Why Beg “Gay the ’70s New York and L.A. Was Magic” (Gut Column) – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S
• A GLIMPSE INTO 1970S GAY ACTIVISM
• WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
• 'THAT '90S SHOW' VIEWERS TORN OVER GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX SPOFF

THIS IS WHAT GAY LIBERATN LOOKED LIKE IN THE '70S

Amid the flurry of rabow-lan rporate logos, sponsored events and news ems about gay pengus, is difficult to turn on a televisn or set foot public durg June whout the remr that is Pri Month for LGBT and queer people. Gee Dudley, a photographer and artist who also served as the first director of New York Cy’s Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, documented scen om pri paras New York Cy om the late 1970s through the early ‘90s.

A GLIMPSE INTO 1970S GAY ACTIVISM

The years saw Ana Bryant’s homophobic csa through the “Save Our Children” mpaign 1977, the electn and assassatn of Harvey Milk 1978, and the Whe Night rts the followg summer after the lenient sentencg of Milk’s murrer, Dan Whe. And October 1979, the Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights took place wh roughly 100, 000 participants. “It was, a sense, the year we buted on the larger public stage, ” says Jim Saslow, a profsor of art history at the Cy Universy of New York and an early gay activist.

“We were beg acceptable enough that a gay person uld have a signifint polil reer, but we also beme very aware of how much of a nerve that was touchg for nservative people.

WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)

Saslow, who was also a iend of Dudley’s, marks this era as a shift the gay liberatn movement. But as the number of out gay people grew, says Saslow, the paras transned om timate gathergs of like-md people to events attend by a broar array of participants. “The muny started to attract more mastream folks who weren’t necsarily polilly radil or untercultural — they jt happened to be gay.

“The guy a drs wh a beard, nng ont of the task force banner, ptur a lot of the atmosphere of the early gay liberatn muny, bee so much of me out of the hippie movement, ” says Saslow. Members of the Natnal Gay Task Force march 1981. Partners Charl Llie and Frz Lohman began to exhib art by gay artists their SoHo loft 1969, the same year the Stonewall uprisg took place.

“There weren’t that many people documentg the gay world at that time, so Gee’s photographs have an enormo importance, ” says Saslow. ” Wh the visibily afford to LGBT people today, and particularly to gay men, is easy to fet that embracg on the street was a bold actn to make. The gay rights movement saw some forward motn the 1960s.

'THAT '90S SHOW' VIEWERS TORN OVER GAY REPRENTATN NETFLIX SPOFF

In 1969, two groups formed on the UC Berkeley mp: Stunts for Gay Power and Gay Liberatn Front. ’75 (former Berkeley Law archivist, thor, and founr of the Gay Bears Collectn the Universy Archiv), the Gay Liberatn Front was very radil for s time.

Around the same time, a group of gay stunts formed a muny center lled Sherwood Fort, which met at the Wley Center. In 1970, the newly formed Gay Stunt Unn anized Berkeley’s first openly gay dance. “It was the place to talk about gay male issu and to meet people outsi of bars, ” says Benemann.