July 11, 1971: A brand-new woman tak the stage at the Gay 90's

Contents:

• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• WHY DO THEY LL THE GAY 90’S?
• THE GAY 90S
• GOG BAREBACK: TIME AND AGG A GAY-FOR-PAY PORN CAREER
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• JULY 11, 1971: A BRAND-NEW WOMAN TAK THE STAGE AT THE GAY 90'S

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

”Human Rights Watch terviewed more than 20 members of the island’s LGBTQ muny who shared their stori but were not intified to protect them, notg that lol police are often openly discrimatory toward gay people who seek help. The 1890s, which began on 1 January 1890 and end on 31 December 1899, were sometim referred to as the Mve De — bee William Henry Perk’s anile dye allowed the wispread e of that lour fashn — and also as the Gay Neti, unr the then-current age of the word gay which referred …. In 1984, Governor Richard Celte appoted Harris as the Oh Department of Health’s gay health nsultant, the first state the natn to create such a posn rponse to the growg AIDS crisis.

Shortly after his appotment, The Pla Dealer asked Harris for an terview regardg the crisis, sistg on referrg to him as a “homosexual” (as opposed to gay) nsultant, as was the newspaper’s policy at the time. Arbron, the rad ratgs agency, timated that 20, 000 listeners tuned to The Gay 90s on a typil night – perhaps more on a clear night when the AM signal strength was strong enough to reach listeners as far away as Akron or Canton, maybe even the “boondocks, ” Harris quips.

WHY DO THEY LL THE GAY 90’S?

From there, The Gay 90s aired on Sunday evengs – a time slot Harris preferred, believg that his target dience was more likely to be home (and tuned ), not partyg one of Cleveland’s many gay bars. Seeg the opportuny and the need, Harris offered his voice as he opened the every show wh this greetg: “Good eveng Cleveland… Wele to The Gay 90s, the voice of Northeast Oh’s gay and lbian muny.

It is the tent of this show to provi programmg that reprents the diversy of our gay and lbian muny and reveal the ep cultural and historil ntributns that for too long have gone unregnized. In the show’s six-and-a-half-year n, thoands of Clevelanrs of every flavor listened, learned, and participated the natn’s first live gay talk show, brgg together gay, lbian, transgenred, bisexual, and, importantly, straight listeners.

1995First Promotnal Poster, 1993 This was Harris's first promo poster advertisg the untry's first gay and lbian live talk rad show on WHK-AM 1420, which aired on Friday nights, 9:00 – 11:00 pm. Footnote 1 He was also named as the send most searched for gay porn star Pornhub’s 2017 “Year Review” annual analytics report (beaten to the top spot by relative new-er William Seed, also a Men exclive)Footnote 2 and was the 2017 recipient of Str8UpGayPorn’s Bt Gay-4-Pay Performer award.

THE GAY 90S

Through reflectn, I arrive at the ncln that the time was right for an agg twk performer to be hened-up by a transn to bareback; siar transns of which have bee wispread across the gay porn landspe the years that have ticked over sce the 2015 Johnny Rapid Go Bareback event and our prent day (see Brennan, 2020a)—due to the wispread mastreamg of bareback mercial gay porn, which has been buoyed no small part by advancements HIV preventn technologi. Johnny Rapid’s bareback but served as the lnch event for Bromo; a se that shared a parent pany (MdGeek) wh Sean Cody and Men, the latter two s that 2018 held the distctn of beg the first and send most equented sourc of gay porn on the web, rpectively (Brennan, 2018). I observe that while Rapid’s first-time bareback performance is marketed as a up for viewers, the general nsens among Str8UpGayPorn’s rearship is more my readg of the disurse will show, the largt proportn of those mentg on the mpaign exprsed a cidly negative viewpot.

Especially as this trend relat to the Johnny Rapid Go Bareback Barebackg CoupAnalysis of viewer receptivens to the Johnny Rapid Go Bareback mpaign offers particular sights to the functn of ‘bareback event marketg, ’ and wh the impact that the movement towards a “state of ndomlsns” (Brennan, 2020a, 131) gay porn has had on dience expectatns around what nstut a newsworthy performance—together wh dience views on the ethics of ndomls promotn self.

