LGBTQ mic history is so much more than a timele of who me out when and which songs beme gay anthems -- ’s also about the artists who weren’t aaid to be themselv eras when dog so often had real risks attached.
Contents:
- HAPPY PRIDE! HOW “Y.M.C.A.” BEME A GAY ANTHEM!
- THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
- GOVERNMENT PERSECUTN OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY IS WISPREADFRANK KAMENY APPEALED HIS 1957 FIRG BY THE U.S. ARMY THE FIRST KNOWN LEGAL PROCEEDGS THAT ED PRO-LGBTQ+ ARGUMENTS. THE 1950S WERE PERILO TIM FOR DIVIDUALS WHO FELL OUTSI OF SOCIETY’S LEGALLY ALLOWED NORMS RELATG TO GENR OR SEXUALY. THERE WERE MANY NAM FOR THE DIVIDUALS, CLUDG THE CLIL “HOMOSEXUAL,” A TERM POPULARIZED BY PNEERG GERMAN PSYCHIATRIST RICHARD VON KRAFFT-EBG. IN THE U.S., PROFSNALS OFTEN ED THE TERM “VERT.” IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY, MANY CI FORMED “VICE SQUADS” AND POLICE OFTEN LABELED THE PEOPLE THEY ARRTED “SEXUAL PERVERTS.” THE ERNMENT’S PREFERRED TERM WAS “VIANT,” WHICH ME WH LEGAL NSEQUENC FOR ANYONE SEEKG A REER PUBLIC SERVICE OR THE ARY. “HOMOPHILE” WAS THE TERM PREFERRED BY SOME EARLY ACTIVISTS, SMALL WORKS OF WOMEN AND MEN WHO YEARNED FOR MUNY AND FOUND CREATIVE WAYS TO RIST LEGAL AND SOCIETAL PERSECUTN. WH DRAFT ELIGIBILY OFFICIALLY LOWERED OM 21 TO 18 1942, WORLD WAR II BROUGHT TOGETHER LNS OF PEOPLE OM AROUND THE UNTRY–MANY OF WHOM WERE LEAVG THEIR HOME STAT FOR THE FIRST TIME–TO FILL THE RANKS OF THE ARY AND THE FERAL WORKFORCE. AMONG THEM WERE GAYS AND LBIANS, WHO QUIETLY FORMED KSHIPS ON ARY BAS AROUND THE WORLD. THEY SERVED SILENCE, ALWAYS FEARFUL THAT REVEALG THEIR INTY TO A POTENTIAL NEW PARTNER OR IEND ULD GET THEM DISHONORABLY DISCHARGED, IF NOT URT MARTIALLED. THE ARY FIRST VELOPED FORMAL PUNISHMENTS FOR HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR DURG WWI, AND OVER TIME VELOPED CREASGLY PROBG MEANS TO ROOT OUT “VIANTS” OM WH AND PREVENT THEM OM ENLISTG. IN 1953, PRINT DWIGHT EISENHOWER IMPLEMENTED NEW STANDARDS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS THAT BANNED HOMOSEXUALS OM SERVG MANY POSNS. THE LAVENR SRE THOANDS OF MEMBERS OF THE ARY AND CIVIL SERVANTS WOULD BE DISMISSED BEE OF L AGAST HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR. A FEW ANECDOT SEEMED TO SUPPORT THE ERNMENT’S REASONG HOMOSEXUALS WERE A GRAVE SECURY THREAT BEE THEY ULD BE BLACKMAILED BY FOREIGN ERNMENTS. THE IA WAS HARD TO UNTER AS FEW HOMOSEXUALS WERE A POSN TO PUBLICLY DISCS THEIR INTY. IN THE YEARS FOLLOWG WWII, HOMOSEXUALS WERE MORE DIRECTLY TIED TO MUNISM. THE COLD WAR PERD GAVE RISE TO SENATOR JOSEPH MCCARTHY, WHO EXPLICLY TARGETED “VIANTS,” NOT ONLY ERNMENT SERVICE, BUT ALSO HOLLYWOOD AS PART OF A LARGER PROJECT TO RID AMERI OF S UNSIRABLE ELEMENTS. THE HIGHLY PUBLICIZED EFFORT TO RID THE U.S. OF MUNISTS ME TO BE KNOWN AS THE “RED SRE,” WHILE THE EFFORT TO DISMISS HOMOSEXUALS WOULD LATER BE TERMED THE “LAVENR SRE.”THERE WERE NO OUT LGBTQ+ ELECTED OFFICIALS THE ENTIRE UNTRY.PLI MURRAY PUBLISH BOOK OUTLG CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT STRATEGY
HAPPY PRIDE! HOW “Y.M.C.A.” BEME A GAY ANTHEM!
