The Way We Were's Secret Gay Backstory

Contents:

• THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY
• HOW BARBRA STREISAND AND ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WAY WE WERE’ WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE GAY ROMANCE (BOOK EXCERPT)
• HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET GAY LOVE STORY
• THE GAY WE WERE: ‘GET REAL’
• WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'
• NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?
• NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?: HIDN LIV AND SECRET LOV (QUEER HISTORY PROJECT) LIBRARY BDG – APRIL 6, 2021
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY

As the first few hntg not of the tle song sound and the unmistakable voice of Barbra Streisand ton “mem’ri, ” most of n’t help but settle for yet another viewg of The Way We Were, even though we know how the turbulent romance of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Garder turns few of know about the beloved 1973 film’s behd-the-scen drama or s gay origs. In other rearch, he terviewed s two still-livg, inic stars, Streisand and Robert rult is a tale of clash between Lrents, Pollack, and producer Ray Stark, the differg styl of Streisand and Redford, and how a gay Jewish man, Lrents, channeled his love of betiful Gentile men to the years, Lrents said the character of Katie, a polilly radil Jew who falls love wh and marri apolil Gentile Hubbell, was based on a woman he knew llege. He had reason to make this statement; the 1960s and ’70s, gay wrers were often cricized for turng their experienc to fictnal heterosexual romanc.

“There always has to be a gay angle, or I’m not terted, ” says Hofler, a gay don’t thk Hubbell is a directly fictnalized versn of any of the men Lrents loved, but he do thk the character was fluenced by the wrer’s relatnships wh some of them, cludg his longtime partner, Tom Hatcher, and actor Farley Granger. Gore Vidal was yet another famo homosexual bedazzled by Hatcher’s looks, and knowg Lrents’s taste handsome Gentile men, the novelist remend that his fellow wrer iend pay a vis to William B.

HOW BARBRA STREISAND AND ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WAY WE WERE’ WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE GAY ROMANCE (BOOK EXCERPT)

This was pecially te if you were queer—or, not to put too fe a pot on , if you were me—and had picked up on the secret gay love story that existed between the l of Rowlg’s text. Queer kids, however, were directly affected by the suggtn of a gay love story happeng the background of Harry’s life—and so we noticed . In 2007, after the seri was officially plete, she announced that Dumbledore, of all characters, was actually gay the whole time; jt never me up the books.

Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love. There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia.

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET GAY LOVE STORY

And I’m really sorry if I’m havg movie spoilers my answers would happen if “Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ” two of the vampir met high school and had a gay romance? At the same time, far om the mastream, the ttage dtry of gay romantic edi pched self to a greatly unrserved market.

THE GAY WE WERE: ‘GET REAL’

Wh The Gay We Were, we’re gog to exame this subgenre one film at a time and exame what they said about gay entertament and the era that once was. One of the thgs about gay liv that ends up beg reflected most starkly by the movi is that gay people very seldom get teenage love stori.

WASHGTON, D.C.'S HIDN GAY HISTORY IS UNVERED 'SECRET CY'

Get Real is a charmg and well-observed movie out of Bra the late ’90s that do s level bt to liver one such gay high-school love story, and is ght as hell. It’s only been relatively recently that gay people have started g out high school, and even when they do, the numbers game of all works agast them. So much of any kd of gay teen story volv g out, g to terms, self-nial, the srn of others, self-acceptance, et cetera.

NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?

Steven is pale and skny and a school-newspaper nerd, and the other kids pick on him for beg gay even before he out. John hs all the ual beats that the gay jock the movi tends to h; if you’re already mentally fast forwardg to the part where John’s plited feelgs on ward self-hatred explo to outward vlence, yeah, you’re on the right track.

NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?: HIDN LIV AND SECRET LOV (QUEER HISTORY PROJECT) LIBRARY BDG – APRIL 6, 2021

The thg about the ’90s gay rom-s isn’t necsarily that they were bad or good, but that they were all we had at the time, and there were relatively so few of them (I’m only a few months to this seri and the pool is gettg shallow, y’all). What a movie like Get Real do, beyond the pleasur that is giv as s own thg, is make me long for so many other gay high-school movi.

In my 2020 book“Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are, ”, I explore the history of this term, om the earlit days of the gay rights movement, to today, when has been adopted by other movements. Gay men spoke of “g out” to gay society – borrowg the term om butante society, where ele young women me out to high society.

The Mattache Society, the earlit important anizatn of what was known as the homophile movement – a precursor of the gay rights movement – took s name om myster medieval figur masks. The term “gay” was origally borrowed om the slang of women prostut, when they ed the word to refer to women their profsn. At the first Gay Liberatn March New York Cy June 1970, one of the anizers stated that “we’ll never have the eedom and civil rights we serve as human begs unls we stop hidg closets and the shelter of anonymy.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

By the end of the 1960s, queer people who pretend to be heterosexual were said to be “ the closet” or labeled a “closet se” or, the se of gay men, “closet queens. For stance, 1978, his mpaign to feat a California iative that would have banned gay teachers om workg state public schools, openly gay elected ernment official Harvey Milk urged people to “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are.

Milk gambled that if queer people told their iends they were gay, Californians would realize that they had iends, workers and fay members who were gay and – out of solidary – would oppose the proposn.