The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND INTY: SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE LIFE COURSE
• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET
• A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
• GAY MEN & THE CULTURE THAT CREAT “PV GAYS”IN THE MIDST OF A GLOBAL PANMIC, MANY GAY MEN ARE TURNG TO PARTI PUERTO VALLARTA. UNRSTANDG WHY IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD MAKG SURE DON’T GET WORSE.GAY MEN & BLOG BY ARMANDO SANCHEZ·FOLLOWPUBLISHED GAY MEN & BLOG·7 M READ·JAN 5, 2021--2SHARESOCIAL MEDIA ON NEW YEAR’S EVE AND THE DAYS FOLLOWG HAS BEEN A DRAMATIC SAGA. GAY MEN ARE GETTG LLED OUT FOR HOSTG AND ATTENDG MASSIVE PARTI CI LIKE PUERTO VALLARTA, R JANEIRO, AND HOTON DURG THE ADLIT TIME OF THE COVID-19 GLOBAL PANMIC. VIOS OF A GAY PARTY BOAT SKG, PICTUR OF CROWD CIRCU PARTI, AND MEM REFERENCG THE EVENTS ARE DRAWG MENTARY OM THE GAY MASS, HOLDG THE MEN ACUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTNS (OR SHAMG THEM, PENDG ON YOUR PERSPECTIVE).THE CULTURE THE GAY MALE MUNY THAT LEADS TO THIS TYPE OF BEHAVR IS SOMETHG THAT HAS LONG NEED TO BE ADDRSED, UNRSTOOD, HEALED, AND REPLACED. I OFFER MY PERSPECTIVE AS A GAY MAN AND MENTAL HEALTH PROFSNAL TO SHED LIGHT ON ISSU THAT I’VE PERSONALLY FACED MY HEALG JOURNEY AND HELP MY GAY CLIENTS NAVIGATE THEIRS.IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO CRICIZE AND HOLD “PV GAYS” ACUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTNS. THERE HAS TO BE AN AWARENS AND LLECTIVE EFFORT TO CHANGE THE CULTURE THAT CREAT THE MDSET OF PARTYG DURG A GLOBAL PANMIC WH A PLETE DISREGARD TO ONE’S OWN SAFETY AND THAT OF OTHERS. IN ORR TO CHANGE , WE HAVE TO UNRSTAND . WE HAVE TO UNRSTAND OURSELV.SO, GRAB YOUR LIFE JACKET AND LET’S DIVE .MY LONELY HEART WILL GO ON… PARTYG
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSY AMONG LBIANS AND GAY MEN

GAY MEN’S HEALTH AND INTY: SOCIAL CHANGE AND THE LIFE COURSE

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOp-Ed ContributorNormal as FolkJune 21, 2012Ann Arbor, ’S gay pri month aga, and that means ’s time for the straight media to liver s annual state-of-the-gay experience is any gui, this exercise will volve a lot of triumphalism about the progrs of the gay movement, as measured by the creasg cultural assiatn of young lbians and gay men to Amerin society as a men particular, who ed to ighten the hors wh flamboyant displays of sexual outlawry, genr treason and fabulons, have supposedly dropped their signia of tribal belongg and joed the mastream. Olr gay men may still thrill to torch songs, show tun, classic Hollywood melodramas and Lalique; they may still spend hours arrangg the furnure jt all that foofy stuff looks irrelevant to morn gay men, who don’t see themselv as belongg to a separate culture, let alone such a queeny one. At least sce the 1970s, gay men have been drawg vid generatnal parisons between gay boys their teens and 20s — morn, liberated, enlightened, untouched by gay culture, “utterly distguishable om straight boys” and “pletely lm about beg gay” (as Andrew Holleran put his 1978 novel, “Dancer From the Dance”) — and olr gay men, fanatilly attached to an outdated gay culture and nvced that is the only gay culture there is.

(Of urse, those sorry gay men their 30s and 40s, who allegedly clg to an outmod, passé versn of gay culture, mt be the very same people who, only a few years earlier, were those pneerg gay teenagers, takg their first nocent steps a brave new world whout homophobia, ignorant of gay culture and different to . Instead of worryg that the feme associatns of diva worship, terr ratg or the performg arts may make gay male psychology look diseased, the real qutn we should ask about gay style is what s refal of nonil masculy achiev and what enabl s practners, straight or gay, to quire to melodrama, mp, irony, drag, bodybuildg or Art De as “gay” styl is to seek the ntent of gay culture s practic — to scribe the terventn gay culture mak the world as is given. Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC5903851NIHMSID: NIHMS882333AbstractDue to signifint historil change the late twentieth and early twenty-first century related to both health and cultural attus toward homosexualy, gay men of distct birth horts may diverge nsirably their health and inty velopment.

