The Velvet Mafia: the gay men who helped shape mic the 60s | Mic | The Guardian

Contents:

• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• AT 60 YEARS OLD, I BEME VISIBLE. GETTG OLD AS A GAY MAN STKS.
• THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S
• JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual.

Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. As a gay man who recently turned 60, I’m pretty sure my life is over.

Y, ’s possible that the grayg templ, eye wrkl and extra paddg – which has extguished my dream of ever havg discernible abs – have also hered a new era of so, the virtual visibily wh which I n currently walk through a gay gym or neighborhood is a new experience, and feels like a forced week, as I slathered myself wh anti-wrkle cream, I examed my body expectg to fd a tattooed expiratn date announcg that I’d joed the club of olr gay men who have small dner parti, where they reunt their glory days and pla about the current generatn of their unterparts who fail to give them the rpect they an 'A-gay' worldMuch of what I’m about to say cuts agast everythg I was tght and mostly believe that the substance of a person is all that is important – so I expect to regret this lumn, but am pelled to wre nohels. SternI was never an “A-gay” – a hotns equivalent of the universal blood type. But I had a particular niche of mutual attractn and, at the risk of soundg like I lack all huy, I miss the attentn at the gym, the ee drks at the bars and the extra chicken wg I ed to fd my greasy rryout bag when I got that I’ve stepped , please dulge me the wallow: Many gay men place a premium on physil bety.

AT 60 YEARS OLD, I BEME VISIBLE. GETTG OLD AS A GAY MAN STKS.

Of urse, all people feel anxiety about their bodi, but even a 2016 study found gay men are more likely than heterosexual men to report feelg prsure to look attractive. Opns your box: Get a digt of our tak on current events every dayThat’s not tend to say that gay men do not value and support tellectual pursus, close iendships and other matters of substance. It's outrageo to joke about hateful gay slurs are celebry exceptns to the “get olr and disappear” le.

And there you have ; we were four olr gay men relivg our glory days and plag about the baby gays who were not givg the rpect we served – or at least to which we’d bee acctomed. To rpond to a lumn, subm a ment to article origally appeared on USA TODAY: Gay men should be able to age gracefully like everyone else. But the people who shaped and advised those artists – the on who managed the stars of the classic rock age – were, by an outsized marg, gay terwoven muny clud Brian Epste (who brought the world the Beatl), K Lambert (who -managed the Who), Simon Napier-Bell (the Yardbirds, and a young Marc Bolan), Robert Stigwood (Cream, the Bee Ge), Billy Gaff (Rod Stewart), Ken Pt (David Bowie), Barry Krost (Cat Stevens), as well as Tony Stratton-Smh (who formed the visnary label Charisma for bands like Genis).

THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S

In fact, was a gay man, Larry Parn, who svengali-d Bra’s very first rockers, om Tommy Steele to Billy Fury to Marty Wil. A new book tled The Velvet Mafia: the Gay Men who Ran the Swgg Sixti aims to tell the Brish si of this story by focg on several key players the scene, cludg a few of the aforementned nam along wh the novative producer Joe Meek and the head of the UK’s most powerful label at the time, Sir Joseph Lockwood. ”At the same time, the rich, powerful and fluential men faced the nsirable nsequenc of beg gay at a time when homosexual acts were still outlawed the UK.

”There were, fact, a few powerful gay women the Brish rock scene at the time as well, cludg Vicki Wickham, who booked the acts on the semal TV show Ready Steady Go and who later managed Dty Sprgfield and LaBelle. ”Bullock’s book don’t lve to the eper cultural and psychologil issu volved the relatnships between the gay and straight men.

JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

Still, ’s clear to any stunt of the era that the edgy liv of gay men at the time fascated the straight artists they worked wh. They weren’t jt gay but also Jewish.

”In some ways, managers like Epste and other others uld sulate themselv om the everyday life of gay men at the time – throwg their own exclive parti and circulatg elevated circl where they uld do as they pleased. Ironilly, after the law agast homosexual acts changed Bra 1967 – crimalizg them certa circumstanc and for those of a certa age – the harassment of LGBTQ people actually tensified. “But post-67, and wh the formatn of the Gay Liberatn Front 1970 Bra and wh gay people beg more outspoken, the raids and the psdo-polil attacks started to happen more.

The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swgg Sixti is out now. At s base, the joltg fear now is the realizatn of how limed that future is beg and about the chang I'm visibly, attentively, and subnscly regnizg, and perhaps beg more sensive to them as a gay man. "50 is the new 40" -- that is still a popular mantra the gay muny that I always felt was more about nvcg onelf that 50 isn't so bad.