BATHS
“Look, Roberta (yes, Roberta Flack), guess who just arrived from the Capitol to deliver our hamburgers, well, the hamburger because I only saw him carrying one, said David. And now they don’t even tip him, he does it for free, and today he’s coming with his head down because he surely got kicked in the ass.
The handsome senator has another advisor, and he has the longest list of advisors in the entire South. And do you think he doesn’t sleep with all of them? Our prince of Central American Indians is all alone now and he’s coming to ask for favors.”
“Jacob, said Roberta, David is right. That white man is not good for you. He’s a dreamer who pretends to be a savior, he votes against all civil rights and gay rights, he’s friends with Hoover, and he’s a deeply closeted homosexual. What the hell are you doing with him?”
“Well, my friends, I answered them back, I’m glad I have you to cheer me up. Roberta, you’re becoming famous and rich with your song ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and now you won’t even talk to us.
Let me ask you something. The first time you saw your love’s face, did you go check who he voted for in Congress, or what groups he was friends with, or if he hated black people, Jews, and Hispanics? I bet you 141
didn’t. Besides, he’s not the one leaving me. I’m the one leaving him.”
“And what are you asking for? Answered David.
Now you want to sleep with a waiter. Here, you won’t even have a car, let alone a helicopter. You’ll have to walk.”
“If I can’t marry the most handsome senator, then I’ll marry the most handsome waiter. It’s a good option for me.”
“You’re not as handsome as you think. I’ll think about it.”
Roberta came to my help.
” Jacob, don’t listen to David, he’s jealous. The truth is you are right. Nobody knows why they fall in love.
Can you imagine how much money we would save on alcohol if we knew how to choose? Ted has his thing, and you have yours. I’ve heard that the senator is obsessed with you. And not because of a lack of attractive advisors. It’s very strange. I don’t understand. But let me tell you something, if I become rich and famous, you will always be my friends. Now you two make up your minds whether you are going to make up, you’re boring me with all this gay drama.”
David made a condition: our relationship would be open. I said no. He made a counterproposal: we would go to the baths together. When I heard that, I almost hit him. The baths, that famous gay institution, were not well regarded in the seventies. It was a structure based on Roman orgies where you would go to 142
a club, they would give you a towel, you would walk through narrow passages with open doors, and if you were interested in one of the occupants, you would enter and have sexual relations.
The Regency had opened in 1968 and it was a place that no gay person who was out would want to be seen at. Ted had forbidden me from setting foot in there. He had the paranoia that if the police caught me, he would be accused of having relations with an underage Hispanic. David convinced me to go to the institution at its best: the Continental Baths in New York. It had just opened its doors and it was a fabulous construction with hundreds of cubicles around a huge dance floor, a pool, a hair salon, a massage room, a bar, and a cafeteria, where, as expected in the Big Apple, the most attractive men in the world would come.
Furthermore, that weekend a new singer was making her debut: Bette Midler.