Plastic Jesus by Poppy Z. Brite Read Free Book Online Page B

and the love that engulfed them from this crowd seemed much more genuine than anything they'd ever felt on a stage.
    What would become, arguably, their most famous interview was captured on tape by a reporter who'd been drinking down the street at the Lion's Head. Someone in the crowd filmed them with a small movie camera as they spoke. The reporter and the cameraman would later pair up, sell their footage for a small fortune, and spend the next decade traveling through Asia.
    REPORTER: So what brings the Kydds to the Village?
    SETH: It's just us two. We came because of Stonewall. We saw it on TV and thought, you know, we have to come. Because of our relationship.
    REPORTER: What relationship?
    SETH (unable to resist batting his eyes a bit): He's my boyfriend.
    REPORTER: Peyton?
    PEYTON: “Boyfriend” isn't the word I would choose, but yes, we've been together for two years, and it's only our own prejudices that have caused us to lie about it. What's happened here gave us courage we should have had sooner.
    (He is nearly drowned out by raucous cheering from the crowd.)
    REPORTER: What will your fans think? Aren't you afraid of the effect this will have on your career?
    SETH: Personally I don't give a fuck. Anyway we've got less to lose than most of the people who rioted here.
    PEYTON: You can't live your whole life being afraid of the effect things will have...
    SETH: You bleedin’ well can! Most people do! Our manager did, you know, and they killed him for it. But not us. Not any more. Peyton's always been my musical partner. Now he's my life partner. Your country's at war—call this our contribution to peace.
    (More noise from the crowd.)
    REPORTER: Are the Kydds still a band?
    PEYTON: We'll find out when we get home, won't we?

    * * * *

    But they did not go home yet. Their New York visit stretched out to days, then weeks. Occasionally someone would say something nasty to them on the streets, but this happened less often than they had expected. More frequently they got grins, thumbs-up, power salutes. They could not believe that their mere presence had changed the tenor of feelings about Stonewall, but given the public reaction, they could not discount that possibility either.
    Their first interview as a couple had been impromptu. After that, they chose their outlets carefully. They were not afraid to argue their case, but they knew from experience how words and even film clips could be twisted to fit an agenda.
    Seth was still taking a lot of drugs, but he was also getting out, exploring the city, talking to people. Maybe it was just freedom from the burden of a secret, but the New York Seth seemed more fully alive than the man Peyton had known in London. He wondered if politics might be a galvanizing force for Seth, a less destructive catalyst than heroin.
    At the end of their first month in New York they accepted an invitation to appear on the cover of Newsweek . The accompanying story was favorable, if a bit mystified in tone: the female reporter who interviewed them could not imagine how two rich and famous musicians who had women practically crawling through their windows could choose to be with each other instead. Seth's explanation that it was not so much choice as destiny seemed to have gone right over her head. But, the article went on, if two such beloved public figures had decided to go public with their homosexuality in the wake of the Stonewall riots, then perhaps it was time to consider homosexuality in a different light.
    â€œThat's the sentence that makes the rest of the crap worthwhile,” Seth told Peyton, pointing to the page in the magazine. “That's the kind of thing that can change people's thinking. If it's going to be all about celebrity worship, we have to take advantage of that."
    Peyton noticed that Seth was cutting back on the drugs, sometimes going a day or more without doing a line of heroin and almost giving up the LSD altogether. The spate of nasty reader mail