Center on Halsted - Chigo's Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr and Queer Communy Center

Contents:

• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• LONELY GAY TEEN SEEKG SAME
• 25 BT GAY LIVE CAMS: GAY CAM S TO VIS INCLUDG 100 PERCENT FREE GAY CAMS
• HIDN BRA: AMERI'S CHANGG ATTUS TOWARD GAY PEOPLE
• THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS
• GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN'S HEALTH ISSU

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

But when I heard people ravg about the show, wrten by Rsell T Davi, I was stck by how many of them admted to knowg ltle about the epimic – and the stctn wreaked among the gay muny. For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans.

It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years. My novel is ridg on a wave of tert that dat back the UK to 2017 and the 50th anniversary of the begng of crimalisatn of homosexualy. That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49, 000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist.

Over on Instagram, The Aids Memorial shar photos and stori of people – predomantly gay men – who died of the disease, wrten by those who loved them. You’d not tch many queer al mers jottg down their memoirs – Crystal JeansHowever, 's fictn that’s very much drivg the phenomenon of brgg "lost" stori of gay life om the past to light.

LONELY GAY TEEN SEEKG SAME

Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End). In the theatre, Matthew Lopez's exploratn of gay male history The Inherance triumphed London before transferrg to New York, where opened the year after a well-received revival of Mart Crowley's semal 1968 play Boys the Band. Most recently, the ter explod wh behd-the-scen photos of Harry Styl om the shoot of new film My Policeman, an adaptatn of Bethan Roberts's 2012 novel starrg the pop superstar as a closeted gay man the 1950s.

However, as a way of explag the mystery surroundg why Harry left behd everythg he knew, Gale imaged a suatn which he was forced to leave as a rult of a gay affair beg exposed.

25 BT GAY LIVE CAMS: GAY CAM S TO VIS INCLUDG 100 PERCENT FREE GAY CAMS

Crystal Jeans's latt novel is The Inverts, which tells the story of two bt iends – one a lbian, the other a gay man – who enter to a fake marriage the 1920s. This was another reason I wrote The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle; I wanted to tell the story of one ordary young gay man tryg to exprs his love for another at a time when this would not have been accepted. But I also wanted to ntrast this disturbg, sometim horrifyg picture wh what life n be like for a gay man wh today’s much more acceptg society the UK – and celebrate how much progrs we’ve ma.

My spiratn was a seri of terviews I nducted wh olr gay men whilst I was Edor--Chief of Attu magaze, as part of our celebratn of the 50th anniversary of the start of crimalisatn.

Pop star Harry Styl is starrg new film My Policeman as a closeted gay officer the 1950s (Cred: Getty Imag)"What we see all through history is that people are nied their past as part of a way to ntrol them, " says Hornby. 10, 2000See the article s origal ntext om December 10, 2000, Sectn 6, Page 110Buy ReprtsTimMache is an exclive benef for home livery and digal the summer of 1999, when he was 15, a youth I will refer to by only his first name, Jefey, fally admted to himself that he was gay.

HIDN BRA: AMERI'S CHANGG ATTUS TOWARD GAY PEOPLE

But Jefey is a vout Southern Baptist, attendg church several tim each week, where, he says, the pastor seems to make a pot of nmng homosexualy. ''He lled a crisis le for gay teenagers, where a unselor suggted he attend a gay support group a cy an hour and a half away.

It was around this time that Jefey first typed the words ''gay'' and ''teen'' to a search enge on the puter he'd gotten several months before and was staggered to fd himself aswirl a teemg onle gay world, replete wh rource centers, articl, advice lumns, personals, chat rooms, msage boards, porn s and -- most ccially -- thoands of closeted and anx kids like himself. When we were first gettg to know each other, he ma clear that he uld allow no overlap between his onle gay life and the life he led the ''real world.

THERE IS NO ‘GAY GENE.’ THERE IS NO ‘STRAIGHT GENE.’ SEXUALY IS JT PLEX, STUDY NFIRMS

From his peers at school he dread vlence, and wh good reason: acrdg to a 1996 study of the Seattle public schools, one six gay teenagers is beaten so badly durg adolcence that he requir medil attentn.

) This way, no one om his ''straight life'' n track his forays to the onle gay world g the ''lote'' feature on Ameri Onle, for example, which allows subscribers to fd onle ''buddi'' whatever public chat room or other AOL area they happen to be visg -- a potential disaster for gay teenagers. He said he me om a rich fay, drove a BMW, had killer good looks and was 18 -- old enough to cise the adult gay chat as his onle iendships epened, the phony elements of Jefey's story began to opprs him: ''I was like, I n't be myself real life, and I e on the Inter and I still n't be myself. ''One of my really good gay iends has nothg to do wh me now, '' he told me sadly one month after ''g out'' onle as his real self.

GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN'S HEALTH ISSU

Isolatn and shame persist among gay teenagers, of urse, but now, along wh the hospable fai and towns which many fd themselv marooned, there exists a parallel onle muny -- real people like them cyberspace wh whom they n chat, exchange msag and even engage (onle) sex. What was most cril to the gay kids I spoke wh was the simple, revelatory disvery that they were not, gay teenagers surfg the Net n fd Web s packed wh rmatn about homosexualy and about lol gay support groups and unselg servic, along wh g-out ttimonials om young people around the world. Gay pornography, too, n be a valuable rource; a number of youths I spoke wh, male and female, said that the availabily of onle porn had proved cril to their disvery of their sexual orientatn.

Kyle, a 15-year-old youth om Florida I met onle, wrote me an e-mail msage: ''What I did was go to gay chat s on AOL and ask where I uld fd ee gay porno s, my first gay porn I had ever seen. ''Recent studi suggt that kids are intifyg themselv as gay at much younger ag; among mal the average age has dropped om 19-21 to 14-16, and femal om their early 20's to 15-16. Cal Ryan, a clil social worker and the thor of ''Lbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counselg, '' says, ''Today, youths are g out right the middle of high school or earlier, and I thk the Inter is playg an important role that bee 's providg rmatn to help them label those feelgs and figure out who they really are.