Forty years after Stonewall, the gay movement has never been more uned. So why do olr gay men and younger on often seem so far apart?
Contents:
- UNRSTANDG GENERATN GAPS LGBTQ+ COMMUNI: PERSPECTIV ABOUT GAY NEIGHBORHOODS AMONG HETERONORMATIVE AND HOMONORMATIVE GENERATNAL COHORTS
- I’M 35 AND MY BT IEND IS 64. HERE’S WHY OUR AGE DIFFERENCE AS GAY MEN IS A GIFT
- MY EXPERIENCE AS PART OF A GAY TERGENERATNAL RELATNSHIP
- THE PROS AND NS OF TERGENERATNAL GAY RELATNSHIPS
- THE GAY GENERATN GAP
- AGEG PREDATORS AND ASEXUAL OLD QUEENS: CHALLENGG STEREOTYP OF CROSS-GENERATNAL GAY RELATNSHIPS BEGNERS AND GERONTOPHILIA
- GAYLE RUB
UNRSTANDG GENERATN GAPS LGBTQ+ COMMUNI: PERSPECTIV ABOUT GAY NEIGHBORHOODS AMONG HETERONORMATIVE AND HOMONORMATIVE GENERATNAL COHORTS
ike and his hband are a gay-to-December tergeneratnal relatnship. Now's the time for an Irish support/social group to form. * gay cross generational relationships *
Through this rehed unrstandg, we exame parative s that scribe the bgraphi, general behavrs, and generatnal loc of four well-known gay men as a means to explore how dividuals born a particular birth generatn may experience vastly different experienc life due to the LGBTQ + generatn wh which they intify.
Explorg LGBTQ+ Generatns: Through the Ey of Warhol, Vidal, Capote & HudsonExamg the liv of celebri and well-known LGBTQ + dividuals offers a lens to summarize and illtrate typil behavrs and attus that have been formative shapg gay culture and the LGBTQ+ llective inty.
I’M 35 AND MY BT IEND IS 64. HERE’S WHY OUR AGE DIFFERENCE AS GAY MEN IS A GIFT
* gay cross generational relationships *
In this se, the disntuy between the birth generatn to which each man belonged and the perd durg which their g of age wh regard to their LGBTQ+ inty occurred was shaped not only by the valu, behavrs, and mor of their birth generatn but also overlaid by the generatn to which they “me of age” as a gay man and a member of the LGBTQ+ muny.
His g of age occurred early life, which plac his behavr, the outward exprsn of genr inty, and sexual orientatn a much more ntemporary timeame closer behavr to a member of Generatn X (people born about fifty years after Capote) ntrast, Vidal did not publicly acknowledge his sexual orientatn or genr exprsn, and much later life vaguely intified first as bisexual (1999), and later as homosexual (Kaplan 2013).
Their behavrs, outward exprsn of genr, and gree of fort wh intifyg as LGBTQ + varied pendg more on their LGBTQ + generatn than their birth wh Capote, Vidal, and Hudson, a sire or lack of sire to ngregate and be associated wh other LGBTQ + dividuals public impacted the emergence and subsequent velopment of gay neighborhoods.
MY EXPERIENCE AS PART OF A GAY TERGENERATNAL RELATNSHIP
There are two domant stereotyp of gay male ageg Wtern media. The first is the sexual predator who secur brief relatns wh much younger men often through moary exchange or other forms of ercn. The send is the stereotype of the asexual... * gay cross generational relationships *
The plexy of his g of age a time when homosexualy was illegal, mixed wh his fascatn wh celebry and outlandishns, sparked a cursy Warhol that helped to shape and support the culture of gay neighborhoods New York Cy the 1960s through the 1980s as clive and creative spac. He provid for his followers and for succsive generatns of LGBTQ+ people a type of eedom that he himself seemed reluctant to Homonormative Saeculum and the Events that Shaped a Century of LGBTQ+ CultureThe experience for LGBTQ + people—amed by the unrstandg and treatment of LGBTQ+ dividuals reflected the valu of mastream society—is often que different om that of non LGBTQ+ people.
We propose appendg the heteronormative generatnal nam popularized by Strss and Howe to better rporate LGBTQ+ experienc as follows:The Silent Generatn —or the “Closeted Generatn”—gay men me of age jt before, durg, and immediately after World War II and lived a world which there was tense social prsure to nform to genr stereotyp.
THE PROS AND NS OF TERGENERATNAL GAY RELATNSHIPS
To avoid persecutn and harassment by the police, the early pneers further gravated wh the large metropolan areas to the margs of central ci—abandoned and fotten neighborhoods populated by those that heteronormative society has labeled social outsts and crimals—that beme some of the first regnizable gay neighborhoods.
