I’m Gay! I’m Proud! I’m Alive!
Words and music by Jon Hull, as performed June 18, 1982 at the first Caught in the Act variety show
I’m not even gonna ask tonight.
I’m hanging up my mask tonight.
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I am through with mediocrity,
Let’s hear three cheers for ho rny me!
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m a live!
I’ve have had it with the closet,
I am breaking down the door.
When they put me six feet under,
It won’t matter anymore.
So, I’ll hang it out for you today.
Don’t want to be no other way.
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I’m stronger than my history.
My life surprises even me.
I’m gay! I’m prod! I’m alive!
The fairy jokes I used to hate,
The sin it was to masturbate,
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I’ve survived Anita Bryant
and the riots at Stonewall.
I was smart enough to finally read
the writing on the wall.
It’s ME I’m gonna please, tonight.
I’M GAY! I’M PROUD! I’M ALIVE!
I’m not even gonna ask tonight.
I’m hanging up my mask tonight.
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I am through with mediocrity,
Let’s hear three cheers for ho rny me!
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m a live!
I’ve have had it with the closet,
I am breaking down the door.
When they put me six feet under,
It won’t matter anymore.
So, I’ll hang it out for you today.
Don’t want to be no other way.
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I’m stronger than my history.
My life surprises even me.
I’m gay! I’m prod! I’m alive!
The fairy jokes I used to hate,
The sin it was to masturbate,
I’m gay! I’m proud! I’m alive!
I’ve survived Anita Bryant
and the riots at Stonewall.
I was smart enough to finally read
the writing on the wall.
It’s ME I’m gonna please, tonight.
I’M GAY! I’M PROUD! I’M ALIVE!
Looking back on these lyrics, Mark Parra, a frequent performer in Caught in the Act, wrote, “I know he spoke often about living so much of his life in the closet that he came bursting out of the door. What a fun man. His contributions to our community were inestimable.”
Brian Lanter recalls, “These lyrics totally reflect Jon's outlook on life and his taste in poetry and music. The Brash Ensemble/NMGMC has performed this song a number of times. Jon adapted the melody from an old player piano roll (he had a player piano and a goodly collection of piano rolls, much of the music dating from the 1920's). Alan Stringer arranged it for men's chorus.
Especially after being separated from the military and no longer having to worry about that, Jon was gung-ho for the gay rights movement, coming out, and making gay people a visible presence in the larger community. He had no love of men's choral music, but he supported the chorus because of its public gayness (as well as his support for his partner Alan, who started the chorus).
Jon liked his music upbeat and his lyrics cheerful. He had limited tolerance for lip-synching drag acts, allowing only one per show at Caught in the Act, but he appreciated and respected direct performance drag talent, like Patrick Ross and The Dolls (for whom he became a producer). He was a fan of Jack Denvir's comic but sometimes poignant drag turn as Greta, the poor charwoman (as seen in the 1992 CITA show). Talent could win him over.
He drew the line at pornography on stage, but he appreciated ribaldry and allowed it extensively in his shows, and he appreciated sexual literature -- it was he who recommended to me the book Sexual Outlaw by John Rechy.
Jon had considerable hostility toward feminists (gay or straight) who condemned even male pornography, and he had no patience for feminist politics in general. After his divorce and military discharge, he wanted to live in a male-centric, homosocial and homosexual world, in which he largely succeeded. Not that he wanted nothing to do with women at all -- he was willing to work with women in Common Bond like Sue Ryan, who was not a strident feminist, and Caught in the Act included acts like the Drag Kings and Echo, the lesbian comic, again recognizing talent.
I spent a LOT of time at Jon and Alan’s house in the eighties and early nineties. They were generous and fun-loving and so very enthusiastically gay, as this song indicates. They were important in my life, but it was all rather spontaneous, not premeditated, and of course the specter of AIDS hung over everything. Life with Jon and Alan was a little like our local all-male version of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (minus the drugs) and my memories of them are happy ones.”
READ: The 19 Shows -- WATCH Videos!
Brian Lanter recalls, “These lyrics totally reflect Jon's outlook on life and his taste in poetry and music. The Brash Ensemble/NMGMC has performed this song a number of times. Jon adapted the melody from an old player piano roll (he had a player piano and a goodly collection of piano rolls, much of the music dating from the 1920's). Alan Stringer arranged it for men's chorus.
Especially after being separated from the military and no longer having to worry about that, Jon was gung-ho for the gay rights movement, coming out, and making gay people a visible presence in the larger community. He had no love of men's choral music, but he supported the chorus because of its public gayness (as well as his support for his partner Alan, who started the chorus).
Jon liked his music upbeat and his lyrics cheerful. He had limited tolerance for lip-synching drag acts, allowing only one per show at Caught in the Act, but he appreciated and respected direct performance drag talent, like Patrick Ross and The Dolls (for whom he became a producer). He was a fan of Jack Denvir's comic but sometimes poignant drag turn as Greta, the poor charwoman (as seen in the 1992 CITA show). Talent could win him over.
He drew the line at pornography on stage, but he appreciated ribaldry and allowed it extensively in his shows, and he appreciated sexual literature -- it was he who recommended to me the book Sexual Outlaw by John Rechy.
Jon had considerable hostility toward feminists (gay or straight) who condemned even male pornography, and he had no patience for feminist politics in general. After his divorce and military discharge, he wanted to live in a male-centric, homosocial and homosexual world, in which he largely succeeded. Not that he wanted nothing to do with women at all -- he was willing to work with women in Common Bond like Sue Ryan, who was not a strident feminist, and Caught in the Act included acts like the Drag Kings and Echo, the lesbian comic, again recognizing talent.
I spent a LOT of time at Jon and Alan’s house in the eighties and early nineties. They were generous and fun-loving and so very enthusiastically gay, as this song indicates. They were important in my life, but it was all rather spontaneous, not premeditated, and of course the specter of AIDS hung over everything. Life with Jon and Alan was a little like our local all-male version of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (minus the drugs) and my memories of them are happy ones.”
READ: The 19 Shows -- WATCH Videos!