Anthony Friedk photographed gay culture California the 1960s
Contents:
- PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
- WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS
- HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
* gay media 1960s *
When I began my send year rearch project on media reprentatn of homosexualy, the thought of utilisg the rourc at the Bill Douglas Centre never even crossed my md. I foced specifilly on media reprentatns the perd between the Wolfenn Report and s remendatns to crimalise homosexualy 1957, and the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967 which crimalised homosexualy.
Released 1961, ‘Victim’ was the first English-speakg film to al wh the topic of homosexualy, and explicly mentn the word self. The plot follows a succsful married barrister Melville Farr who risks his reer and reputatn to unver a gang of blackmailers who are extortg money om both Farr and other homosexual men. Through the filmmakers portrayal of Farr (played by the popular heart-throb Dirk Bogar) and the other extorted men, they aimed to legimise homosexualy and highlight the hypocrisi of the law, as they believed that enuraged blackmail by harned crimals on nocent, rpectable men.
Runng om 1965-8 the sketch followed two flamboyant and d gay out of work actors played by Kenh Williams (also starrg the Carry On films) and Hugh Paddick, acpanied by Kenh Horne, who would act as their ic foil. The diari of Kenh Williams were particularly revealg of behd the scen tensns the show, and his growg dissatisfactn wh the overtly mp character as one of the only reprentatns of homosexualy at the time. Furthermore, transcripts om the show held the BDC explaed the e of double entendre and ‘polari’- a lexin ed by gay men theatre the 1930s, but which had extend to the Brish gay subculture the 1950s/60s- Julian & Sandy.
WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS
Words such as ‘drag’ and ‘mp’ were troduced to mastream vobulary by the show, and reflected the evolutn of homosexualy om a taboo topic, to one that uld be reprented across the airwav, provokg and allowg discsn of homosexualy.
Magaz, diari, tobgraphi, says and books held by the Centre gave me a more vibrant, and round picture of popular culture at this time, and provid an unprecented sight to d gay subcultur of this perd.
“I was 19, vulnerable, young and puttg my own inty together, ” says photographer Anthony Friedk when reflectg on his first project, The Gay Essay, which documents gay culture Los Angel and San Francis between 1969-1972.
HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
What started, as a self-assigned project for a young photographer growg up Hollywood has now bee one of the most thentic portras of gay life Ameri om this perd.
At the time, most pictns of gay men and women mastream media were found salac newspaper and tabloid articl, all of them reported om a murky distance. While growg up Hollywood, Freidk’s parents worked the film dtry and had close iends that led full openly gay liv. He saw that world as a “refuge” and a place where gays were “allowed to be themselv” more than any other place.
But The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angel Gay Communy Servic Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and found the Gay Liberatn Front Los Angel 1969 where they mobilized the muny agast the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals. “It was more about my sire to create a great set of pictur wh a heartfelt termatn to honor gay people, rpect them and their eedom, ” he says. “In The Gay Essay I wanted to celebrate the gays that were livg openly, ” pecially at a time, the early days of the gay movement, followg the Stonewall rts.