Keywords: gay men, health, homosexualy, life urse, inty, history, HIV/AIDS, PrEPIn an early fom on the emergence of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP; see Grant et al., 2010) for HIV preventn held at San Francis’s LGBT Center wnsed by the first thor, an argument epted the dience between a group of young men their twenti and a group of men their fifti. In all likelihood, they uld relate to men of both generatns, havg veloped their sexual liv as gay men wh ndom e as a strong muny norm but havg lost few to heated exchange between the two generatns of men at the PrEP fom reveals the way which social inti and health practic are dynamic and ground historil time and place.

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

It th n gui scholars to rearch qutns, practic, and advocy strategi more clearly aligned wh the lived experience of gay men diverse cultural and historil ntexts, wh the aim to both unrstand and enhance gay men’s this article, we illtrate the utily of a life urse paradigm the study of gay men’s health and inty velopment and propose empiril work that embodi this paradigm. We foc on the cultural ntext of the Uned Stat (US) orr to provi an exemplar for adaptatn other natnal settgs which distct historil events will be also regnize that wh the US signifint diversy exists among men who intify as gay owg to the tersectns of other inti such as race, class, genr inty, and other social inti (e. In other words, although we do not expect uniformy the way which diverse gay men experience historil events, we do expect monaly and th propose salience of certa historil events likely to affect a diversy of gay ias we velop this article may be relevant to bisexual and other same-sex attracted men.

Health is th ncerned wh more than the absence of pathology body and md; is ncerned wh the state of dividual and social well-beg (World Health Organizatn, 1948) a larger ntext of stigma and strs for sexual mori (Meyer, 2003) Men’s Health and the Life Course: Key PrciplThe life urse paradigm do not simply gui to a foc on gay men at different pots their dividual velopment (e. )The life urse approach offers a particularly uful paradigm for the study of gay men’s health bee of the signifint social chang that have occurred the past half-century to create radilly divergent ntexts of velopment for different generatns of sexual and genr inty mori (Hammack & Cohler, 2011).

A brief samplg of major historil events that have occurred over the past half-century ll our attentn to how the urse of gay men’s liv the US might radilly diverge across generatns—the Stonewall rts of 1969, the emergence of the AIDS epimic the 1980s, the disvery of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) to manage HIV 1996, the US Supreme Court’s cisn Lawrence v.

GAY CULTURE HAS GROWN TOXIC WH UNCHECKED PRIVILEGE. IT'S TIME FOR TO RET

Applied to the liv of gay men, we pos two cril perds of velopment: (1) puberty, regnized as a “magil age” for sexual awarens (Herdt & McCltock, 2000) and typilly reported retrospective acunts as the moment at which gay men regnized their same-sex sire and s potential signifince for their liv (e. A life urse paradigm is clive of the plex aspects of velopment sochistoril ntext and their relevance for the inti and health of gay men (Mart & D’Augelli, 2009) Generatns of Gay Men the USDefg the GeneratnsThe qutn of how to fe a generatn has been a ncern of life urse theory and the soclogy of agg for some time (e.

A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN

Our goal was to velop hypoth about hort differenc that n be tted future rearch and th to stimulate more quiry that foregrounds the ncept of generatn-hort as a meangful social inty for gay men’s health and inty intifyg hort-fg events, we were terted both discrete happengs and the broar social ntext of how gay men have been “spoken about” (Fouult, 1982) cultural disurse at particular historil moments.

