Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 10:59:08 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 675

In this issue:
                          OLTL, Friday, Aug 28

Please send messages for the entire list to gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU,
requests to be added or deleted to gaynet-request@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, and
personal replies directly to the other person, not the entire list.
Postings to GayNet are public communications.  If you must keep your
privacy, send your messages to gaynet-anonymous@ATHENA.MIT.EDU.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: manz@ee.ualberta.ca (Brett {Druid Queen} Manz)
Subject: OLTL, Friday, Aug 28
Summary: Plot synopsyis for OLTL, Friday Aug 28
Keywords: soap, OLTL, plot
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: 	Wed, 2 Sep 1992 08:55:41 -0600

This one's going to be a long one.  The next one may be even longer.  If
Tuesday's episode is any indication, this job is going to get easier
once I get past these two.  Here we go...


Friday, Aug 28

  Vicki is talking to Sloan (continued from the last episode.)  "Why can't
you say it Sloan?  You are holding a secret inside you that's breaking
your heart.  It's killing you.  You've got to let it go."

  Sloan goes to put away the pictures of William.  "No, no," says Vicki.
"There's no reason to hide this.  Not from me, and certainly not from
yourself.  In fact the thing you should do most is not to put this away."

  "What is it?" she asks.  "What have you been hiding inside yourself all
these years?  Can't you tell me?"

  "Vicki," says Sloan as he resumes putting the pictures away.  "Some
things are better kept out of sight, and left unsaid."

  At the church, the Quilt is being set up on the lawn.  Andrew, Cassie
and Jonathan are walking out towards the display area.  They pause and
watch as the ground sheets are unrolled, and the sections of the Quilt
are layed out on top.

  "That," Andrew says, "is beyond words."  [It is rather an awesome sight.]

  The nasty churh people are gathered on the church steps.  They plan to
block Adrew from entering.  Beau is talking to some woman (whose name I
don't know) with whom he has been working on setting up the Quilt.

  "Look up there," he says, pointing to the mob.  "Just look at those..."

  "Parishoners," she finishes for him.

  "Parishoners?  More like Walter Douglas and his spiritual lynch mob.
They're here to protest the Quilt being here.  If they'd get off their
high horses and get down here and look at this, and read it, then maybe
they could find out what this is all about."

  "Rememberance and loss," she says.

  "But no," he continues.  "They've gotta stay up there on the seps
and try to keep Andrew from getting in the church!  How petty can
you get?"

  Andre, et al, approach the church.  "Looks like it's time to face our
public," he says.

  They walk up to the steps.  Walter, Virginia and Mrs. McNamara are
blocking the door.  Andrew says "Excuse me."

  "Sorry, Reverend," says Walter.  "You are never going to set foot in
this church again."

  Joey and Alana are still talking in the theatre.  "I keep thinking,"
says Alana, "how could we have stopped him?  What else could we have
done?"

  "Maybe if we tried a little harder?" says Joey.  "If we talked a
little longer?"

  "You don't believe that."

  "No, I don't think anything could have changed Billy's mind.  He
was on auto-pilot for New York."

  Alana shivers.  Joey asks her if she's cold.

  "No," she says.  "I'm not cold.  This town is."

  "What's does that mean?"  [Duh!]

  "Billy was miserable here!" she bursts out.  "What kind of life did
he have?  What kind of life could he have?"

  "You're making it sound so hopeless."

  "Isn't it?  Joey, here's your proof.  Billy is gone!  He ran away
to the toughest city in the world because he tought he would be
happier alone, than with people who he loves.  That's pretty desperate."

  "I can't believe that living in Lanview is so terminally crumby.  You
were the one who made me believe that things can change."

  "You know," she says, "there's terminally crumby, and then there's
terminally crumby.  I'm so proud of you for standing by Billy.  I'm
glad you didn't go with him, though.  I think I would be pretty
desperate."

  They start getting really mushy, exchange `I love you's and play a
little tonsil hockey.

  Back at the church, Andrew is undaunted by Walter's brazenly
asinine posturing.  "I'd like to thank you all for coming here on this
special day," he says.

  "Spare us the noble equanimity+," says Walter.  "I think I'd respect
you more if you got a little mad."

[+ I'm a little embarassed, I had to look this word up.  And I'm
   such a vocabulary queen! It means calmness.]

  "I'm not angry," says Andrew.  "I'm sad."

  "Why is that?  Because you're finally being prevented from riding
roughshod over everything that's decent?"

  "The church is for everyone, Mr. Douglas.  You have no right to
keep anyone out.  Please leyt me pass."

