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. Of urse, “gay” was ultimately “outed” when the gay rights movement adopted followg the Stonewall Rebelln 1969.
KEV MAXEN, JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH, OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
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.
WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
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.
ICôN GAYS S ANNé 80
Activists ed the mantra “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are” to mand that people clare their homosexualy. The g out narrative beme a re of passage, somethg to be shared wh others, and the centerpiece of gay liberatn movements.