Midwtern Steelworkers Say It Was Easier To Be Gay In The 1970s Than Today, Author Anne Balay Claims | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• MIDWTERN STEELWORKERS SAY IT WAS EASIER TO BE GAY IN THE 1970S THAN TODAY, AUTHOR ANNE BALAY CLAIMS
• STEEL CLOSETS: VOIC OF GAY, LBIAN, AND TRANSGENR STEELWORKERS
• GAY STEEL WORKERS OF AMERI
• STEEL-WORKER GAY
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

MIDWTERN STEELWORKERS SAY IT WAS EASIER TO BE GAY IN THE 1970S THAN TODAY, AUTHOR ANNE BALAY CLAIMS

The USW stands behd our Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer/Qutng, Asexual/Non-Bary, Pansexual, pl (LGBTQ+) members. In her new book, Steel Closets: Voic of Gay, Lbian and Transgenr Steelworkers, thor and scholar Anne Balay tak a no-holds-barred look at the liv of ral Midwterners who found themselv forced to live the closet.

STEEL CLOSETS: VOIC OF GAY, LBIAN, AND TRANSGENR STEELWORKERS

Although social acceptance of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) issu is on the upswg ternatnally, Balay was surprised to fd that the oppose was, fact, te among Midwtern l workers. "In the '70s, was easier to be gay the ls than is now, " Balay said.

"[Back then], gay and lbian people were jt sort of isolated were jt sort of 'that person over there who has this, you know, awkward personaly tra, ' but uld be ignored. " She then add, "When gay people got a polil clout and started to be a social threat to tradnal ways of life, then people the ls started to e down harr. My goal for Steel Closets was to document what life and work meant to one group of the workers, as they experienced the gay rights movement and rapid dtrializatn simultaneoly.

GAY STEEL WORKERS OF AMERI

Though I vised several archiv, cludg Rivers of Steel Homtead, PA, none mentned gay steelworkers at all. I would equent lol gay bars, and steelworker bars, and get faiar wh the culture. I talked to many gay-intified men who had equent sex wh them, but I uldn’t fd a way to talk to straight men who did.

And I had received ias about what gay and lbian people were, and how we acted. I me to unrstand that if scholars look for what we thk of as gay people, we’ll miss many of the queer pleasur and possibili that exist. Also, I imaged that blue-llar workers would be racist and homophobic.

People outsi of the LGBTQ+ muny do not often realize that an employer n fire someone jt for beg gay and lovg who they love. People wouldn’t even donate blood bee they didn’t want gog to gay men. To them, was “the gay plague.

STEEL-WORKER GAY

Up until then, gay men and gay women were very segregated; we had separate bars, separate everythg. The steel l workers are gay men who works at the Ajax Steel Mill. Steel Closets: Voic of Gay, Lbian, and Transgenr Steelworkers on JSTOR.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

Even as substantial legal and social victori are beg celebrated wh the gay rights movement, much of workg-class Ameri still exists outsi the current narrativ of gay liberatn. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history terviews wh forty gay, lbian, and transgenr steelworkers, mostly livg northwtern Indiana, to give voice to this prevly silent and visible populatn.

The voic and stori ptured by Balay--by turns alarmg, heroic, funny, and vastatg--challenge ntemporary unrstandgs of what means to be queer and shed light on the credible homophobia and vlence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators rema closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, vlence, or rape.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Through the powerful voic of queer steelworkers themselv, Steel Closets provis rich sight to an unrstudied part of the LGBT populatn, ntributg to a growg body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broar range of gay life Ameri. Read: In this gut blog post, Balay shar a nversatn she had wh unn steelworkers that highlights some of the work yet to be done to ensure a safe and open work environment for gay, lbian, and transgenr steelworkers.

As historil geographer Diarmaid Kelliher wr, the mers had a surprisg group of alli: urban gay and lbian anizers. Among the supporters was Lbians and Gays Support the Mers (LGSM).

The group took off after a strikg mer spoke to gay activists followg the 1984 Lbian and Gay Pri March London. Mark Ashton, a gay man and member of the Young Communist League, said that “prevly I had this semi-antagonistic attu towards the anized labour movement, tra unns, macho het bully boys.

Along wh fellow gay activist Mike Jackson, Ashton began llectg donatns for the mers. ” Funds also me om Gay’s the Word bookshop, which was facg s own polil trouble at the time, cludg prosecutns for “cency. The mers and lbian and gay activists found they had much mon, cludg mistreatment by police, misreprentatn the media, and direct attacks om the nservative ernment.

LGSM wrote that “if this strike isn’t won, we as Lbians and Gays have a lot to lose when the Tori and their henchmen e for . After Thatcher cshed the strike, she began phg laws prohibg the “promotn” of homosexualy, known as Sectn 28. So ’s worth notg that when to labor movement solidary wh gay rights, all began wh the Teamster boytt of Coors beer the late 1970s.

She’s the longtime, now-retired Secretary-Treasurer of the Office and Profsnal Employe and -founr of Pri At Work, the AFL-CIO’s nstuency group for lbian-gay-bisexual-transgenr people. One example of this was an anti-gay rolutn at the 1972 Steelworkers nventn that got a standg ovatn. One qutn mand: ‘Are you a homosexual?