  "One condition:  Your resignation, right now."

  "Mr. Douglas, there is something more important at hand.  That," he
points over towards the Quilt.  "And this isn't about me, or about you,
or my job, or your opion of it.  It is about the Quilt."

  "That's right.  And that's one more reason you should resign!  Because
you are responsible for bringing taht thing here!"

  "That `thing' is the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.  And I will
not have you refer to it as if it were some rag dragged out pf the gutter!"

[ Andrew is beginning to lose his equanimity. :-)]

  "Why not?  Isn't that where most of the people it glorifies spent
their lives?"

  "You want to see me get angry?  FINE!  I AM ANGRY!" yells Andrew.  He
turns to face the rest of the mob.  "I am angry!  I *am angry!  Can not
you people understand or appreciate where this quilt came from, how it
came to be made?  People are dying from AIDS!  All kinds of people!
Babies, children, teenagers, women, old people...  Unlike you, AIDS
is not prejudiced, and not enough has been done to stop this disease!
One man saw  the names of the victims of AIDS taped to the wall of
a building, and one year later the first panel was made," he holds up
William's panel, "a panel not unlike this one.  Now there are over
15,000 of them!"

  "Well we don't care if there are a million of them on a lazy Susan!"
interrupts Walter.  "Because you had no authority to bring this circus
to town and park it on the church lawn without getting permission from
the Vestry!  This time, Reverend, you have gone way too far."

  "As have you sir," says Andrew, somewhat more composed.

  "Your beloved quilt represents everything that is unacceptable about
you," says Walter.  "Sexual perversion... subversive behaviour...
Trying to turn our faith into some kind of statement!  Any man who
preaches that is a menace!  For us, and especially for our children!"

[Some of my best friends are subversive perverts!]

  "I am not that man!  And that quilt is nothing of the sort!"

  "Yes you are!  And we are going to do anyything we can to keep you
from ever preaching here again!"

  Now Cassie takes a run at them.  "How dare you deny this man access
to the house of God?  You call yourselves Christians?"

  "You people say Andrew is a bad influence on your kids?  Then you
obviously haven't taken the time to visit the community center that
he built, with his hands and his heart.  Go there!  See the very
kids you're so concerned about saving lives, building hope, giving
the people back their neighbourhood.  In fact, that's probably who
has gained the most from having Andrew here...  Your kids!"

  At this point, Joey and Alana come pedalling up towards the church.
Andrew goes out to meet them.  "What's going on?" asks Joey.

  "What you've got here is your average, everyday church blockade,"
repies Andrew.

  "What a bunch of dorks!" says Joey.

  "Where's Billy?" asks Andrew.

  "He's not coming," says Joey.

  "Actually he's heading the other way," says Alana.

  "He's on his way to New York," continues Joey.

  "Let's pray he finds some peace," says Andrew.

  Back to Vicki and Sloan.  He's still putting the pictures back into
their envelope.

  "As much as you insist that there is nothing to be discussed," says
Vicki, "what you are holding here in your hand needs to be talked about."

  "Vicki, please," says Sloan.  "The subject is closed."

  "As closed as this envelope?  It's such a pity you won't leave it open,
because there's agreat deal more than just a jumble of photographs in
there."

  "Not true," he denies.

  "Oh sloan!  Look at this!" she says and grabs the envelope from him.
"Look at it!  It's yellow with age, and look at all the dark spots.
That's where your fingers have held it so many times over the years
the paper feels like velvet right there.  You have kept this with you
all these years.  Why won't you let go of what's inside?"

  "Why are you torturing me?" he says, grabbing the envelope back and
retreating away from her.

  "I don't mean to," she says and follows after.  "I am trying to end
the torture that you have endured at your own hands!"

  "What?!"

  "May I tell you what I think?" she asks.  Without waiting for an
answer she continues "I think whatever it is your holding on to
has very little to do with your anger at Andrew, or with the fact
that your son William was a homosexual, or even the fact that he died
of AIDS.  I think it comes from a much darker place."

  "Are you trying to read my mind now?" asks Sloan.

  "Tell me I'm wrong.  You can't forgive William and Andrew their
transgressions.  You carry this anger around with you like a piece
of artillery, and when someone gets a little too close to the truth
you fire off a round."

  "Vicki, that is enough!"

  "Your doing it now!  You can't forgive them.  Why?  Isn't it because
there's really nothing to forgive them for?  Isn't it becuase the person
you have to forgive is you, yourself?"

  "For what?"

