Op-ed: The Gay Clon Everyone Knows

Contents:

• OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS
• POLIL-ENOMIC NSTCTN OF GAY MALE CLONE INTY
• CLONG FASHN: UNIFORM GAY IMAG MALE APPAREL
• FROM THE “HOMOSEXUAL CLONE” TO THE “AIDS CLONE”: THE IMPACT OF AIDS ON THE BODY OF THE GAY MALE
• GAY HISTORY: SEND THE CLON
• GAY HISTORY: REMAKG THE CASTRO CLONE

OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS

But when one particular look cropped up the post-Stonewall gay scene of the 1970s, was so popular—and so distct—that the guys who sported were dismissed as “clon. )And while the nickname was ially pejorative, the clone perd marked perhaps the first time that gay men prented themselv wh a queer-signalg uniform that was a direct rponse to societal stereotyp. “The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men.

He pots to the gay mstrel stereotyp the 1967 film The Producers, along wh the timid-lookg guys on the illtrated vers of gay pulp books wh nam like All the Sad Young Men. (Not to mentn the 1964 article Life magaze lled “Homosexualy Ameri, ” which scribed a “sad and often sordid world.

”) “That’s the kd of imagery”—backwards stereotyp that basilly villaized queer people—“that a lot of my generatn who beme the clone people grew up wh the ccible of the 60s, ” Calendo ntu, when the civil rights and gay liberatn movements were expandg ias of equaly and eedom.

POLIL-ENOMIC NSTCTN OF GAY MALE CLONE INTY

Drsg like a clone, he says, was a rejectn of those olr gay ’s not so easy to ppot precisely who origated the clone ial, guys who were alive at the time ually brg up Al Parker, an adult film star turned producer and director who worked om the 70s to the early 90s. (Parker would eventually bee an advote for gay rights and safe sex, producg only safe-sex films before he passed away om plitns due to AIDS 1992.

It was like, Oh that’s somethg wh a ltle work I uld atta, and I thk that’s why beme so quickly absorbed to the gay muny. “When I thk back on havg lived through the time, was like gay guys were pg om this stereotype that was jt culted to the culture of sissi and faggots, ” says Woodff.

“The clone look was certaly about a whe gay man’s rponse and engagement wh those archetyp, ” says Ben Barry, the an of the school of fashn at the New School’s Parsons School of Dign, whose rearch foc on fashn’s relatnship to masculy, sexualy, and the body. ”)Prentg as mascule public was physilly safer for gay guys, but the clone stume pulled double duty, Barry says, tweakg tradnal masculy while also signalg to other queer folks.

CLONG FASHN: UNIFORM GAY IMAG MALE APPAREL

“There’s this munal thg happeng right now where people are more open that they’re trans and non-bary or bisexual and not jt on the spectm of beg straight, gay, male, female.

FROM THE “HOMOSEXUAL CLONE” TO THE “AIDS CLONE”: THE IMPACT OF AIDS ON THE BODY OF THE GAY MALE

I've certaly read about Ana Bryant's pie to the face and Barney Frank's youthful(ish) discretns, but what really gets me to a time warp k-hole are the now-disntued personals and advertisements for bars, clubs, and "spas"; you get to see how gay men really prented themselv and what the often-warped standard of bety the issue is om the '60s, the featured guys are smooth, mcled, and whe (diversy wasn't our strong su back then). )There is certaly a clone "look" that still permeat gay male culture; specific styl that intify someone as a rd-rryg homosexual, whether that's the tentn or not. Sce I haven't been to a gay bar six months (too much effort), I cid to pese -- our sister se and arber of gayville -- to see what the predomant gay look is the attentn was pulled strongly and swiftly toward "The 30 Sexit Gay Sex Scen Film" (unlike fashn, men never change).

One of my favore movi of all time, 2011's Weekend, almost tops the list (sorry) and that movie not only ptured the morn gay male experience a te, betiful, and searg way, also got the "look" jt right. Ma characters Rsell and Glen are thoughtful and distctive, but physilly they're clon; their refully librated scff and poma-assisted hair is at every gay dive bar om Edburgh to Williamsburg.

Looks was to the ' soclogil searchg next took me to the gay bars of our time: iPhone apps. ) beg the Inter, cloth were not a huge mody, so I thought about draggg myself to a gay bar for an up-close look at clone fashn. Sadly, I jt uldn't stomach the will to shower aga (hyper-cleanls beg a big part of gay clone culture), so I did the next bt thg, more like the most lazy: I Facebook-stalked my gay male iends.

GAY HISTORY: SEND THE CLON

In honor of the realizatn of my samens, I snapped a photo: more than scff, poma, and polos, the selfie will likely be the endurg gay look of the BROVERMAN is a lumnist for The Advote and the edor chief of Out Traveler. Crisp’s young Han Solo trilogy, kept a mistrs to imprs his Imperial lleagu and to hi the fact that he was not terted women, leadg to fandom speculatn that the character was meant to be terpreted as gay. But even if Juhani’s relatnship wh a female Revan was nsired non-non, her sexualy remaed unchanged: part of Juhani’s arc the first game impli that she prevly had a relatnship wh a childhood iend and fellow Jedi iate, Belaya, and briefly fell to the Dark Si part due to her ep feelgs for Belaya gog agast the Jedi Co of would take a few more years for Star Wars to receive s first gay character, but wh would e another important step the anchise’s history: the first queer married uple.

GAY HISTORY: REMAKG THE CASTRO CLONE

Although Bevi and Vasur were Star Wars’ first gay uple, none of their appearanc the novels explicly noted that they were married.

In 2009—years before TOR would release 2011—fom muny manager Sean Dahlberg was forced to apologize after fendg the choice for the game’s fan foms to filter “gay” and “lbian” as banned terms by argug that they are terms “that do not exist Star Wars.

But many felt Makeb was beg treated as “the gay pla, ” and that players terted queer romanc and characters were not beg given equable all s false starts, TOR would eventually improve.