Jt as the 2010s hered the equent prentatns of acts that would have been nsired extreme pornography a earlier—such as anal creampi—on s that are generally nsired “vanilla” gay porn (Kiss Nielsen & Kiss, 2015, 132), Morris has himself been forced to gravate towards more extreme portrayals orr to mata his radil reputatn. This hook is employed pecially by gay-for-pay (see Mercer, 2011) s such as Broke Straight Boys and Ba B, together wh virgal twk properti such as Boys First Time (which is among Rapid’s first creds). The ‘hook’ the se of Bromo’s lnch (and Morris’ attempts at ntued relevance an era where ndomls gay porn is the norm once more) is to be able to make some claim that what viewers are seeg is new.

GOG BAREBACK: TIME AND AGG A GAY-FOR-PAY PORN CAREER

The novelty of the Johnny Rapid Go Bareback mpaign, therefore, through the prentatn of a sue of scen pictg a prolific, yet still young, gay-for-pay performer beg perated ‘raw, ’ and perhaps ‘seed’ for the first time on screen.

” (see Florênc, 2018) Also, as John Mercer (2017) not, the “first time” vice is “one of the key disurs of youth that is summoned up gay porn, ” (89) which is an unrstandg of the genre that helps expla the stg of Rapid for this particular re of passage.

Consirg first the reactns to the news of Rapid’s bareback performance, the failure of Bromo to stir up tert—and for s tend msage to land wh Str8UpGayPorn rears—is surmised by two them; namely: bareback as self now mundane, and Rapid’s bareback but as dangero. ’” (C55) The more plited of the two them that emerged the wake of the announcement is the healthism 2: As DangeroOf urse, bareback sex was once the norm gay pornography—before the HIV/AIDS era—, and was mpaigns of another kd—namely for safer sex—that have created the opportuni for harsh judgement, even censure, here and more broadly. A perhaps more nuanced view is that barebackg as a practice and (as of 2021) a now domant ndn of gay pornography, as nsumed and experienced the 21th century, is a se of creasg negotiatn and tst.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

Weeks wr that sexual inti are “necsary fictns” (1995, 98) shaped by historil circumstanc: the spread of HIV wh Wtern gay and queer male muni of which is a se pot, and a circumstance om which we vised a “grammar for safer sex. Footnote 21 We turn now to viewer asssment of the scen of Rapid’s barebackg but, such asssments that were thored the ments sectns of Str8UpGayPorn’s of the Johnny Rapid Go Bareback CampaignFour scen were released as part of the Johnny Rapid Go Bareback mpaign—one per week begng on Augt 6, 2015.

It lks the populary of barebackg gay pornography at the time—and mpaigns that promote (such as Johnny Rapid Go Bareback)—wh the glamoro advertisements of big tobac pani of yteryear. It is a view that regniz the potential of the ter promotg certa sexual practic (see Rosenberger et al., 2011); but also, pots to the “risky bs” of a regrsive trajectory followg a perceived cle the threat of HIV—whereby “agast all good medil advice, ” the porn dtry is puttg profs ahead of muny health by “showg healthy lookg people engagg unhealthy behavr, ” and “sendg a bad msage, pecially to young gay men, ” for many of whom porn, is assumed, plays an important role their inty formatn. Not only do nfirm abundant e of pornography by gay men (also see Duggan & McCreary, 2004), but also, of the 20 participants who took part the study, three quarters of those terviewed attributed gay pornography as their primary means of learng about gay sex durg adolcence (Elr et al., 2015, 951) foregog viewer ment is ak to what Alex Carballo-Diéguez and José Bermeister (2004) found their paratively early ntent analysis of ments for and agast barebackg.

JULY 11, 1971: A BRAND-NEW WOMAN TAK THE STAGE AT THE GAY 90'S

Mercer mak the pot that while a theme of homophobia may be seen to unrsre certa scenars—such as sex prison (and perhaps hazg and gay-for-pay narrative settgs as well)—, to label such scenars as homophobic is “far too simplistic and rctive to acunt for the relatively plex range of disurs at play. In addn to offensive signifieds that adjo the performers’ off-screen liv, one mentator also labels the men as probable racists, prumably le wh the whe-washed nature of much of gay porn:Footnote 33 “As much as I dislike both of their personali, and that they both might be potentially racist as well, I’m watchg this maly for Vadim. ” (56; also see Mercer, 2003, for a discsn of gay porn prototyp) A tailed discsn of Rapid and class would be worthwhile as part of a star study, somethg that is outsi the spe of the prent argument.