Dis and Gay Culture the 1970s

Contents:

• DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
• THE LAST DAYS OF GAY DIS
• DIS DISCHARGE: GAY DIS & HI NRG
• THE IMPACT OF DIS ON THE GAY SUBCULTURE THE 1970S
• HIGH TECH GAYS (HTG)
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• THE 10 BEST NEW YORK CY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS NEW YORK CY

DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC

Manco’s crowd, which clud many gay men of lor, bellowed out the chos, refigurg the song’s addrsee as a new kd of girl.South Shore Commissn, ‘Free Man’ (1975)D.J.-led dance spac that were exclive to gay men — ually whe, middle-class gay men — started to open Manhattan late 1972. It helped that the mixer Tom Moulton advertently epened the female voice when he slowed down the origal for his extend dis mix.Valento, ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1975)The first rerd to feature lyrics about beg an out-and-proud gay man me om the mil performer Charl “Valento” Harris, who released “I Was Born This Way” as an apparently one-off release on Gaiee.

At Sahara, New York’s first upont lbian disthèque, pecially appreciated the double-entendre potential of “Cherchez la Femme.” “The lyrics were perfect,” she told me June.Donna Summer, ‘I Feel Love’ (1977)Gay male dance crowds were drawn to rerdgs that featured Black female volists, often intifyg wh their emotnal exprsivens and strength the face of adversy, often to the surprise of the artists, who were ually gospel-traed. He died of plitns om AIDS, 1983.Patrick Cowley, ‘Mutant Man’ (1982)Patrick Cowley fed his reputatn as one of the world’s most progrsive synthizer players durg rerdgs wh the dis pneer Sylvter, cludg “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” perhaps the ultimate gay male anthem.

Johnny Dynell and David Ian Xtravaganza to lay down a hoe track that anticipated Madonna’s “Vogue.”A versn of this article appears prt on  , Sectn D, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Sp Some Gay Dis. All the ntours of a new dis boom are place, but there’s somethg missg, somethg that n only be nveyed through the smell of poppers and the sweat off a stranger’s body–some remr that the soul of dis, after all, was gay. If your only knowledge of dis om retrospectiv like VH1’s recent Stud 54 documentary, you might nclu that gays were a lorful accsory to an otherwise straight fact, Stud was an exclive versn of the pansexual playland that had been built gay venu like 12 Wt, The 10th Floor, and the legendary Loft.

THE LAST DAYS OF GAY DIS

” The 1980 film Can’t Stop the Mic prented the even more surreal visn of a -gayed Village People, which the Indian (who had been disvered by the group’s producer at the gay s/m bar the Anvil) cis women, and the nstctn worker out of an actual manhole (albe wh steam risg around him). Some say the first gay dis was the Ice Palace on Fire Island; others sist was the Manhattan rtrant-distheque Aux Puc, or a place that towers over all others sheer notoriety: the Sanctuary.

” Loted on Wt 43rd Street a former German Baptist church, the Sanctuary evolved om a straight dis for whe celebri to a bacchanalian palace populated almost entirely by gay men.

DIS DISCHARGE: GAY DIS & HI NRG

From his booth at the altar, DJ Francis admistered a thumpg sacrament to legns of adorg parishners, who celebrated his mastery of slip-cug by showerg him wh quaalus while dancg the origal, gay versn of the Bump.

Steve Sman, who ran the club Private Ey the ’80s, remarked that “pleasure and beg around your own people was the gay metaphor for dis; simple pleasure was s straight applitn.

THE IMPACT OF DIS ON THE GAY SUBCULTURE THE 1970S

Albert Goldman, a chronicler of dis durg the ’70s, observed that “what differentiat disania om most of s precsors is s overt tenncy to spill over to y, as has done already the gay world. One wrer a 1977 Harper’s piece exprsed nfn at the prence of heterosexuals primarily gay diss: “While they might say they were there only as watchers, only as voyrs, they were also beg participants…, outlaws what had always been an outlaw world.

The term was banished om the language as an add secury measure, but the mic was exported to England, where was -gayed and re-exported to the Stat unr a new name: “new wave dance mic.

HIGH TECH GAYS (HTG)

Sce this moment nnot be relived–not even the current gay circu scene, which ironilly has more mon wh arena rock than wh the louche and thoughtls abandon of the ’70s–dis n only be procsed through the filter of nostalgia so that out as a kschy athetic wh acpanyg soundtrack. As explaed by Dis Discharge seri annotator Alan Jon, thor of Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Dis, there is no “real fable difference” between “jt dis” and “gay dis, ” though the latter’s mid to late-‘80s outgrowth, Hi-NRG, is easier to regnize through s quicker and heavier pulse, as well as s bold (often to the pot of searg) synthizer ns.

On the other, gayns was no prerequise for makg gay dis; fact, three songs here were produced by Bobby O., a known homophobe (who, spe this, would later assist the Pet Shop Boys, the producers of Liza Mnelli's “Losg My Md, ” disc one’s closer). Durg the early to mid-70s, gay rights advanced more quickly than had durg the prr two s bed; many stat, sodomy laws were repealed, and many ci the Uned Stat, civil rights protectns for gay people were adopted.

GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT

) In hdsight, is clear that although many of the clubs were characterized by people dancg together while high on dgs, their actual signifince remas as ccial a player as any gay liberatn rally or group of protters for gay rights.

THE 10 BEST NEW YORK CY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS NEW YORK CY

Clearly, the emergence of dis the 1970s had a tremendo cultural fluence the Uned Stat, and was exemplified by artists om Donna Summer to the Village People, both of them were extremely popular the urban gay culture New York Cy (Falner, 1973.

) The mic self me at the ial time for a wi variety of people who had been on the margs, young people om the workg-class, many disenanchised groups, and as scribed, the gay muny. ) Although dis was ultimately a reviled form of mic, when surged out of the gay unrground clubs New York the early 1970s, the mic reprented the sound of people who wanted to dance, dance, dance, and blot out everythg but their bodi the beat (Robson, 2010. ) The mic rerced the self acceptance and pri of the newly emergg gay rights movement, when micians helped to velop the settgs for new clubs that had strobe lights, were driven by eedom to exprs sexual gtur and uplgs, and driven by people high on amyl nrate.

Durg the dis era, for example, the gay muny actively utilized DJs, remixg, and ed the practic of social dancg and sound systems, all of which emerged as a predomantly gay mal subculture which was ultimately -opted, modified, and translated to the street culture by movi like “Saturday Night Fever” (Lawrence, 2011. In sence, dis provid an effective and social experience regardg the body that went beyond normative stereotyp of both straight and gay sexualy; this was particularly evint downtown New York Cy, where dis “queerns” was arguably the most pronounced, although the spe of the culture ultimately beme ternatnal as well. Although dis ultimately entered the mastream culture as well, for gay-rights advot, remaed and remas a drivg force a movement that was fally able to openly and publicly celebrate s existence.