* is 1950 a gay song *
LGBTQ mic history is so much more than a timele of who me out when and which songs beme gay anthems -- 's also about the artists who weren't aaid to be themselv eras when dog so…. Late his life, Esquera sometim performed gay clubs unr the name Fabulash before dyg om AIDS-related 1986 at the age of 51. But 1973, a sger and actor named Bce Wayne Campbell beme what is believed to be the first openly gay rock mician signed to a major label when he buted as the outrageoly flashy Jobriath.
Remarkably, another out gay man, Gary Floyd, also onted another of At’s first-rank punk bands, the Dicks, who would go on to be vered by the lik of The Butthole Surfers, J Lizard and Mudhoney. In Febary of that year, the Risg Free EP by the Tom Robson Band, featurg the song “Glad to Be Gay, ” cracked the top 20 of the U. ” Durg the first half of the 1980s, many artists found mercial succs wh songs and vios that openly picted or referenced queer life, particularly gay nightlife — as seen work of Frankie Go to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell and others.
Kg Prcs intifi as gay, and aims to create mic that don’t jt discs heterosexual relatnships and issu as a majory of love songs and mic do; but create those that are clive for those who fall outsi heteronormative narrativ of life that society has held on for so long. “I was readg a lot of gay lerature and there was one book, The Price of Salt that really stuck wh me bee ’s jt a betiful story, and I thk what I loved about was took place the ‘50s and the way that queer people were allowed to be public was so censored and was all about body language and this kd of icy teractn bee you had to hi yourself and so I was terted the parallel between the metaphor of 1950 beg how queer love looks public and how ’s very siar to havg a very ld relatnship.
THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
Pri serv more than a month. The gay songs – om dis hs to club classics – are perfect for Pri year-round. * is 1950 a gay song *
Poor old Johnnie Ray, as he was referred Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ “Come On Eileen, ” was a closeted gay man, arrted for solicg male unrver officers on more than one ocsn. Johnny Mathis never vered up his sexual orientatn, though he didn’t e out as gay until 1982, when a reporter prted his off the rerd acknowledgment. Rudy Lewis, who sang lead on this Drifters h as well as “On Broadway” and others, was a closeted gay man who sadly died of a dg overdose when he was jt 27 years old.
From the Tony Award wng mil Cabaret, wrten by openly gay lyricist Fred Ebb and openly gay poser John Kanr, based on a book by openly gay wrer Christopher Isherwood, this number, performed by Joel Grey, who publicly me out 2015 at age 82. He later moved to the Netherlands, changed his name to Lee Roberts, met a man who beme his life partner, and then lived as an openly gay man.
Regald Dwight changed his name to Elton John after Elton Dean, a fellow mician the backg band of Long John Baldry, the gay volist om where the John . A brilliant mician whose iends and llaborators knew he was gay, Billy Prton didn’t publicly e out until shortly before his passg 2006.
