A Pivotal Era LGBT History? - Gay the 80s

Contents:

• WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
• HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER
• AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY

WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI

In the UK, the Thatcher ernment created Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act, makg illegal for lol thori to support anythg that might promote homosexual relatnships as a viable alternative to heterosexual ‘fay life’. And even the US Army, who had clared homosexualy to be “patible wh ary service” 1982, were forced to adm 1989 that gay recs were “jt as good or better” than heterosexuals.

The phrase “rptn of morals past all exprsn”—ed by European lonists about Native Amerin sexual practic—was Ameri’s prevalent attu toward homosexualy. ABC News recently did a segment on parents of gays and Cleve Jon was s “Person of the Week” when the NAMES Project went to Washgton. Gay lears, such as Ken Maley, have been profiled the Examer, and Issan Dorsey, of the Hartford Street Zen Center, The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.

HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER

Never have there been so many good books, plays, and films on the gay and lbian experience: wns the creasg size of our film ftivals, major stud films featurg gay love stori, and Newsweek featurg gay wrers s book sectn. And if Lou Reed felt a need to tone down his “walk on the wild si, ” many openly gay pop sgers om Sylvter to Morrissey rema popular. It’s not, I spect, that they re about the liv of gay people; they’re jt worried about the g surance and health re cnch.

Culturally too, our films, plays, novels and mic sprang to natnal attentn only bee a large re gay dience was hungry to hear s stori told.

What femism, gay liberatn, and the philosophil rearch of Michel Fouult ntributed to an unrstandg of sexual inty is this: they showed that sexualy is not simply “natural” as Aristotle thought, not jt a blogil urge as Frd thought, but a social nstct that evolved through history to enable power to regulate and fe social behavr and thought at both the level of dividuals and groups. Overthrowg earlier social formatns, the iology of heterosexualy ed sexism to subjugate women and homophobia to keep this system tact. But if one has ternalized the opprsn (as ternalized racism or homophobia), if one nscly or unnscly agre, “Y, I am sick.

AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY

Gays and lbians are workg more closely together on a personal level, on new magaz such as Out/Look, and on the recent March on Washgton. I uld ce many notable exceptns—ed, gay youth today are probably more ser than ever before—but, overall, we nnot expect youth to be anythg but what is. Several marvelo books on what means to be gay have rulted: Judy Grahn’s Another Mother Tongue, Edmund Whe’s The Betiful Room Is Empty, Robert Glück’s Jack The Mornist, and Gay Spir eded by Mark Thompson, to name a few.

Many publitns wh the gay media and anizatns such as the Gay Sierrans, the San Francis Gay and Lbian Historil Society, Black and Whe Men Together, and Act Up also play a ccial learship role. It is clear that what we are dog now—as boss and workers, as men and women, as gays and straights, as wh and non- wh—is killg all.

I would argue that today we n no longer afford to see anythg—not even “gay liberatn” or our survival—as a separate issue needg a separate cultural, polil or spirual agenda. And I’m filled wh such a profound gratu to be alive, to be gay and to have the iends I have and have had, that I nnot expla . For example, the UK’s ernment add Sectn 28 to their Lol Government Act that ma illegal for lol thori to support anythg that promoted homosexual relatnships as an alternative to a heterosexual “fay life”.