This Is What Gay Liberatn Looked Like In The '70s

Contents:

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

A GLIMPSE INTO 1970S GAY ACTIVISM

A gay-rights monstratn New York's Greenwich Village, June 8, 1977 (AP)This article is the 11th a seri featurg clips om the Amerin Archive of Public Broadstg, which is workg to digize televisn and rad piec so that they may be prerved for years to e.

For more about the project, see our troductn to the seri, where you'll also fd a handy list of all the seri' piec so 1960s me to a close wh what is still perhaps the most nsequential event recent Amerin gay history: the Stonewall rts of June 28, Charl Kaiser put his history of gay New York, "No other civil rights movement Ameri ever had such an improbable unveilg: an urban rt sparked by drag queens. But while many gay people remaed ignorant of Stonewall and others reacted to wh disfort, this 1960s versn of the Boston Tea Party would do more than any other event to transform gay life Ameri. "Those years that followed, the of the 1970s, reprent a remarkable perd of transformatn for gays and lbians, particularly those livg Ameri's astal ci.

Durg those years, there was the first gay televisn movie; a sexy on-screen kiss between two men  Sunday, Blood Sunday; and the release of Cabaret, which has been hailed as the first movie that "really celebrated homosexualy. " There were gas polics too: Edward Koch, then servg Congrs, "beme one of the first elected officials to publicly lobby on behalf of the homosexuals of Greenwich Village, " Kaiser wr.

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

Gay Pri Week was tablished.

Perhaps most signifintly: In December of 1973, the board of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn* voted 13-0 "to remove homosexualy om s list of psychiatric disorrs. "Perhaps spired by the chang, 1976 New York's public-televisn statn, WNET (today known as Channel 13) featured a live, three-hour special lled "OUTREACH: LESBIANS AND GAY MEN" (palizatn theirs).

G., "has a homosexual experience"), the ntext of the 1970s, this special reprented a remarkably ank and sympathetic nversatn. It may not have been right on the cuttg edge of gay and lbian activism, but wasn't trailg too far behd eher. As Kaiser told me over email, "Any discsn of anythg gay on televisn was still pretty rare then.

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

That's not to say that progrs followed a clear urse: The 1970s also saw Ana Bryant's succsful mpaign Miami to repeal a gay-rights legislatn and the assassatn of Harvey Milk, one of Ameri's greatt advot for gays and lbians and one of the first openly gay men elected to public office. The Natnal Gay Task Force announced that this was the first time two acknowledged homosexuals had attend a high school prom together Ameri.

AIDS had arrived:Correctn: Earlier this post said that the Amerin Psychologil Associatn had voted to remove homosexualy om s list of psychiatric disorrs when fact was the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn. 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.

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.