In the followg excerpt om Betiful Aliens: A Steve Abbott Rear, Abbott offered a snapshot of the gay cultural i of the 1980s
Contents:
- THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S
- KEV MAXEN, JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH, OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
- WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
- ICôN GAYS S ANNé 80
THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S
The 80s put the gay man ont and centre of pop. Then me the Aids crisis – and three s of monisatn, disrd and displacement. Now, wh Troye Sivan leadg a new wave of gay stars, has change tly arrived? * 80s gay code *
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.
A 1931 news article the Baltimore Ao-Amerin referred to “the g out of new butant to homosexual 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. In this ntext, g out meant acknowledgg one’s sexual orientatn to onelf and to other gay people.
The term “gay” was origally borrowed om the slang of women prostut, when they ed the word to refer to women their profsn.
KEV MAXEN, JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH, OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
Of urse, “gay” was ultimately “outed” when the gay rights movement adopted followg the Stonewall Rebelln 1969. 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. 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. In the 1980s, the gay and lbian rights movement radilized rponse to the Christian right and AIDS epimic. Activists ed the mantra “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” to mand that people clare their homosexualy.
WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
The g out narrative beme a re of passage, somethg to be shared wh others, and the centerpiece of gay liberatn movements. As ttimony of this shift, today, marriage equaly is the law of the land, the popular TV edy “Morn Fay” featur a gay uple and one of the leadg ndidat for the Democratic printial ticket, Pete Buttigieg, is a gay man. By g the term “g out, ” she impli that beg fat is like beg gay – and that, jt as homophobia is morally wrong, so too is “fatphobia.
It was a way for gay men, and members of the BDSM muny om the 60's to the 80's, to secretly signal their sexual terts at a time when homosexualy was very much owned upon. The Hanky Co was created at a time when open discsns about sexualy (pecially between two men) were illegal, as was beg gay. It was very prent gay bars, and allowed a simple glance to let people know their sexual orientatn, as well as their preference for certa practic acrdg to the lor and posn of the bandana.
ICôN GAYS S ANNé 80
The velopments not only documented the once unrground phenomenon, but also created a cultural rerd of the emergence of a gay male inty. Nowadays, the morn era of legalized gay sex and social applitns, the Srf Co has bee more of a fashnable way to start a nversatn gay bars rather than an active way to solic sex. Stor, bookstor and erotic talogs then provid lists of rs to purchase bandanas, while gay bars prted the lists wh all the rmatn.
In 1967, the Sexual Offenc Bill was passed, crimilisg homosexual acts between two long as they were over 21, both nsentg, and nductg any sexual acts wh the privacy of their own hom. The Gay Black Group (formed 1981 by a number of Black and Asian gay and lbian people who found that most LGBTQ+ groups had a lack of mory members, makg hard for them to fd empathy and people to talk to who would unrstand) approached the Greater London Council 1982 to requt fundg.