The liberatn era (approximately 1969–1981), punctuated by the Stonewall rts and subsequent visibily for sexual mori, saw the thrivg of gay and lbian muni urban centers and a new disurse on homosexualy as ditive of a sexual inty rather than a form of psychopathology (Hammack et al., 2013). Fally, the equaly era (approximately 2003-prent) is characterized by the gradual but now wily held regnn of sexual mory inti and muni as legimate and worthy of equal treatment and protectn unr the law (Keleher & Smh, 2012) the historil eras, we intified four specific hort-fg events (CDEs)—events that marked likely turng pots the llective nscns of gay men, wh implitns for their experience of inty and health (see Table 1). The distct labels we have selected for each generatn reflect the domant disurse of male homosexualy durg cril perds of velopment: sickns, liberatn, AIDS, and 1Generatn-horts of gay men alive, 2017GeneratnApproximatebirth yearsAge at CDE1(Stonewall, 1969)Age at CDE2(AIDSdisvery, 1981)Age at CDE3(HAARTdisvery, 1995)Age at CDE4(Lawrence, 2003)Age 2017Context of velopment1Sickns1930s30s40s50s60s70s–80sHomosexualy strongly pathologized durg childhood and adolcence; early adulthood wh birth of gay and lbian movement; many closeted until later life and sufferg more psychologil distrs about sexualy2Liberatn1940s20s30s40s50s60s–70sExperienced puberty as gay and lbian movement was iatg but not wily visible; early adulthood wh creased visibily and formatn of strong muni urban centers; strongly impacted by AIDS wh loss of works and partners3AIDS-11950s–1960s10s (puberty)20s30s40s50s–60sExperienced puberty at height of visibily for gay and lbian movement; experienced early adulthood at height of AIDS, trma of substantial aths muny; midlife wh major health advanc and civil rights gas4AIDS-21970s–1980s010s10s20s30s–40sExperienced puberty at height of AIDS, ls personal loss than member of AIDS-1 but equatn of gay sex wh ath; benefted om Inter durg adolcence; early adulthood durg treatment advanc and greater equaly5Equaly1990s00<1010s20sExperienced puberty and emergg adulthood after treatment advanc for HIV tablished, civil rights victori, creasg equalyThe Sickns GeneratnFor most of the twentieth century, same-sex sire was classified as a sickns, reprentg a diagnosable mental illns the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual (DSM) of the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (see Hammack et al., 2013).

Yet prr to the natnal visibily for the gay and lbian civil rights movement realized by the Stonewall rts of 1969 and the removal of homosexualy om the DSM 1973, the domant disurse about homosexualy was that homosexualy and of self nstuted a disease (Hammack et al., 2013; Herek, 2010) men who veloped durg this era likely viewed their sexual sir, practic, and inti through the prism of disease and abnormaly, eply ternalizg stigma (see Cohler, 2007; Hammack & Cohler, 2011; Loughery, 1998).

GAY MEN & THE CULTURE THAT CREAT “PV GAYS”IN THE MIDST OF A GLOBAL PANMIC, MANY GAY MEN ARE TURNG TO PARTI PUERTO VALLARTA. UNRSTANDG WHY IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD MAKG SURE DON’T GET WORSE.GAY MEN & BLOG BY ARMANDO SANCHEZ·FOLLOWPUBLISHED GAY MEN & BLOG·7 M READ·JAN 5, 2021--2SHARESOCIAL MEDIA ON NEW YEAR’S EVE AND THE DAYS FOLLOWG HAS BEEN A DRAMATIC SAGA. GAY MEN ARE GETTG LLED OUT FOR HOSTG AND ATTENDG MASSIVE PARTI CI LIKE PUERTO VALLARTA, R JANEIRO, AND HOTON DURG THE ADLIT TIME OF THE COVID-19 GLOBAL PANMIC. VIOS OF A GAY PARTY BOAT SKG, PICTUR OF CROWD CIRCU PARTI, AND MEM REFERENCG THE EVENTS ARE DRAWG MENTARY OM THE GAY MASS, HOLDG THE MEN ACUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTNS (OR SHAMG THEM, PENDG ON YOUR PERSPECTIVE).THE CULTURE THE GAY MALE MUNY THAT LEADS TO THIS TYPE OF BEHAVR IS SOMETHG THAT HAS LONG NEED TO BE ADDRSED, UNRSTOOD, HEALED, AND REPLACED. I OFFER MY PERSPECTIVE AS A GAY MAN AND MENTAL HEALTH PROFSNAL TO SHED LIGHT ON ISSU THAT I’VE PERSONALLY FACED MY HEALG JOURNEY AND HELP MY GAY CLIENTS NAVIGATE THEIRS.IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO CRICIZE AND HOLD “PV GAYS” ACUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTNS. THERE HAS TO BE AN AWARENS AND LLECTIVE EFFORT TO CHANGE THE CULTURE THAT CREAT THE MDSET OF PARTYG DURG A GLOBAL PANMIC WH A PLETE DISREGARD TO ONE’S OWN SAFETY AND THAT OF OTHERS. IN ORR TO CHANGE , WE HAVE TO UNRSTAND . WE HAVE TO UNRSTAND OURSELV.SO, GRAB YOUR LIFE JACKET AND LET’S DIVE .MY LONELY HEART WILL GO ON… PARTYG

