtor. He had made a lot of money in the real estate business then lost it and made it again. At one time he said he had owned an airplane. I believe he was there to pick up the young boys. He never came to the back room where the poetry readings were. I didn’t see any other older men trying to pick up boys.

There were scheduled Gay poetry readings in Dayton at that time and also Lesbian poetry readings. They were sponsored by Gay and Lesbian groups.

Most people at Front Street were straight. This is a photo of SaraQ and a friend. She was Dayton's greatest storyteller at that time.

George and Chris claimed to be the last “Punks” left in Dayton. I could not disagree with them. They both wore Punk clothing and had Mohawk Punk hair styles. By the time I met them the “Straight Edge” were numerous but the true Punks were almost gone. The Straight Edge was a branch off the true Punks but they didn’t believe in drugs, or smoking. They were usually associated with some religion. They did believe in violence as a tool to make you come around to their ideas. At least this was the straight edge of Dayton at that time. In retrospect I see the close similarities between the straight edge and the early Nazi's prior to 1933.

George and Chris were both bi-sexual. George shifted more toward Heterosexuality and Chris more toward Homosexuality. I previously had seen Chris do a poem. He went to the front of the poetry area. There was no stage at that time. Later a stage with lights was built. Chris, recited his poem, lifted the back of his long shirt that was not turned toward the audience, and inserted a dildo into his rectum. Since his back was turned from the audience we did not actually see it. I told him that he had faked it but he assured me that he had actually done it.

 George lived on the edge. About six years after the performances he died. I do not know the cause but he was no more than 35 at the time of his death.

We did have a stage at the time of this group performance.  This time we were going to perform a piece called “Noise”. We took the stage. Chris told me that they were going to do something very radical. I assumed it was sexual since he had done the dildo performance. I read my piece of poetry and then warned the audience that Chris and George were going to do some strange performance. I added that they should go to the front room of the coffeehouse if they didn’t want to watch. I was on the stage with them so could not leave. I put up a sheet of paper as a blinder so I could not see them with my peripheral vision. I watched the audience. There were shocked looks on their faces and moans of delight. Even though I never saw it some of the audience members told me that Chris had read a short poem, tore the paper to pieces, then performed fellatio on George.
 

EFX

Front Street closed after two or three years. I was not involved with the business community so I don't know why. The underground community rumored that it involved "Bar Fly" girls, large quantities of money and cocaine.

EFX poetry readings followed. They were started by Rob Avery but Rob quickly opted out to work on his films and Doug Jerome took over as emcee. He was the best of any emcee's of this era.

EFX was head shop decor with Grateful Dead memorable that was for sale covering the wall and display cases. It was located on Brown Street near the University of Dayton. Since it was a logical assumption that the poetry readings would be as free if not more free than Front Street it had a lot of avant-garde works. An environmental theater piece called "Strike Play" was done there. Here is the ending sequence of "Strike Play"   This was Dayton's first true Environmental Theater Piece.

Brown Street, at that time did have prostitutes. I was only approached by three female prostitutes during my experiences in Dayton and one was outside EFX.  As an Army veteran I somewhat expected these. But here is an incident that I did not expect and actually embarrassed me. One poetry reading night Chris came in with two friends. A male and a female. It seemed he always had a group of two or three with him. He came over to our booth where I had been talking to one of the 17 year old male poets. The boy had said his mother was a preacher. I had suspected he was gay because of his poetry and he frequently had older truck driver friends that dressed like cowboys but we never discussed it. There were already four people in our booth so the 17 year old was standing. Chris and his friends came up to the same side of the booth and started talking. I asked him if he was going to read tonight. He replied, "No I came here to pick up boys." Without thinking I said, "There is one" and pointed to the 17 year old. The boy bent over and offered his rear end to Chris. Chris said, "No I want to see what you got." The boy then thrust his pelvis toward Chris and he grabbed his crotch area and said, "That is pretty good." Since they were both standing and I was setting this was all taking place about a foot from my face. I was very embarrassed.

Plan B Coffee House

The Plan B Coffee was located in the Oregon District. The Oregon District is mostly a series of Bars and Clubs. I had heard that it had one well known coffee house - restaurant - or bar back in the 1960's. It had been called the "Lemon Tree". But I wasn't in Dayton in the 1960's so only knew it as stories that Vietnam War Veterans told. Oregon District has been known as a Hell's Angels hangout going back to the 1960's. The Oregon District is on E. Fifth street and the Motorcyclist would cruse the street in those days.

Plan B did have poetry readings but they never were good ones and I cannot think of any that stood out. I do recall that a drunk came in and sat at a table. After a few minutes we heard a loud thump and he had passed out and fell to the floor getting a bloody lip. It was also known for the dirtiest bathrooms in town. I personally never used them but do recall a poem that was written about how dirty they were.

A real problem with the Oregon District was that, even though it had beautiful architecture and was kept super clean and beautiful it was still Dayton's Skid Row where homeless hung out bumming money for alcohol. You add to this the Hell's Angels motorcyclist and it would not be a safe place if it wasn't for the massive police presence.

Other than giving you the feel of Dayton avant-garde entertainment at this time I wanted to tell the story about boy prostitutes since it relates to pre-Nazi Berlin.

I was at a table with probably two other people. I never sat alone at poetry readings because I was always interested in the stories the poets would tell me. A boy, perhaps 16, came over to our table and sat down. He started telling the story of how he needed money for a bus ticket to Cleveland. He seemed nervous and was very fidgety. The conversation went on for awhile and I do recall he said he was a magician and could do magic tricks. Of course he didn't offer to do any for us and he didn't have any of the devices needed to do magic. I am sure this was a boy prostitute but since neither he nor I mentioned sex I don't know for sure. I do know of similar situations in Yellow Springs and Springfield where sex with young boy prostitutes was involved.

As I mentioned earlier there has been a long time motorcycle gang presence in the Oregon District. This became the demise of "Plan B".  I was told it was closed because a Motorcyclist threw a young boy through the window onto the street.

The End; A theater type piece that was actually written for coffee house theater. Involves two actors. A complete and thorough script was written but never posted on the Internet.  Performed at Front Street Coffee House November 27, 1996. 15 minutes long. 

It involved a man that deserted the draft and to hide he became a transvestite. He then pretended he was a Lesbian. Later falling in love with his Lesbian sister.

SHORT VIDEO CLIP OF "THE END"