  "I don't know.  I don't know.  But the answer is in here," she says
again grabbing the envelope.  She gives it back and goes on.  "I don't
this has anything to do with something William did to you.  I think it
has to do with something you did to him."

  "I think you'd better stop right there," he says.  "Vicki, you talk
about my secrets.  What about yours?"

  "My secrets?" she says.  "I don't understand."

  "You've been after me to get in touch with my feelings.  You insist
that I have a deep, dark secret.  WHat about yours?  WHat is *your
unspoken truth?"

  "Nothing," she says, getting a bit uncomfortable.  "There's nothing."

  "Nothing?" he says, taking her hands.  "Not even when we're standing
this close?"

  "You're chaning the subject again..."

  "Vicki, why are you here?  Forget about William and Andrew.  What is
the real reason?  Or is that too deep and dark a secret for you to
admit?"


  Back to the church.  Joey asks Andrew "WHat happened to your face?"

  Andrew passes it off as a case of mistaken identity.

  Off in the distance Andrew sees someone cycling towards the church.
"Well, well," he says.  "Look who's here."  It's Billy.

  Virginia sees him, and calls out his name.  She starts to run down
the church steps to go to him, but Walter grabs her.

  "Stay away from him!" he says.

  Andrew goes over to meet him.  "It's good to see you Billy," he says.
"Are you okay?"

  "Yeah," says Billy.  "Are you?"

  "Sticks and stones, Billy.  It's nothing."

  "Well, then shouldn't you be in the church?"

  "Shouldn't you be in New York?"

  "I *was on my way," he says.  "But I realized that the people I cared
most about weren't in New York.  They were here.  For this," he indicates
William's panel.  "And this," he indicates the bunch of dorks.  "So I
thought this is where I should be.  This is my fight as much as yours
Andrew."

  "It's good to have you here Billy," Andrew says, and gives him a hug.

  "I know a couple people who might not feel the same way."

  In the background we hear Walter and Virginia arguing.  She is trying
to break free of him.  "Let me go!  I want to speak to our son!"

  They walk over to the church steps.  "Let Mom go," says Billy.
"Dad!  Let her go!"

  "Don't you talk to me that way!" says Walter.

  "Let her go, and get out of my way!"

  The Quilt ceremony has begun.  The speaker takes the podium:

    Welcome to the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.  The panels
    before you were created by lovers, families and friends to
    comemorate loved ones who have died of AIDS.  We will begin
        by reading the names of people who are remembered in the Quilt.

  Various people take turns at the podium, reading name after name after
name.  Various panels are shown, all quite beautiful and very moving.

  Billy and Walter continue to yell at one another.  Andrew says "Billy,
you don't have to do this."

  "Yes I do," says Billy.

  Walter yells at Andrew "Carpenter, get your hands off that boy!"

  "He's not boy, Mr. Douglas," says Andrew.  "He's a young man.  And
quite a young man at that."

  "Billy, I..." Virgina tries to say, but Walter yells at her to be
quiet.

  "Beau and the un-named woman come up to the steps.  "Andrew," he says,
"we heard what was going on from the meadow."

  "We just wanted to give you a hand," she says.

  "I think it's sick that Andrew Carpenter even *needs a hand to get
into his own church," says Billy.  "Let's do it.  We're going in."

  "You stay right where you are," yells Walter.

  "Mr. Douglas, please," says Andrew.  "Let us pass."

  "The hell I will!"

  Things are getting tense.  Virginia shoves Walter out of the way, and
says "Let them pass!"  [YAY Virginia!!]

  "Let's do it," says Billy, and they all rush into the church, leaving
Walter and Virginia on the steps.

  "You damn fool," says Walter.

  "Listen to yourself," she says.  "You have got to stop this!"

  "Stop this?" he says.  "Are you kidding?  I have barely started."

  Walter goes into the church.  "This isn't over yet, Carpenter!" he
says.

  "I know that, Mr. Doglas," replies Andrew.  "And I'm thankful for it.

  Vicki arrives.  "Andrew," she says.  "Thank heaven I made it before
you started."

  "Well, we had a little prayer vigil on the steps," he says.  "Or
maybe it was more of a football skirmish, I'm not sure."

  She tells him briefly about her meeting with his father.  "I did
everything I could to convince him, but unfortunately..."

  "I never expected him to be here," he says, "or understand.  I don't
think he ever will."

  Andrew takes the pulpit.  He lays William's panel on the altar.
A furor erupts among the dorks in the congregation, with cries of
`desecration' and Walter demanding Andrew's resignation again.

