Wh Stand by Me, Jim Downs rewr the history of gay life the 1970s, argug that the was about much more than sex and marchg the streets. ...
Contents:
- THE PLAY’S THE THG NEW BOOK ‘GAYS ON BROADWAY
- 'STAND BY ME' — THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN ISN'T WHAT YOU THK IT IS
- STAND BY ME: THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
THE PLAY’S THE THG NEW BOOK ‘GAYS ON BROADWAY
Read “Stand by Me: The Fotten History of Gay Liberatn” by Jim Downs, and you may see the light on a few thgs. Years ago, when he was a llege ... * stand by me is gay *
(Courty)The 1970s are equently remembered as years of sexual licentns on the part of both heterosexuals and homosexuals. ”In his new book "Stand by Me: The Fotten History of Gay Liberatn, " Downs — a profsor at Connecticut College who is currently a fellow at Harvard Universy — offers a new versn, a recent history of which the effects are still Downs will be at Harvard Book Store on Monday, March 21, at 7 p.
Generally dated om the June 28, 1969, raid on Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, gay liberatn the Uned Stat has nsisted of much more than a sense of eedom that allowed for an endls stream of anonymo lovers. Unfortunately, “An image of gay men as hypersexual began to be promoted orr to ratnalize the spread of the [HIV] vis, ” Downs promoted image served to obscure the foundg of sr of gay church natnwi, the flourishg of gay publitns (e. G., Boston's Fag Rag and Toronto's The Body Polic), the openg of the world’s first bookstore aimed at homosexual clientele (New York Cy’s Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop), and the partnerg wh Ain-Amerins and women the grapple for equal treatment and regnn post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS North rears of "Stand by Me" will be faiar wh the Stonewall rt, which has been the subject of books, documentari and movi.
'STAND BY ME' — THE HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN ISN'T WHAT YOU THK IT IS
* stand by me is gay *
Wh 32 fatali, this was what Downs lls “the largt massacre of gay people Amerin history. Arnold/AP)The se of this ferno was, ed, a bar that tered to gay men and women. On this Sunday, however, the lounge was servg — as had long been — as a place for members of the Metropolan Communy Church (MCC) to gather and MCC had been found Los Angel five years earlier by and for gay people.
STAND BY ME: THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY LIBERATN
Therefore, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy provid a lk to not only the gay relig muny, but also the cipient gay prs. The Advote, “the natnal gay newspaper” of the 1970s, “ma clear s verage of the fire that the arsonists attacked a gay relig muny and the victims were people of fah. ”As Downs says chapters on Jonathan Ned Katz’s pneerg book "Gay Amerin History, " the publishg of poetry by rcerated homosexuals, and the emergence of the “macho clone, ” the gay liberatn movement did not emerge out of or operate a example, Katz had long been primarily terted the stggl of Ain-Amerins.
“When he first began rearchg gay history, ” Downs wr, “Katz enuntered patterns siar to those discernible the history of black people. ” Furthermore, acrdg to a member of the Gay Liberatn Front, “we unrstood that racism was part of our fight, both for our sake as well as theirs.
For example, Downs explas that New York Cy was 1970 not yet a particularly safe or acmodatg place for homosexuals. Moreover, the first gay church was found not the Big Apple or San Francis the ‘70s, but Atlanta 1946 (two s before the MCC). Fally, was not unmon for two people of the same genr to marry each other church that were willg to perform such Downs (Courty Jaci Downs Photography)Downs by no means tends to erase sexualy as a signifint factor the story of gay liberatn.