They were bolstered by the experienc of those om prev generatns as they began to shed the cultural shame that enuraged LGBTQ + dividuals to stay the closet, and they relished the out of the gay liberatn movement as gay and lbian dividuals and their alli began to celebrate “gay eedom. High-profile efforts such as AIDS Coaln to Unleash Power ( ACT UP), Broadway Car/Equy Fights AIDS, and the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project helped to fe public awarens of the societal and stutnal margalizatn of homosexualy and the necsy to addrs the AIDS panmic wh facts and not wh fear. Generatn X took notice of members of the Greatt Generatn and Silent Generatn as they stggled—often publicly—to rencile the nflictg valu of their generatns: to acknowledge homosexuals as productive members of society while admtg that prev treatment of LGBTQ + people may have been unkd or ntrast to prev tim when popular cultural referenc implied shame or viance related to homosexualy, many of the cultural touchpots for Generatn X viewed homosexualy as a “normal” part of society, suggtg an openg for the acceptance of LGBTQ + people.
In 1973, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) asked all members attendg s nventn to vote on whether they believed homosexualy to be a mental disorr: 5, 854 psychiatrists voted to remove homosexualy om the list of mental disorrs, and 3, 810 voted to reta .
THE GAY GENERATN GAP
Homosexualy beme creasgly more accepted by heteronormative society durg the perd as this generatn me of age, culmatg the legalizatn of same-sex marriage Canada 2005, Swen 2009, and the Uned Kgdom 2013; the Uned Stat, legalizatn of same-sex marriage first occurred state by state, but eventually the U.
For LGBTQ + people, this transn may be pecially important as young people transn om parental and faial ntrol to makg their own cisns adulthood, which unrsr the layerg for LGBTQ + dividuals of birth generatn and “ g of age” energy young adults brg to gay neighborhoods is the nsistent (Bterman 2020a). The sire among LGBTQ + dividuals to live a muny such as those found wh gay neighborhoods has been nsistently evolvg and changg over the past five generatns, and the flux of young adults om each LGBTQ + generatn, along wh their energy and ias helps to sta gay neighborhoods for the next generatn, as shown Fig. The difference for most LGBTQ+ people is that the product is typilly more plex and multifaceted as the generatnal touchpot is rooted a heteronormative plexy of gay inty durg the middle to later twentieth century—borne of generatns fluenced by social valu and cultural mor stilled their parents by their parents a century before—rulted a nflicted state of existence for gay neighborhoods durg their emergent and formative years.
AGEG PREDATORS AND ASEXUAL OLD QUEENS: CHALLENGG STEREOTYP OF CROSS-GENERATNAL GAY RELATNSHIPS BEGNERS AND GERONTOPHILIA
Gay neighborhoods durg this perd om 1980 to 2000 provid a rpe for LGBTQ + people—and pecially gay men—om heteronormative standards and judgment based on the associated men om three generatnal horts—the Silent Generatn, the Greatt Generatn ( like Warhol, Vidal, Hudson, and Capote) and Generatn X —were part of the “great gay migratn” to ci the 1960s through the 1980s (Wton 1995).
One notable shift is younger members of the Millennial and Z generatns (who participated ls directly the stggle for LGBTQ + rights) may not fully grasp the importance of gay neighborhoods on LGBTQ+ culture and lbian and gay life (Bterman and Hs 2021) and may have a lser propensy to engage the muny offered by gay neighborhoods. The closure of gay bars, emergg virtual gay spac, and chang the character of gay neighborhoods are remrs that as the plac transn om beg home to generatns rooted the stggle, to playgrounds of generatns beneftg om that stggle, now may be a cril time to exame the prent plate the trajectory of gay neighborhoods (Coff 2021). The survival of smaller gay districts (and gay districts loted small- and mid-sized ci) is more threatened than tablished gay districts larger metropolan areas (Ghaziani 2021), and some lotns have rmally memorated LGBTQ + signifint plac wh or near gay Possibili for Gay NeighborhoodsThe perspectiv regardg gayborhoods among succsive generatns of LGBTQ + rints is changg.
GAYLE RUB
As the stigma associated wh intifitn wh groups unr the LGBTQ + umbrella creas universally, the need/sire for livg plac unrsred by segregatn and self-isolatn may also physil buildg blocks of gay neighborhoods—mercial tablishments ( bars, rtrants, bookstor), servic ( muny centers, health clics), and rinc—may be removed or displaced due to var urban forc cludg neighborhood change, revalizatn, gentrifitn, soc-cultural fluenc (tast, preferenc, and attus), and even equal rights legislatn (Bterman 2020a; Eeckhout et al. However, if gayborhoods (or elements of gayborhoods) are at risk of or ed disappearg, then the need to prerve the memory spac be urgent so that the social actn that occurred there is documented, (Miller and Bterman 2021) pecially for future, many LGBTQ + dividuals—pecially younger groups of dividuals—embrace a broadly clive fn of sexual orientatn and fd ltle value labels such as “gay, ” “ lbian, ” “transgenr, ” and other sexual mori (Podmore 2021).