A brief history of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr social movements

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE PLAY AS 2004 ISSUE
• 2004 CHATE LE GAY
• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY2004
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• BH BACKS BAN CONSTUTN ON GAY MARRIAGE

GAY MARRIAGE PLAY AS 2004 ISSUE

Wh a cisn expected soon om Massachetts judg that may legalize same-sex marriage, the possibily of legal stat for gay marriage other stat and the recent Supreme Court cisn on sodomy, Print Bh appears ready to tap growg sentiment agast gay marriage as a polil issue.

”Meanwhile, the Vatin lnched a global mpaign agast gay marriag Thursday, tellg policians who are members of the church that support of same-sex unns was “gravely immoral” and urgg non-Catholics to jo the Wednday’s remarks, Bh said, “I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman. ‘SOONER RATHER THAN LATER’ “If Congrs wants to do somethg to re-affirm the tradnal fn of marriage, would probably need to act sooner rather than later, bee if state supreme urts beg to le the way ’s anticipated Massachetts will le, then obvly a lot of homosexual people may take advantage of that law Massachetts to get married, ” Kyl said.

In many of his speech, former Vermont ernor Howard Dean remds his dienc that he signed the natn’s first civil unns law, which giv gay upl the same rights as heterosexual elected print, Dean has vowed, he would “do everythg my power” to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. That clip appears The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary based on Vo Rso’s study of homosexualy the movi, along wh untls exampl of how gay characters showed up, per narrator Lily Toml, as “somethg to lgh at, or somethg to py, or even somethg to fear. The performanc are staggerg: Al Paco as the ignom Roy Cohn; Jefey Wright is the sharp-wted gay nurse who tends to him; Mary-Louise Parker as a pill-poppg hoewife wed to a closeted Mormon; Emma Thompson as an imper (and sometim sassy) angel; and Meryl Streep four rol, cludg the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg.

2004 CHATE LE GAY

A page-to-screen take on Vo Rso’s semal book regardg LGBTQ reprentatn (and misreprentatn) the movi, Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman’s documentary prents the perfect show-and-tell plement to the late scholar’s work — you n lerally see the evolutn of cematic homosexualy as progrs om punchle to social pundry, sikick-and-stock-villa fodr to queers beg the hero of their own stori. To say that William Friedk’s thriller about a serial killer targetg gay men New York was ntroversial would be puttg dly: Village Voice lumnist Arthur Bell (whose verage of murrs the Wt Village bar scene was a partial spiratn) lled the script “the worst possible nightmare of the most uptight straight”; tablishments that had agreed to operate sudnly whdrew their support; activists dispted filmg at every turn; theaters were picketed; and one massive prott led to a traffic-stoppg s- and arrts. ) But 40 years after Al Paco’s unrver p first stepped to the Mhaft, this lurid exploatn movie has been reclaimed by gay film crics such as Nathan Lee and Melissa Anrson, noticeably for the way prents the late ’70s leather-bar scene wh an almost véré-like sense of observatn.

GAY RIGHTS

Mixg herage-drama aspects wh outré postmorn flourish and a heightened sense of homoeroticism, the movie prents the relatnship between the two men as a polil act as much as a romantic one; Edward’s army is refashned as ACT UP-style activists, and the behd-the-scene machatns of Edward’s wife, Isabella (longtime Jarman llaborator Tilda Swton), double as a crique of Bra’s opprsive, historilly strict anti-homosexual laws.

Set on the muddy, wdswept moors of Yorkshire, Francis Lee’s but feature follows Johnny (Josh O’Connor), a young gay man leadg a ad-end existence on his fay farm, and Ghehe (Alec Sereanu), a Romanian migrant worker who to help out durg lamb-birthg season. The HIV vis h the gay muny around the same time that the personal mrr h retail shelv — which is one reason David France’s Osr-nomated film about the formatn of activist anizatn groups ACT UP and TAG (Treat Actn Group) has such a shatterg impact.

GAY2004

Blendg readgs of his work wh sequenc of geo men tuxedos dancg and cisg each other (or posg naked), the movie specifilly plac Hugh’ verse a homoerotic ntext; the work of fellow gay wrers Jam Baldw, Essex Hemphill, and Robert Bce Nugent also acpany black-and-whe scen of gay clubs, gay celebri (keep an eye out for Bronski Beat sger Jimmy Sommerville as an angel), gay inography, and gay love.

