Growing up as a gay teenager in the 1980s wasn't easy – especially when you lived in a working-class suburb commonly referred to as Hazeltucky. Yet not only did Frank Anthony Polito survive those angst-filled years; the actor, playwright and now novelist has chronicled those experiences in the semi-autobiographical "Band Fags!" that hits bookstores nationwide this month.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'm a little bit nervous about this book coming out – and the wrong people reading it," the New York-based author laughed after noting that many of his friends and classmates appear in the novel.
A warm and humorous coming-of-age story, "Band Fags!" follows seventh-grader Jack Paterno and his best friend Brad Dayton, two members of the school band, as they navigate their way through their junior and senior high school years. Jack – Polito's doppelganger – is struggling with his homosexuality, while Brad seems comfortable with his. But for much of that time, it's a secret neither will fully admit to one another.
It's a situation most gays and lesbians who grew up in the less-enlightened decades of the 20th century can relate to. "One reason I wanted to write this book was because I wanted to show that even when someone who is just like you is staring you in the face, you're still afraid – or were afraid – to tell them," Polito said. "You still had it in your mind that you were the only one (like that) in the entire world, or that person wouldn't like you anymore if they found out. That was the hardest part (of growing up gay)."
That, "and going around pretending you're something you're not."
Such feelings often remain well into adulthood. "I didn't go to my 10-year reunion, because I wasn't out and didn't want people to ask questions," said Polito, who's been with his partner Craig Bentley since late 1989. "But now I'm going to my 20-year reunion, and over the last six years I've gotten in touch with people, and they were like, 'Oh, we knew. We were just waiting for you to tell us.'"
Although much of the plot is based on actual events in Polito's life, not all of Jack's experiences were his. And many of the characters are based on an amalgamation of friends and classmates. "Not only did I try to protect their identities, I consciously tried not to make anyone look bad," Polito explained. Nor did he dish any juicy secrets. "It's not like it's a tell-all biography."
Most of the people Polito based his characters on know about the book, including his best friend since seventh grade, Grat Dalton (Brad). Although Dalton is excited about the book, he did express concerns that people would assume that everything Brad does in the book he did in real life. And Polito's mother once said she wasn't sure she wanted to know every detail of her young son's life. But the author has a way to diffuse such worries. "Anything in (the book) that you think is bad, I'll tell people that was a part I made up," he chuckled.
A few years after graduating from Wayne State University in 1993 with a theater degree, Polito moved to New York to pursue his career. Jobs were few and far between, however, so with friends he created two small theater companies. One night over drinks, he told them a story about the time he and a friend stole a Playgirl magazine. They loved it – and encouraged him to write a play about it.
The result was a 75-minute one-act called "John R." that premiered in October 2001 with John Tartaglia (who later starred in "Avenue Q") in one of the two roles.
Not satisfied with the results – "Theater is a collaborative effort," the playwright drolly explained – he rewrote the script and showed it to a filmmaker who named it "Band Fags!" And then the filmmaker asked, "By the way, would you like me to make it into a movie?"
That never happened.
But in 2003, the editor-in-chief of a publishing house for which he did freelance publicity suggested it might make a good book. After earning a two-year master's degree in playwriting at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, that's exactly what Polito did.
And next year, the characters are scheduled to return in a "companion piece."
But for now, Polito is savoring the excitement of his first book. "I hope people are as excited to read my book as I am about writing it," the author said. "I really hope that I'll give them a glimpse of what it was like to be young and gay in the '80s."