  Andrew holds a rock up in the air.  "Do you know where I got this
rock?" he yells out over the din.  The rabble quiet down.

  "I got this rock at our community center," he continues.  "It had
been thrown through a window.  A note was tied around it that said
`drop dead, Father Faggot.'  Was the note signed?  Of course not.
It was annonymous.  As annonymous as the person whose arm rose from
a nameless, faceless crowd and let the rock fly."

  "But did I say `crowd'?  I meant `mob.'  Because a mob is nothing
but cowardice with a franchise.  Over the past few months I've seen
this community - a place that I love - torn apart by cowardice.  And
a mob has fostered fear, and hatred and intolerance.  Over what?  What
*is the great bone of contention?"

  "It's freedom!  Pure and simple.  Freedom, in the form of a person's
right to choose his or her own way of private life."

  "How could this happen?  How?  How could one person's personal,
private choice cause somebody else to react so violently?"

  "There are thos among us who are afraid of freedom.  Threatened by
choice, and terrified of difference.  They seek to destroy a person's
right to his or her truth, and they lash out.  They label this a `sin,'
and that an `abomination.'  And they won't feel safe until they are
better, more equal than the other.  Whites better than blacks.  Males
beter than females.  Straights better than Gays.  Because, you see, the
mob is very, very scared.  And that is very scary."

  "But who among you would have the courage to step from the safety
a mob?  And who among you would come up here alone, and attack me
for preserving freedoms that I am sworn to protect?"

  "Here's your rock.  Who among you will cast the first stone?"

  Sloan arrives.  Andrew sees him.

  "Outside, while we sit here, someone is reading the names of people
who have died of AIDS," says Andrew.

  "The names of perverts!" calls out Walter.

  "It's the sound of rememberance," continues Andrew.  "Of family, and
of friends and of loved ones.  It's the sound of love."

  "All the people that have gathered in our meadow today have come out of
love.  And every stitch in that quilt was made out of love.  And the quilt
is so big.  It's not because a tragic disease has cut a swath through
our society, it's because there's so much love for the people the disease
has claimed.  And they will be remembered.  They will be remembered for
the experiences they had, and the dreams they shared, and the joy they
brought and the sorrow they left behind.  They'll be remembered, and it's
all fueled by that which makes us most human: Love."

  "What is love?  It's acceptance.  That's what Christ's message to us
is.  Love one another.  Accept one another.  When you love someone what
do you do?  You take them in, you take them into your heart."

  "And that is surely why it hurts so much when we lose someone that we
love.  Because when they die, we lose a part of ourselves."

  "Of course, I guess, the truth is that everybody is a part of us, and
we are a part of everybody else."  He folds up William's panel.  "Truth
is, we are brothers and sisters.  We forget that.  We want to insist
that we are not related to certain people at all.  Because they are,
oh maybe, too little of that colour.  Or maybe too much of that behaviour.
We get scared.  And we get selfish.  And before you know it, we have
picked up a rock," he picks up the rock.  "Hatred.  Hatred and intolerance,
they have been with us forever.   How can love beat them?  Hatred is
so hard, and sharp.  Unyielding.  Love is so soft," he picks up William's
panel in the other hand, "and gentle, and giving."  Virginia looks
over at Billy, wistfully.  "I guess love can never beat hatred.
Never.  All love can do is accept it.  To take it in, bit by bit,"
he wraps the rock up in the panel, "piece by piece.  So that after a
while, and with a whole lot of patience, hatred disappears.  And it's
true that love can never defeat hatred, but it can overcome it.  It
can definitely overcome it!"

  Walter stands up, clapping.  "Bravo!" he shouts.  "You see what he's
trying to do?  He's trying to wrap us around his finger like he wrapped
his freak flag around that rock!"

  "Mr. Douglas, I really..."

  "No!  You made your speech, you listen to me.  You stand up there
spewing your liberal pap about acceptance.  All your trying to do is
obscure the issue."

  "So what are you going to do?" asks Andrew.  "You're going to stand
there and tell me that the right to privacy, or the right to love as
you see fit has nothing at all to do with acceptance?  Is that what
you're going to sell?"

  "I see only your ideas about what is acceptable," says Walter.
"Especially when it comes to advocating perversion, right?  Especially
when it comes to circumventing the Vestry's process, and dragging this
congregation into some kind of a political Vaudeville.  Without so much
as a `by your leave.'  Well that goes way beyond my ideas of what is
acceptable."

  "Walter!" says Virginia, grabbing his arm.  "Sit down!"