Terence McNally, who died March om plitns related to COVID-19, adapted his own Tony-wng play for director Joe Mantello, and the film is the perfect remr that McNally was one of the great chroniclers of gay love, gay relatnships, and what meant to fd a chosen fay who would support you through good tim and bad. A heartbreakgly gentle portra of a young man’s very rough life growg up gay Miami’s impoverished Liberty Cy neighborhood, Barry Jenks’ lyril send film, prented three acts, juxtapos moments of credible tenrns between men wh bursts of sual celty. An experimental doc om the legendary filmmaker Barbara Hammer, this llage of personal ttimoni, gay and lbian ephemera, and a profilette of thor Willa Cather is a roundabout mediatn on, per s creator, “a reprsed and margalized history” of queer life the 20th century.

And a ltle over an hour, she acplish all that and more — scen of timacy among elrly and biracial same-sex upl will sudnly give way to exploratns of homosexual persecutn Nazi Germany, or one woman’s oral history of tryg to mask her sexual preferenc durg her time the army durg World War II. Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography is filled wh gay characters, gay love, gay sex, and gay sensibili — you n see his punkish late-Seventi shorts, his mpy farc (Women on the Verge of a Nervo Breakdown), his Hchckian thrillers (Matador, Law of Dire), and his melodramas (Bad Edutn, All About My Mother).

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The tone slowly but substantially shifts, and you fd yourself already mourng Nick before he’s even gone — a ttament to both Bcemi, one of his earlit rol, and Sherwood’s termatn to prent the emotnal trma suffered by the gay muny as the panmic raged around them.

The key movie of what would bee known as the “New Queer Cema” (see also Tom Kal’s Swoon and Gregg Araki’s The Livg End), Todd Hayn’ triptych giv the story of a child who murrs an aber and mysterly disappears (“Hero”), a Fifti-style monster movie about a scientist who turns to a hio creature after drkg a “sexualy” potn (“Horror”), and a bold adaptatn of Jean Ge’s love-among-nvicts tale The Miracle of the Rose (“Homo”). And like his fellow gay filmmakers who’d artistilly e of age a world of AIDS-related afflictn and activism, Hayn’ style of storytellg was nontatnal, somewhat nfsnal, and unabashedly queer, whether he was flirtg wh genre parodi, borrowg TV tabloid sensatnalism, or phg the envelope regardg pictns of same-sex eroticism.

Followg a Belgian sailor named Querelle (Brad Davis) who’s pulled to port and drifts to dg alg, murr, and a number of sexual liasons, the movie prents s story a style that might be bt scribed as gay exprsnism — a heightened mixture of blatantly phallic archecture, Pierre et Gill’ lor-saturated portraure, and Tom of Fland’s he-man roleplayg fetishism. A massive, Osr-nomated crossover h, Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío’s film prented a softer, more tolerant treatment of homosexualy by the Cuban ernment (Diego and David share a platonic hug at the end) that was seen as progrs by some and a savvy public-relatns move by others.

BH BACKS BAN CONSTUTN ON GAY MARRIAGE

Long before G Van Sant’s bpic would share Milk’s story wh the general public, there was Rob Epste’s Osr-wng documentary on the man who beme known as the Mayor of Castro Street, which retrac Milk’s story as he moved om New York to the Bay Area, beme volved neighborhood polics and the gay-rights movement, and eventually found himself a posn to affect policymakg on a granr sle.

Riggs keeps thgs personal but purposefully wins his lens on the subject as well, brgg other queer black voic, highlightg gay dancers and poets of lor, submtg evince that pop culture has tradnally emasculated black men, and openg up about homophobia among the larger Ain Amerin muny. Wrer-director Andrew Haigh’s timate drama has been lled “the gay Before Sunrise, ” a parison that’s both a pliment — like Lklater’s movie, revolv around the power of nversatn and enjoyg the extend pleasure of someone’s pany — and an oversight that don’t que do jtice to the movie’s strengths.