Different articles about alcoholism through the years

[navysteve]

Alcoholics Anonymous in Newspape

[trucker]

thanks steve....some real interesting reading in there.

[AW2486]

Thanks Steve.. always wanted to read the Jack Alexander article that put AA on the map

[navysteve]

I like The Queer Problem A. A. Can't Bottle Up. Alot of similarities between that and other outside issues in AA.

[Rob B]

Thanks for the links Steve, there's some good reading and history in there, I just finished the step nine article, can't say that I ageee with it, but that's ok.

[FightingIrish]

Hysterical. I'm gay, but I can't say I've met many people like those interviewed in the article outside of a drag show.

Originally Posted by navysteve

I like The Queer Problem A. A. Can't Bottle Up. Alot of similarities between that and other outside issues in AA.

[navysteve]

Me either Rob. I found a few articles that made me utter a few expletives. Then I remembered, like thetwelve and twelve they were mostly one authors views. I just found the collection interesting from a historical perspective. It kinda gives us a view of different issues throughout AA's timeline.

[nelco]

wow Thanks Steve your a gem.......I will be reading and reading and reading.

[Pagekeeper]

Maybe it's just me, but I thought "The Queer Problem" article was ghastly prejudiced and homophobic. Just embarrassing.

[navysteve]

Page,
It is our history. It ain't all pretty. What it shows me is that we have had internal problems throughout our history and by the Grace of God they were handled.

[jimhere]

I just the article about queers in AA. I just see it as reflective of the times in which it was written.

I was homophobic when I cam to AA, although I'd never really known any gay people. I had lived in a small town in Oklahoma where the attitude towards gays people, or for that matter, Indians and blacks was much like that in that article. I remember a kid moved to that town and started to school in the high school there. We all thought he was a "queer." Looking back he wasn't, he was just different. I made his life hell while he was at that school. When I went back to make amends, he wasn't around. Hell, he just did what I did and got out of that town as soon as he could.

When I was few years sober I was sponsoring a man, that I knew was gay, but he hadn't told me that he was gay. He was afraid to because then maybe I wouldn't sponsor him (I was a tough, blue-collar, macho logger then). In his Fifth Step it came out And I got the chance to tell him about the kid I couldn't make amends to and how God closed the circle and put him in my life so I could begin to make amends to gay people and that I loved him because he is one of God's kids.

Since then, I can count some gay men and women among my best friends. I would trust my life to my friend Angie who is a lesbian and has more God in her little finger than any of the so-called Christians who would condemn her to hell for being what she is. I know that is a bit of a rant, but reading that article brought up a little of that in me.
Jim