The brave new wave of gay male pop stars, om Lil Nas X to Troye Sivan

Contents:

• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
• WHAT THE BRAVE NEW WAVE OF GAY MALE POP STARS MEANS FOR MIC

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Or 2007, when my sister, who’s a teacher, ved me to speak to her high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and the stunts there asked me why I didn’t e out high school.

I had to expla that such an act was unimagable for a boy om Mae 1984—as was anythg like a stunt Gay-Straight Alliance—and I uld tell my past was as unimagable to them as their prent was to 2008, when the Democratic Natnal Conventn adopted “Health re is a right” to s platform for the princy. This printial platform moment, while huge, felt strangely small at the same time—still not UP was tryg to expla to Amerins that AIDS uld affect all of , that health re that end once your disease was expensive uld affect more than gay men wh HIV or AIDS.

IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY

But there was an epimic of nial happeng alongsi AIDS, the belief that you uld not get AIDS, not really, unls you were gay—and that you would never need the protectns people wh HIV need. I n serve the ary as openly gay, if I wanted. For many Amerins, marriage equaly reprents a pstone “here at last” moment for gay people, but we know really is more of a begng.

It is still legal to be fired for beg gay or transgenr more than half of U. Those openly gay soldiers, should they marry, n be nied shared retirement benefs for their spo stat where marriage equaly is not (yet) the law.

At my most psimistic, I fear that this cisn, along wh the appearance of PrEP, is a sign of some sort of Frdian repetn cycle the whole untry is , which marriage equaly is always beg fought for and cid, and AIDS is always the ground for advanc treatment stead of a cure—all while the other very ser issu also need attentn, and we fight forever over the same ch of I were to wre a novel about a gay man like myself the future—let’s say the year 2035—his abily to marry another man, whatever the Supreme Court lg, wouldn’t be qutn— uld even be the nventnal choice, the one his iends lgh at even as they attend bee they love him. He might even be scend om two generatns of officially regnized gay marriag.

WHAT THE BRAVE NEW WAVE OF GAY MALE POP STARS MEANS FOR MIC

“Gay, ” “Queer, ” “Straight, ” “Same-Sex”: the would be eply retrogra terms—orthodoxi to be risted, or historil fictns, even.

Or he uld be a part of an ele group of wealthy gay men, all of them seronegative and ridg an tentnal muny sexually sealed off om anyone who n’t pass a cred check and an HIV tt. Dt and I are his gay uncl, and I will have tght him to pee standg up the woods—we’re workg on now—and he won’t probably even remember future I n’t image, but want to image, is one where we’re all at peace, workg toward somethg else.

Bee, as I thk of my future, I thk of all that I uld have done if I hadn’t been fightg for the right to the basic eedoms we’re all supposed to enjoy as Amerins—eedoms gay people have never fully had.