We regnize that this label may be an unfortable one for men of this generatn, yet we employ precisely to pture the extent to which societal disurse and cultural attus so strongly equated homosexualy wh pathology at the time, likely leadg to formidable early psychologil men of the Sickns Generatn were born approximately the 1930s and experienced childhood, adolcence, and early adulthood wh the domant disurse of homosexualy as illns (see Table 1). Rearch that foc specifilly on the experienc of men of lor of this generatn is sential to unrstand the impact of “double stigma” they likely experienced at cril perds their of the Sickns Generatn alive today would have experienced several eras of gay and lbian history, livg long enough to wns the major social and polil gas of the most recent equaly era (2003-prent).

In addn, the experience of health re and other service stutns as hostile to the unique ncerns of gay men may rema a legacy for men of this generatn, as they ntue to report lack of accs to supportive re (Fredriksen-Goldsen & Mura, 2010) or fears of discrimatn health ntexts (Jackson, Johnson, & Roberts, 2008).

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

Major events were occurrg throughout the 1950s and 1960s that led to the tablishment of the morn gay and lbian civil rights movement (see Farman, 2015; Hirshman, 2012), but the Stonewall rts brought natnal visibily to the movement a way prevly unrealized (Carter, 2004; Duberman, 1993). Stonewall exposed gay and other same-sex attracted men throughout the US to the size and signifince of the larger sexual mory muny, although this exposure was likely more pronounced for men who rid or near major urban sizeable gay and lbian muni had already formed major US ci after World War II (D’E, 1983; Sadownick, 1996), they existed more clanste forms until the 1970s.

Visibily of the muni creased dramatilly durg this liberatn era (Hirshman, 2012), and the erosn of the sickns narrative of homosexualy gave way to monstratns of pri and muny ruals such as the emergence of Gay Pri (origally lled Christopher Street Liberatn Day) as an annual celebratn of the Stonewall rts (Duberman, 1993). Open exprsn of same-sex sire beme possible some muni, pecially big ci wh “gay ghettos” (Leve, 1979), along wh a social and polil culture wh a more unified gay muny that enuraged challenge of the stat quo (Armstrong, 2002) men who me of age the US durg this era (1969–1981) had opportuni, unparalleled before, to immerse themselv to gay and lbian muni urban settgs, likely creasg possibili for enhanced psychologil and social well-beg pared to prr generatns. Like men of the subsequent generatn, though, their experience of the hort-fg event of AIDS at the peak of their adulthood likely troduc major challeng for their health and inty experience of gay men of this generatn was far om uniform, however, and likely diverged acrdg to factors such as race and ethnicy.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

In one of the only studi of men of lor of this generatn, Woody (2014) found that Ain Amerin men reported feelgs of alienatn om the Ain Amerin muny, havg to nceal their same-sex sir, but also an aversn to labels of the largely whe LGB AIDS-1 GeneratnThe social and polil succs of the liberatn era were cshed by the emergence of the AIDS epimic 1981, which by the end of the 1980s had killed nearly 75, 000 gay men (Centers for Disease Control and Preventn, 2005). The AIDS era was characterized not jt by the vastatn of the disease self but also the acpanyg disurse of the antigay “relig right” and “moral majory” that went so far as to claim that AIDS was punishment for the “immoraly” of gay sex, creatg a major ntext of stigma for all same-sex attracted men and for people wh AIDS (Herek & Glunt, 1988) and leadg to gay men’s practic and bodi beg subjects of ntamatn durg this era. AIDS-related stigma beme pervasive, wh extraordary public anxiety about the disease, part bee of s associatn wh homosexualy (Herek & Glunt, 1988) the 1980s, the state of gay men’s health beme a “public health and psychologil emergency” (Batchelor, 1984), and gay men beme targets of prejudice and wispread cultural fear for their ntamatn (Batchelor, 1988; Herek & Glunt, 1988).