  "No!" he says.  "This is our church!  Not yours!  Ours!  And somebody
has to speak for the people that you have disenfranchised!  I am
talking about normal, decent people, who don't want our church pulled
into the gutter by a gay loving heretic!"

  Billy jumps up and says "He's not any of those things!"  He walks up
to the pulpit and stands next to Andrew.  "I've got something to tell
you," he says.  "Something to tell all of you."

  "Stop!" says Walter.  "Right there, right now."

  "I won't stop!" he says.  "I can't!  I'm sick of being quiet, and
I'm tired of being scared."

  "I'm warning you!" says Walter.

  "About what?!" replies Billy.  "What are you afraid of?  That I'll
say something disgusting?  Something perverted?  Well I'm not afraid.
Not anymore.  I know who I am, and I can finally admit it.  I'm
Billy Douglas... and I'm Gay."

  "Shut up!" yells Walter.  "YOU SHUT UP!"

  "But dad, I'm still the same kid.  I'm the same one that you took
canoeing, and camping.  I'm the same kid who you hugged half to
death when I brought you that dorky pipe home for Father's Day
last year."

  "You *are *NOT!"

  "Yes I am, dad!  I'm the same!  But I never would have known that
if it wasn't for Andrew.  I was going crazy.  Do you know what it's
like to wake up every morning, and look in the mirror and say `It
can't be!  It can't be!  It can't be!'?  I was gonna explode.  But
Andrew treated me like me.  He put his arm around me, and told me it
was OK.  I was OK.  I was OK like this.  And someone started rumors
saying he was trying to molst me.  Put the moves on me.  A homo.
Well that's BULL!  He only put his arm around me because I didn't
think that my family would.  This is how this whole thing got
started.  Somebody h\just twised the truth around, and I was just
too scared, too afraid, to admit who I really was.  Mom, dad.  Maybe
you can't love me anymore, but I still love both of you.  And no matter
what you think, I'm still your son.  I'm your son, Billy Douglas,
and I always will be."

  Virginia rushes over to him.  "Nothing could ever make me stop
loving you," she says.  "Nothing in this world."  She put her arms
around him, and hugs him close.

  "Usually I end the sermon with a prayer," Andrew says.  "Today I'm
going to take a field trip.  There's a quilt being unfolded in our
meadow.  A quilt dedicated to all the people that have died of AIDS.
My brother William died of AIDS.  And so I'm going to go down to the
meadow now, and add this panel to that quilt.  Would anyone care to
join me?"  He looks at Sloan, but gets neither response nor contradiction.

  Several of the congregation stand up and follow as he heads out to
the qilt.  Vicki stays behind to talk to Sloan.  Walter, Virginia and
Billy are also still in the church.

  "It's a beautiful day outside mom," says Billy.  "What do you say we
take a walk?"

  "I'd like that," she says, smiling (for the first time in a looong
time) and the head out of the church arm in arm.

  But Walter stops them.  "Wait," he says.  "Don't go.  This is
madness!"  He tries to stop other people from leaving.

  "It doesn't have to be, dad."

  "Don't you see your playing right into his hands?"  He's starting to
sound considerably less than sane at this point.  "What's the matter?
You've all gone soft, or something?  You fools!"

  Vicki approaches Sloan.  "Sloan," she says, "every second that passes
brings Andrew closer to putting William's quilt panel into the Quilt
alone.  Are you going to be with your sons or not?"

  "You are not going out there!" Walter tells Virginia and Billy.

  "Walter!"

  "Shut up!"

  "Dad!"

  "Don't you call me that!"  He raises his hand to strike Billy.

  Sloan's flashback returns.  This time it culminates in him slapping
William across the face.  The image repeats in his mind several times.
He jumps up and intercepts Walter's arm before it reaches Billy.

  "Don't do that!" he says, glaring angrily at Walter.

  Outside the ceremony is just over.  The seemingly endless stream of
names has finally come to an end.  Andrew, Cassie and Jonathan stand at
the side with William's panel.  Andrew is looking back towards the church.

  "I didn't see him come out of the church," says Cassie.

  The episode ends with an amazing panoramic view of the small(?) section
of the Quilt that is present.


Woo!  This one took a long time to write up!  Almost five hours!  Oh well,
it's worth it.  I'm going to sleep now.



-
---------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 My opinions are my own.         |  You can't be proud of who you are
 The truth belongs to everyone.  |  if you're ashamed of what you are.
 Civil Rights Are For Queers!    |  Cruise Men, Not Missiles! - anon

------------------------------

End of GayNet Digest
********************
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU