Larry Jenkins The new NZAF Fundraising, Events and Membership Co-ordinator has been a musician, conductor, events manager, writer and PR manager. Who are you and what's your background? Who am I? Good question. In the light of the fact that I've never been able to pidgeonhole myself as "this" or "that" vis a vis my working life, I've often asked that question of myself. I trained to be a professional musician, then did some more training to be a professional teacher, which I did do for about a third of that working life, but all the time I was trying to be a good boy and stick to one career, others kept pulling me away - conductor, entrepreneur, events manager, journalist and writer, public relations manager - until I lost track of myself. I like that old fallback "Jack of all Trades." I came to New Zealand in 1991 after nearly twenty years in London. While I was there I launched CRUSAID, a help-based AIDS charity that now has an annual budget of tens of millions of pounds. As part of the launch, I organised a celebrity marathon of piano duet playing at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. Some of the more notable people who took part were Prunella Scales, her husband actor Timothy West, their small (then) son Samuel, Sir Georg Solti, Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, a number of well-known pianists of course, and some others, including Kiwi uber-organist Dame Gillian Weir, who hadn't touched a piano in years, and New Zealand pianists Richard Mapp and Michael Houstoun, who were in London at the time. I also orchestrated a press conference with Sir Ian McKellen back in 1988 when the Thatcher government introduced the notorious Clause 28, which said that any local authority or school that was seen to promote homosexuality or any “pretended family relationships” would be prosecuted. The clause was finally abolished a few years ago by the British Labour government. Born in the Deep South of America, I guess I was smacked in the face with romanticism at an early age and never got over it, so I kept re-inventing myself in all these roles. I still do that a lot. Sometimes I am convinced that there is nothing I can't do. Why did you decide to work for NZAF? My generation of gay people was forced to hide behind terrible constraints As it was illegal to follow your desire for your own sex, many of my exploits were risky but I couldn't have lived my life any other way. Then, when Gay Lib freed us all to the point of hedonism, I fell in love and had a long and monogamous relationship and was saved from the virus when many of my friends were dropping dead. The chance to work for the NZAF seemed like a wonderful opportunity had dropped in my lap to pay back Fate for saving my life and to firmly identify myself as a gay man in a public way by standing alongside people who had worked for this cause for a long time. What characterises the New Zealand LGBT community for you? Well, I have to say that that is hard to answer. When my relationship broke down, I was supported not by my gay friends so much as by my heterosexual ones, and it made me wonder if there is a "community" any more. And the fact that in Wellington, where I was at the time, the gay community seems to be merging with the heterosexual community insofar as the club and bar scene rather confirms my suspicion that "gay community" is a phrase of the past. The "community" that banded together to fight AIDS is still a close-knit social unit, but that said, the metamorphosis is inevitable that will probably erase any semblance of a group of people separated by sexual preference from the mainstream. I think that it would be impossible to lose one's "pride" or sense of identity with that heritage we all share - the years of anonymity, the centuries of prejudice, the quirky humour and camp traditions we all know and recognise instantly. But the need to bond against opposing forces may dissipate as those forces turn their attention to other groups. What is the worst thing for you about being gay? I'd like to say that the worst thing for me is that I don't have children, but really I don't want any. Aside from the sense that my line ends with me and there's no one to leave my oriental rugs to, I really feel no regrets along those lines. What is the best thing? The best thing is, and I felt this the instant I knew I was gay in my early teens, the sense that I am different from that awful majority out there whose horizons are so narrow and who assume the world is about them. Besides the fact that in being gay I am linked arm in arm with some of the most creative and brilliant people who've ever lived, there is the added pleasure that being gay has developed my own sensibilities so that I can feel and express both joy and sorrow and am not ashamed to do either. Relationship status? Well, I've already said my relationship broke down. That was six years ago, and it was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but one does really grow out of these things and I think I have, though I'm not quite sure how. At present I'm single, but I refuse to be made cyincal about love. I believe in it. Favourite food and drink? I lived in Italy for three years and learned from the inside that Italian food is probably the most delicious in the world. The Italians have kept their cuisine simple and refined a rather small repertoire for many hundreds of years, and I don't believe you can eat as well anywhere else. Good wine is my favourite drink and in New Zealand you can drink awfully well. Sono molto contento. Worst habit? Picking my nose? I don't know. There are so many of them, but I have to fight procrastination harder than most people. I work well under pressure, but there is the point of no return when all the work one can do can't undo what one hasn't done, if you see what I mean. Most noble feature? My nose, I think. It's often been described as noble. No, I know what you're asking. And perhaps my only noble feature is that I side with the underdog every time. Favourite TV programme? Good God! The only thing that's been on telly that is worthy of comment in the last century is "House" and I've never missed an episode so far. Wish it were on all year. What are you reading at the moment? I love biography and I love discovering interesting people I had no idea existed, and I've "discovered" Big Bill Tilden, who was perhaps the greatest tennis player of all time and whose career was ruined by his interest in teenage boys. It's a tragic tale, and I've just finished Tilden's autobiography (in which he mentions not a word about his unfortunate obsession) and a wonderful biography of the man by Frank Deford, whose affection for his subject in no way affects his objectivity. Who in the world would you most like to have a coffee and a chat with? George Dubbya Bush, so I could attempt to strangle him. What is the most pressing issue currently facing the NZ LGBT population? I think it's always wise to look back and learn from the past. As I said, my generation had to hide, but covertly did what we liked. Look back further in history, and not too far back, either, and gays and lesbians were vilified and in the case of gay men separated out from the "normal" people and murdered, the most recent examples occurring in Islamic countries. I don't think we can afford to abandon what the poet Yeats called "cunning and courage" - ever! If and when the backlash comes, it could have dire consequences, and I fear none of us are prepared for it. The upward surge of the AIDS epidemic in recent years is a pressing issue, of course, affecting men mostly in the population you mention. It is disturbing. Unchecked, it could be the very cause of such a backlash. GayNZ.com - 8th September 2006