Though other generatns of men of lor might have shared this experience, this hort was the first for which the experienc were clearly AIDS-2 GeneratnWe distguish between gay men who were early adulthood at the hort-fg event of AIDS 1981 (members of the AIDS-1 Generatn) and men who were childhood or early adolcence at the time and th ls likely to have been sexually active and socially embedd wh the gay muny. Sce s emergence, the Inter has bee a signifint ntext for gay men’s sexual and social experience (Grov, Brlow, Newb, Rosengerberger, & Bermeister, 2014; Harper, Bce, Serrano, & Ja, 2009; Mtanski, Lyons, & Garcia, 2011), and s availabily for men of the AIDS-2 Generatn at a cril velopmental moment (i. Th there is evince of diversy among same-sex attracted men of lor their health and inty velopment, and tersectg inti create variable velopmental trajectori for all same-sex attracted men of Equaly GeneratnWh the emergence of highly effective treatments and preventn strategi for HIV/AIDS me a gradual shift the disurse about gay men om ntamated to worthy of equal treatment unr the law, and the AIDS epimic may have e to humanize gay men ways prevly unrealized.

In addn, wh the emergence of new highly effective HIV preventn optns such as PrEP, views about sex, sexual practic, and sexual health have likely e to more closely remble men who me of age the liberatn era, wh gay sex ls likely to be viewed as herently of the Equaly Generatn may also be more likely to hold multiple, ncurrent sexual inti or prefer not to intify wh a sexual inty label. Even the US, the majory of rearch on gay men has not taken to acunt the unique experienc of bisexual men and of men of lor or men livg far om urban centers, so the prent amework mt be open to men other natns and non-whe US gay men may not have experienced the same events wh the same timg and social ntext as the men the generatns proposed here. We hope that rearchers who study sexual and genr inty diversy other cultural settgs will adapt a life urse paradigm for e those sexualy rearchers, a life urse paradigm challeng the notn that gay men nstute a “speci” whose practic and norms n be charted wh lawful regulary by llg attentn to variabily (see Hammack et al., 2013; Sav-Williams, 2005).

ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVERSY AMONG LBIANS AND GAY MEN

Rather than treatg gay men as a unified social tegory, a life urse paradigm seeks to terrogate the historil variabily that characteriz gay men’s evolvg subjectivi and practic matters of health and inty offer several specific suggtns for future rearch anchored a life urse paradigm. The knowledge produced will likely aid preventn and terventn efforts related to gay men’s health and inty velopment by intifyg distctns across age groups and other social inti such as race and we regnize that some rearch qutns may be more appropriately addrsed solely wh quantative methods (e.

This approach may be at odds wh the sexual subjectivi of younger horts of gay men, who not only did not experience the AIDS epimic but also do not view HIV as a lethal advot for gay men and their health, the life urse paradigm illtrat how health is not jt a matter of dividual functng and adaptatn; is closely lked to the polil and historil ntext of shared membership a generatn-hort. Bee there is a arth of general rearch regardg this muny, and no studi to date that e quantative methods, we cid to explore this muny quantatively—g an Inter-nvenience sample, followed by a purposive suggted, the Bear culture exhibs and valu a greater sense of domant (but not necsarily domeerg) “thentic masculy” parison to other subcultur wh the gay muny (e. G., uratn, fistg, voyrism, exhibnism) (Grov, Parsons, & Bimbi, 2010) to the active existence of the Bear muny and regnn of this subculture by the larger gay/bisexual male culture, more rearch is need to explore the gree to which the prevly mentned physil, behavral, and psychologil differenc actually exist.

Consirg the likely prevalence of a Bear inty may be held (wh varyg tenaci) by about 14–22% of gay men, the rults provi addnal evince for the manift and latent heterogeney of gay and bisexual rults regardg body tras and partner selectn nfirm, for the first time a systematic manner, fdgs documented prev terview and ethnographic studi. A study that answers the rearch qutns would provi further evince to support the heterogeney hypothis: Not only is the mastream gay muny culturally heterogeneo, but so are the sexual health behavrs and problems wh last suggtn for future rearch would be to tt some of the theori generated by the current data. But even though the nversatns that muted this lumn for six weeks are nowhere close to beg over, I do feel like some thgs that me up durg that time of ntemplatn are worth sayg now — particularly to my fellow whe gay cis out more stori on LGBTQ+ ins and activistsHowever, the ghost of Larry Kramer very much remaed my own head as I ma my way through a Pri month unlike any other.