Jump to content

Guy Strait

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Draft:Guy Strait)
Guy Strait
Strait in 1964
Born
Elmer Guy Strait

(1920-03-25)March 25, 1920
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
DiedMarch 25, 1987(1987-03-25) (aged 67)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
EducationArt Institute of Chicago
Occupations
  • Gay civil rights activist
  • magazine publisher
  • pornographer

Elmer Guy Strait (March 25, 1920 – March 25, 1987) was an American gay civil rights activist, magazine publisher, and convicted sex offender.

Early life

[edit]

Strait was born on March 25, 1920, in Dallas, Texas, the tenth of eleven brothers and sisters in a Baptist family. Strait first acquired a camera when he was 15, taking photographs of flowers, plant buds, and nudity.[1]

During WW2, Strait was drafted. In 1943, he wrote a letter for a newspaper about his experience during the war in Hawaii.[2] While stationed in Europe, he continued his photography hobby.[1]

Following the war, during the 1950s, Strait enrolled in fine arts at the Art Institute of Chicago.[3]

Later, Strait became involved in the formation of the Mikanakawa Tribe. The tribe was formed by Frank Young, Howard Cameron, and Strait. The tribe's purpose was for prior members of the Boy Scouts who were 34 years and older to commence.[4]

California

[edit]

Early publications

[edit]

In 1961, Strait split from SF Mattachine and formed the organization The League for Civil Education in San Francisco.[5] Strait believed that homosexuals could fight oppressive conditions and hostile law enforcement through the creation of a gay voting block.[6] In October 1961, Strait created his first paper, which was also the first gay newspaper in San Francisco, LCE News, which would be later known as Citizens News that same year. The paper was published from his offices on Minna Valley.[6] The newspapers were first distributed through gay bars and were published under The San Francisco Society for Individual Rights' (S.I.R.).[7][6] The paper was originally intended to only be circulated in the Bay Area, though the publication expanded to include information in regard to police repression, politics, gay history, social action, and the gay scene.[8] The newspaper ran until March 1967 and was available through subscription, distributed freely through gay bars, and also sold at newsstands.[6][9]

In 1963, Strait published a guide called The Lavender Baedeker, which circulated between 1963 and 1967. The guide was started after the popularity of Citizens News had led to inquiries from the public in regard to information for places to drink or stay in the various cities throughout the United States.[10] The publication noted that the publishers had no contact with the bar scene and that information might not be accurate.[10]

In July 1965, Strait created Cruise News and World Report, which gave warnings of entrapment schemes, as well as news from other cities and critical pieces on the persecution of homosexuals in the United States.[6] Two individuals heavily criticized in Cruise News and World Report were the mayor of San Francisco and the chief of police of Los Angeles. Strait also claimed to be the first person to accuse FBI director J. Edgar Hoover of being a "closet queen".[11]

Subsequently, Cruise News and World Report was later sued by U.S. News & World Report due to its namesake. Strait had gone on the record when questioned by the magazine's lawyer in regard to the name, "It's a problem of semantics. You're using the King's English. I use the Queen's!"[6][12] Due to these legal issues, the paper ceased publications in January 1967.[6]

Following the legal issues of Cruise News and World Report, Strait created two new publications, Bar Rag and Maverick, in 1967.[6] Maverick had invented a new genre of news republications, which came to be known as "underground publications".[6] Maverick was later succeeded by the publication the Haight Ashbury Free Press, which would later be known as the Haight Ashbury Tribune.[6][13] The Haight Ashbury Free Press was centered around the Summer of Love and included information about events happening in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, as well as advice for tourists.[13]

In January 1970, Strait was voted in as the publication's chairman for the Society of Individual Rights (S.I.R.) after the previous chairman resigned.[14]

Involvement in pornography

[edit]

Strait claimed that he first became involved in pornography when an associate offered him $2,000 each for two magazines. Strait ran some of the first commercialized child pornographic magazines in the United States which included Hombre, Chico, and Naked Boyhood. A mail order was set up under the name DOM Studios for selling nude photographs, magazines, and movies.[3]

While in San Francisco, Strait ran a studio near Haight-Ashbury for modeling. Individuals who were on drugs or intoxicated were denied, while prospective models were given $10 for a test photo. Strait claimed he had returned all test photos to the prospective models and rejected most of them. Strait produced both heterosexual and homosexual material, as well as age differences, incest, and child pornography. Though he would not film violence. During this period, Strait started processing his own film to release material at a quicker rate.[3]

Billy Byars Jr.

