Gay Glam Com To HBO : The Rerd : NPR

Contents:

• OVERLOOKED NO MORE: JOBRIATH, OPENLY GAY GLAM ROCKER THE ’70S
• GAY GLAM COM TO HBO
• ZAKK WYLDE: 'BLACK LABEL SOCIETY PUTS GAY INTO GAYNS'
• INSI THE FASCATG HISTORY OF GLTER AND GAY CULTURE

OVERLOOKED NO MORE: JOBRIATH, OPENLY GAY GLAM ROCKER THE ’70S

In the 1920s and early ’30s, Prohibn’s end gave way to the “Pansy Craze”: baret drag performanc that brought gay nightlife to the mass and rried their athetics to mastream mil theater. In the mid-’30s, at the edge of the Great Deprsn, moral backlash—sometim disguised as enomic nservatism but ually explic s bigotry—shut down many of the clubs and formally crimalized gay sex at a sle that had never before been seen. Jazz n’t be imaged whout the ntributns of giants like Billy Strayhorn (of De Ellgton’s band), who was openly gay, and, later, Cecil Taylor, who found that three-letter word was too limg.

The ’70s brought glam and dis, genr play, and explicly queer nightlife back to the mastream; we n’t fet that ’s great gay pop in, Elton John, and s great bisexual on, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Lang, the Indigo Girls), all the way to today, a moment that young pop star Hayley Kiyoko teasgly refers to as “#20gayteen. Their first gay kiss was junr high, wh someone wearg a matchg flannel, while listeng to Peter Murphy's "Deep" on shared Sport Walkman headphon.

”Such was the plited existence of Jobriath, who is generally regard as the first openly gay rock star. The productn st was timated at an exorbant $200, ad mpaign is one reason Jobriath is nsired to this day to have been among the mic dtry’s most overhyped the gay liberatn movement growg the early 1970s, Brandt assumed that Jobriath would be readily embraced. ”Jobriath put out a send album, “Creatur of the Street, ” 1974 and embarked on a natnal tour, only to enunter homophobic slurs durg a performance at Nass Colism on Long Island.

GAY GLAM COM TO HBO

At least he'll be the slightly-off Vyl versn of that great, lost boundary-smashg hope of 1970s rock, who for a shg moment 1974 beme the most visible gay man popular mic.

" Brandt and Jobriath uld sell openly gay sex, or at least partially unclothed gay eroticism, bee of the distctively experimental mood of Ameri 1973.

Mark's Baths (gay) and Plato's Retreat (nomally straight). And the show hasn't yet ventured to the moment's other huge shift, toward gay liberatn, that led to a wave of Pri paras, Central park dance-s, and artistic ventur like San Francis's Cockett troupe, which clud a young Sylvter.

ZAKK WYLDE: 'BLACK LABEL SOCIETY PUTS GAY INTO GAYNS'

Many gay mic lovers were already turng their ears toward dis, embracg funky tracks like Barrabas's "Wild Safari, " heard a (seemgly totally straight) Bronx club this Vyl episo's fal scene. Punive ntracts kept his reer unr wraps; he beme ill wh a disease affectg gay men the cy, newly known as AIDS, and died of 1983. GLAM is part of the natnwi MPowerment Project, which is a mol HIV preventn program that has been specifilly signed to addrs the needs of gay, bi, trans, queer + male intified dividuals (18-35).

INSI THE FASCATG HISTORY OF GLTER AND GAY CULTURE

GLAM offers new, excg events for gay, bi, trans, queer + male intified dividuals (18-35) who like guys (and their iends! Bars that we might intify today as “gay” sprang up the big metropolis, and there was an explosn of female impersonators that created a New York drag scene not dissiar to today’s. Of urse, no summary of pre-war gay stars would be plete whout mentn of Noël Coward, who would go on to be one of the pla’s greatt stars.

The social reprsn that reigned after the end of the Send World War meant gay performers had to tread refully not to offend sensive sensibili. But the biggt ternatnal gay star of the era immediately leadg to rock n roll was Liberace. The tradn of soft, accsible pop ran through the 50s and early 60s wh gay stars such as Johnny Mathis, Lley Gore, and Tab Hunter hidn tightly wh their rpective closets, but the electrifyg revolutn of rock’n’roll was makg wav.

As the 60s started to swg, many of the biggt stars of the era were steered by gay managers and producers, cludg Brian Epste (The Beatl), Joe Meek (The Honeybs), and Larry Parn (Billy Fury). It was the 70s, and the years followg the Stonewall Rts and the birth of the morn gay liberatn movement, that saw more dramatic evince that LGBTQ artists, and those that supported them, uld be more nfint at last. The glam rock explosn saw a new theatrily burst onto the scene and, while straight acts such as The Sweet, Alice Cooper, and New York Dolls experimented wh make-up and pantomime performance, genue progrs was ma when, 1972, David Bowie announced to the world he was gay – even though he wasn’t.