Pneerg Photographs of Gay Life the 1960s | Time

Contents:

• PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• LIVG HISTORY: ‘CONCEPTUAL HISTORY’ OF GAY CULTURE PHL STARTED THE 1960S
• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
• CHAPTER 11 - GAY AND LBIAN LERARY CULTURE THE 1950S

PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S

“I was 19, vulnerable, young and puttg my own inty together, ” says photographer Anthony Friedk when reflectg on his first project, The Gay Essay, which documents gay culture Los Angel and San Francis between 1969-1972. What started, as a self-assigned project for a young photographer growg up Hollywood has now bee one of the most thentic portras of gay life Ameri om this perd. In 1969, the same year as the Stonewall rts New York Cy, a gay cultural revolutn was growg Ameri.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

At the time, most pictns of gay men and women mastream media were found salac newspaper and tabloid articl, all of them reported om a murky distance. LIFE’s two-part seri Homosexualy Ameri om 1964, featured dark and shadowy photographs by Bill Eppridge.

While growg up Hollywood, Freidk’s parents worked the film dtry and had close iends that led full openly gay liv.

He saw that world as a “refuge” and a place where gays were “allowed to be themselv” more than any other place. But The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angel Gay Communy Servic Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and found the Gay Liberatn Front Los Angel 1969 where they mobilized the muny agast the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

” For Friedk, the goal was to move past many stereotyp and epen the reprentatn of gay dividuals of all typ. “It was more about my sire to create a great set of pictur wh a heartfelt termatn to honor gay people, rpect them and their eedom, ” he says. “In The Gay Essay I wanted to celebrate the gays that were livg openly, ” pecially at a time, the early days of the gay movement, followg the Stonewall rts.

“It upset me tremendoly to see the ways gays were beg treated, ” he adds. ” In 2014, The Gay Essay was first shown s entirety at the De Young Mm San Francis and was published as a book by the Fe Arts Mm of San Francis and Yale Universy Prs.

“Everythg I love about photography is the gay say: the sense of the event, pturg the soul of the people, the journey, the procs, the unknowns, ” he says. ” Anthony Friedk‘s The Gay Essay is on view at Daniel Cooney Fe Art New York Cy until March 4.

LIVG HISTORY: ‘CONCEPTUAL HISTORY’ OF GAY CULTURE PHL STARTED THE 1960S

In 1969, two groups formed on the UC Berkeley mp: Stunts for Gay Power and Gay Liberatn Front. ’75 (former Berkeley Law archivist, thor, and founr of the Gay Bears Collectn the Universy Archiv), the Gay Liberatn Front was very radil for s time. Around the same time, a group of gay stunts formed a muny center lled Sherwood Fort, which met at the Wley Center.

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

In 1970, the newly formed Gay Stunt Unn anized Berkeley’s first openly gay dance. “It was the place to talk about gay male issu and to meet people outsi of bars, ” says Benemann. Across the Bay Bridge, gay and bisexual men, cludg Harvey Milk, migrated to the Castro startg the early 1970s.

CHAPTER 11 - GAY AND LBIAN LERARY CULTURE THE 1950S

In 1977, Milk beme the first openly gay elected official California’s history when he joed the San Francis Board of Supervisors. “My ia was that stunts might change their attus for the better if they knew I was gay, ” he wrote an email.