[edit]

Billy Byars Jr. and Guy Strait were close business partners during the 1970s. Byars and Strait created a joint business under the name DOM-Lyric.[15]

Strait, Byars, and their associates under Lyric Film Productions reportedly had 90 different magazines on the market retailing for $5 apiece. All starting out with 10,000 copies, followed by additional printing runs. While films were marked at $50. Acquiring over a quarter of a million in revenue.[15][16]

An investigation into DOM-Lyric was pursued following the Houston Mass Murders. A week following an inquiry from the LAPD, Strait was arrested on September 1, 1973, for using underage boys in film, some of whom were from Houston.[16]

Strait's arrest followed an October 1973 indictment of Byars and others, which included a YMCA counselor, a schoolteacher, an assistant scoutmaster, Christopher Paul Lewis, and eight other men who were returned by the Los Angeles grand jury.[17][16] Byars was identified as the owner of multiple film companies, including Lyric Productions. Lewis was also identified as a film producer for Lyric, while a man named William Johnson, who was a photographer from Houston, was identified as a close associate of Byars.[17][16] It was found that boys between the ages of six and seventeen had performed in the movies.[17] Strait was subsequently arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors.[15][18]

After Strait posted bond, it was rumored he had fled to Europe. One of his publications stated, "We have no idea where he is today... wherever he is—and reliable sources say he is in Turkey or Greece—we wish him well."[15] In reality, Strait never left the country and instead made his way to Rockford, Illinois.[19] Though Byars and his affiliate William Johnson had fled and moved abroad to Europe to avoid persecution.[18][20]

Rockford, Illinois

[edit]

In February 1976, Strait, a mental health caseworker for the Singer Mental Health Center; Richard Vander Linden, a regional editor for the Rockford Morning Star; and Daniel Dileo, were among those arrested following a 10-month investigation following complaints to a minister about sexual abuse made by three youths.[21][22] Strait and his associates had reportedly invited five to seven boys ranging between the ages of 12 to 15 to parties where they were given beer and marijuana to lure them into homosexual acts before being filmed.[21][23][24] Subsequently, Vander Linden was charged with three counts of indecent liberties with minor boys, while the other three men were charged with one count of indecent liberties with a child.[22]

Following Strait's sentencing, he had started serving a 10- to 20-year sentence at Stateville Penitentiary.[25] Despite his imprisonment, his operation continued.[24]

In 1977, Strait came before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee in regard to the growing issue of child pornography. When asked by senator Malcolm Wallop if he felt that the experience of being in pornographic films had been harmful to the children involved or if it had been beneficial, Strait answered, "Yes, I believe it may have been beneficial." Strait also said that he believed "pornography had a worthwhile place in the American family."[26]

Strait also mentioned that he had known John David Norman and that he had written an article for Hermes magazine, a Chicago journal publishing philosophy and stories of "boy love".[24] He also told the committee that he had known producer and child pornographer Roy Ames.[20]

Later life

[edit]

While in prison, Strait became a jailhouse lawyer focusing on federal law. After being moved to a lower security prison, Strait started working on three books: Memoirs of a Dirty Old Man, Hell in Illinois, and Tyranny's New Home: Rockford.[27]

Strait died in San Francisco, California, on March 25, 1987.[27]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Linedecker 1981, p. 228.
  2. ^ "Our Boys in Service: Guy Strait Writes Letter From Hawaii". Richardson Echo. January 1, 1943.
  3. ^ a b c Linedecker 1981, p. 230.
  4. ^ "Former Boy Scouts Continue Association During Adult Life". The Dallas Morning News. October 10, 1939.
  5. ^ Kepner, James (October 1989). "Our Movement Before Stonewall".
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Media— "LCE News," "Citizen News," "Cruise News and World Report," "Town Talk, 1"". Gale. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  7. ^ Green, Mark (May 1971). "S.I.R. Counseling, dances, publishing, speakers, speakers bureau, stage shows - how do they do it?". Vector. Vol. 7, no. 5.
  8. ^ "Citizens News, Vol. IV, No. 13 [with] Cruise News & World Report, Vol. 1, No. 1". davidanthembookseller.
  9. ^ Stryker, Susan (1999). "Lower Mariset Street in San Francisco: An Area of Historic Significance". OurStories. Vol. 14, no. 1.
  10. ^ a b "The Lavender Baedeker". HoustonLGBTHistory. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  11. ^ Linedecker 1981, p. 229.
  12. ^ "Strait Shooter". Ventura County Star. January 15, 1967. p. 88. Retrieved June 10, 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b "Haight Ashbury Maverick: vol. 2, #2". Bolerium Books.
  14. ^ "Candidates for S. I. R. Board Nominated at Meeting". Vector. Vol. 6, no. 2. February 1970.
  15. ^ a b c d Lloyd 1976, p. 84.
  16. ^ a b c d Dovey 2023, p. 21.
  17. ^ a b c Linedecker 1981, p. 239.
  18. ^ a b Summers 1993, p. 377.
  19. ^ Linedecker 1981, p. 240.
  20. ^ a b Dovey 2023, p. 22.
  21. ^ a b "Porno Ring Busted". Belleville News-Democrat. February 25, 1976. p. 3.
  22. ^ a b "Police Investigation Continues in Rockford Homosexual Case". Freeport Journal-Standard. February 25, 1976. p. 9.
  23. ^ "3 to Face Morals Charges". Herald & Review. February 25, 1976. p. 37. Retrieved June 10, 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  24. ^ a b c "His Only Regret: I Got Caught". Chicago Tribune. May 17, 1977. p. 8. Retrieved June 10, 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Pornography may be good". JG-TC: Journal Gazette and Times-Courier. May 31, 1977. p. 11. Retrieved June 10, 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Child Molester Testifies". The Carmi Times. May 31, 1977. p. 8. Retrieved June 10, 2025 – via newspapers.com.
  27. ^ a b Linedecker 1981, p. 241.

Sources

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guy_Strait&oldid=1295154016"