NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to 90-year-old Hector Black about his life as a closeted gay man who didn't e out until he was 70 years old.
Contents:
- DISVERG THE “GAY LIFTYLE” THROUGH 1970S MAGAZ
- THE CURSE OF AN ATTRACTN TO OLR GAY MEN
- WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
- WHAT GAY MARRIAGE LOOKED LIKE THE ’70S
- HOW TO EMBRACE AGG AS A GAY MAN
- 90-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LONG STGGLE WH HIS SEXUALY
- I LIVED UNAPOLOGETILLY AS A BLACK GAY MAN THE 70S. NOW I’M AGG WH PRI & DIGNY.
DISVERG THE “GAY LIFTYLE” THROUGH 1970S MAGAZ
The gay men's magaz QQ and Ciao! were unabashedly liberated, but they still tered to an exclive dience. * gay men 70 *
Manco’s crowd, which clud many gay men of lor, bellowed out the chos, refigurg the song’s addrsee as a new kd of Shore Commissn, ‘Free Man’ (1975)D. -led dance spac that were exclive to gay men — ually whe, middle-class gay men — started to open Manhattan late 1972. Valento, ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1975)The first rerd to feature lyrics about beg an out-and-proud gay man me om the mil performer Charl “Valento” Harris, who released “I Was Born This Way” as an apparently one-off release on Gaiee.
” “The lyrics were perfect, ” she told me Summer, ‘I Feel Love’ (1977)Gay male dance crowds were drawn to rerdgs that featured Black female volists, often intifyg wh their emotnal exprsivens and strength the face of adversy, often to the surprise of the artists, who were ually gospel-traed. Patrick Cowley, ‘Mutant Man’ (1982)Patrick Cowley fed his reputatn as one of the world’s most progrsive synthizer players durg rerdgs wh the dis pneer Sylvter, cludg “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), ” perhaps the ultimate gay male anthem. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn D, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Sp Some Gay Dis.
More than half of gay men and nearly 40% of lbian women surveyed 2013 said they had e out to iends and fay before age cisn isn't easy for everyone, though. I’m a 52-year-old gay man, and last year was the year that I fally chose to be open about who I am.
THE CURSE OF AN ATTRACTN TO OLR GAY MEN
The director of Call Your Father says his attractn to olr guys exposed a rarely discsed universal tth about gay men. * gay men 70 *
Lnched the sprg of 1969 wh the slogan “For Gay Guys Who Have No Hangups, ” QQ was a glossy nsumer magaze. ” But unlike gay liberatn magaz and newspapers of the time, voted ltle space to polics or activism.
WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
In 1979, soclogist Joseph Harry took a look at what that era's marriage-like relatnships between gay men were like. * gay men 70 *
In the 1950s and ’60s, some gay men turned word-of-mouth scriptns of lol scen to guis nsistg of the nam and addrs of bars, wh d scriptns. “The turn toward liftyle, straight and gay, volved a turn toward nsumptn as a form of self-ventn, yet the gay liftyle media stcted s rearshp not only how to bee ‘themselv, ’ as the straight publitns, but also how to bee gay, ” Hilrbrand wr. ’s photos reflected more racial and ethnic diversy than many other gay publitns of the time, that uld be seen more as a reflectn of fetishizatn than cln.
“Although the young studs may do everythg bed, except perhaps kiss, there is still one le a gay mt never fet, ” the thor wr. But when one particular look cropped up the post-Stonewall gay scene of the 1970s, was so popular—and so distct—that the guys who sported were dismissed as “clon. )And while the nickname was ially pejorative, the clone perd marked perhaps the first time that gay men prented themselv wh a queer-signalg uniform that was a direct rponse to societal stereotyp.
WHAT GAY MARRIAGE LOOKED LIKE THE ’70S
When so many gay men have spent their formative years the closet, ’s difficult to pe the feelg that you need to make up for lost time. * gay men 70 *
“The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men.
HOW TO EMBRACE AGG AS A GAY MAN
He pots to the gay mstrel stereotyp the 1967 film The Producers, along wh the timid-lookg guys on the illtrated vers of gay pulp books wh nam like All the Sad Young Men. (Not to mentn the 1964 article Life magaze lled “Homosexualy Ameri, ” which scribed a “sad and often sordid world. ”) “That’s the kd of imagery”—backwards stereotyp that basilly villaized queer people—“that a lot of my generatn who beme the clone people grew up wh the ccible of the 60s, ” Calendo ntu, when the civil rights and gay liberatn movements were expandg ias of equaly and eedom.
Drsg like a clone, he says, was a rejectn of those olr gay ’s not so easy to ppot precisely who origated the clone ial, guys who were alive at the time ually brg up Al Parker, an adult film star turned producer and director who worked om the 70s to the early 90s. (Parker would eventually bee an advote for gay rights and safe sex, producg only safe-sex films before he passed away om plitns due to AIDS 1992.
It was like, Oh that’s somethg wh a ltle work I uld atta, and I thk that’s why beme so quickly absorbed to the gay muny. “When I thk back on havg lived through the time, was like gay guys were pg om this stereotype that was jt culted to the culture of sissi and faggots, ” says Woodff.
90-YEAR-OLD GAY MAN RELLS LONG STGGLE WH HIS SEXUALY
“The clone look was certaly about a whe gay man’s rponse and engagement wh those archetyp, ” says Ben Barry, the an of the school of fashn at the New School’s Parsons School of Dign, whose rearch foc on fashn’s relatnship to masculy, sexualy, and the body.
”)Prentg as mascule public was physilly safer for gay guys, but the clone stume pulled double duty, Barry says, tweakg tradnal masculy while also signalg to other queer folks. “There’s this munal thg happeng right now where people are more open that they’re trans and non-bary or bisexual and not jt on the spectm of beg straight, gay, male, female.
I LIVED UNAPOLOGETILLY AS A BLACK GAY MAN THE 70S. NOW I’M AGG WH PRI & DIGNY.
At the same time, the fight for the rights of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people, spurred by the 1969 Stonewall rts, was lerally transformg the cultural and social landspe of New York Cy. While artists llaborated to transform the buildgs of Pier 34 to makhift art studs and exhibn spac, gay men were nvertg Pier 46 to what Delmas Howe lls an "arena for sexual theater.
He is thor of Male Dire: The Homoerotic Amerin Art and Ambn and Love Morn Amerin Art, and edor wh Alejandro Anrs and Diana Ln of The Social and the Real, also published by PSU Prs. The younger men have more tert sports than their partners and their gay peers who are attracted to men their own age.