GOVERNMENT PERSECUTN OF THE LGBTQ COMMUNY IS WISPREADFRANK KAMENY APPEALED HIS 1957 FIRG BY THE U.S. ARMY THE FIRST KNOWN LEGAL PROCEEDGS THAT ED PRO-LGBTQ+ ARGUMENTS. THE 1950S WERE PERILO TIM FOR DIVIDUALS WHO FELL OUTSI OF SOCIETY’S LEGALLY ALLOWED NORMS RELATG TO GENR OR SEXUALY. THERE WERE MANY NAM FOR THE DIVIDUALS, CLUDG THE CLIL “HOMOSEXUAL,” A TERM POPULARIZED BY PNEERG GERMAN PSYCHIATRIST RICHARD VON KRAFFT-EBG. IN THE U.S., PROFSNALS OFTEN ED THE TERM “VERT.” IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY, MANY CI FORMED “VICE SQUADS” AND POLICE OFTEN LABELED THE PEOPLE THEY ARRTED “SEXUAL PERVERTS.” THE ERNMENT’S PREFERRED TERM WAS “VIANT,” WHICH ME WH LEGAL NSEQUENC FOR ANYONE SEEKG A REER PUBLIC SERVICE OR THE ARY. “HOMOPHILE” WAS THE TERM PREFERRED BY SOME EARLY ACTIVISTS, SMALL WORKS OF WOMEN AND MEN WHO YEARNED FOR MUNY AND FOUND CREATIVE WAYS TO RIST LEGAL AND SOCIETAL PERSECUTN. WH DRAFT ELIGIBILY OFFICIALLY LOWERED OM 21 TO 18 1942, WORLD WAR II BROUGHT TOGETHER LNS OF PEOPLE OM AROUND THE UNTRY–MANY OF WHOM WERE LEAVG THEIR HOME STAT FOR THE FIRST TIME–TO FILL THE RANKS OF THE ARY AND THE FERAL WORKFORCE. AMONG THEM WERE GAYS AND LBIANS, WHO QUIETLY FORMED KSHIPS ON ARY BAS AROUND THE WORLD. THEY SERVED SILENCE, ALWAYS FEARFUL THAT REVEALG THEIR INTY TO A POTENTIAL NEW PARTNER OR IEND ULD GET THEM DISHONORABLY DISCHARGED, IF NOT URT MARTIALLED. THE ARY FIRST VELOPED FORMAL PUNISHMENTS FOR HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR DURG WWI, AND OVER TIME VELOPED CREASGLY PROBG MEANS TO ROOT OUT “VIANTS” OM WH AND PREVENT THEM OM ENLISTG. IN 1953, PRINT DWIGHT EISENHOWER IMPLEMENTED NEW STANDARDS FOR CIVIL SERVANTS THAT BANNED HOMOSEXUALS OM SERVG MANY POSNS. THE LAVENR SRE THOANDS OF MEMBERS OF THE ARY AND CIVIL SERVANTS WOULD BE DISMISSED BEE OF L AGAST HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR. A FEW ANECDOT SEEMED TO SUPPORT THE ERNMENT’S REASONG HOMOSEXUALS WERE A GRAVE SECURY THREAT BEE THEY ULD BE BLACKMAILED BY FOREIGN ERNMENTS. THE IA WAS HARD TO UNTER AS FEW HOMOSEXUALS WERE A POSN TO PUBLICLY DISCS THEIR INTY. IN THE YEARS FOLLOWG WWII, HOMOSEXUALS WERE MORE DIRECTLY TIED TO MUNISM. THE COLD WAR PERD GAVE RISE TO SENATOR JOSEPH MCCARTHY, WHO EXPLICLY TARGETED “VIANTS,” NOT ONLY ERNMENT SERVICE, BUT ALSO HOLLYWOOD AS PART OF A LARGER PROJECT TO RID AMERI OF S UNSIRABLE ELEMENTS. THE HIGHLY PUBLICIZED EFFORT TO RID THE U.S. OF MUNISTS ME TO BE KNOWN AS THE “RED SRE,” WHILE THE EFFORT TO DISMISS HOMOSEXUALS WOULD LATER BE TERMED THE “LAVENR SRE.”THERE WERE NO OUT LGBTQ+ ELECTED OFFICIALS THE ENTIRE UNTRY.PLI MURRAY PUBLISH BOOK OUTLG CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT STRATEGY
Some of the songs were nsired que progrsive durg the time they were released, when homosexualy was nsired a mental illns and crossdrsg was illegal. Mad About The Boy – Dah Washgton – Origally wrten by Noël Coward 1932 for mil revue Words and Mic, the song has a hidn gay meang. The msage behd this versn is that cema un all, and you n maybe even extend that to beg acceptg of other people, that gay or straight, we’re really not that different after all.
Noël Coward even wrote vers supposed to be sung by a bsman who is eher gay or bisexual about beg “mad about the boy” – ‘When I told my wife, she said “I’ve never heard such nonsense my life! Noël Coward was really secretive about his sexualy bee those days, society was really homophobic and he feared losg everythg if he me out.