Anthony Friedk photographed gay culture California the 1960s
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
* 1960s gay culture *
“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. 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.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
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. ” 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.
HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
“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.
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.
LIVG HISTORY: ‘CONCEPTUAL HISTORY’ OF GAY CULTURE PHL STARTED THE 1960S
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. 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.
The ballot measure proposed to make homosexualy a firg offense for public school teachers. The tent of the group was to form an alliance se an anti-gay csa epted at Cal.
TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
It was there that Vermazen first heard discsn of same-sex marriage—an outrageo thought at the time—and the first time he met the late Sheldon Anlson, the Universy of California’s first openly gay regent.
Where homosexual activy or viance om tablished genr rol/drs was banned by law or tradnal ctom, such nmnatn might be munited through sensatnal public trials, exile, medil warngs, and language om the pulp. The paths of persecutn entrenched homophobia for centuri—but also alerted entire populatns to the existence of difference. By the 20th century, a movement regnn of gays and lbians was unrway, abetted by the social climate of femism and new anthropologi of difference.
However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary. Whe, male, and Wtern activists whose groups and theori gaed leverage agast homophobia did not necsarily reprent the range of racial, class, and natnal inti plitg a broar LGBT agenda.
CHAPTER 11 - GAY AND LBIAN LERARY CULTURE THE 1950S
Most historians agree that there is evince of homosexual activy and same-sex love, whether such relatnships were accepted or persecuted, every documented culture. We know that homosexualy existed ancient Israel simply bee is prohibed the Bible, whereas flourished between both men and women Ancient Greece. Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy.