Ken Felts didn't e out as gay until he was 90. He told his dghter about havg to abandon his first real love the 1950s. His story went global on Facebook. Now, at 93, he's found a hband.
Contents:
- THE YASSIFITN OF KEN: EARRG MAGIC KEN AND HIS ENDURG GAY LEGACY
- 9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT KIDD KENN, THE OPENLY GAY RAPPER WHO MA HISTORY AT THE BET HIP HOP AWARDS
- THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
- THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE
- DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
- GAY PARTI & EVENTS
THE YASSIFITN OF KEN: EARRG MAGIC KEN AND HIS ENDURG GAY LEGACY
Photos of Ryan Goslg as Ken 'Barbie' ll to md Earrg Magic Ken, aka Gay Ken, who lighted the queer muny and dismayed Mattel. * gay rave ken *
In the distant past of 1993, gay marriage wasn’t legal any state the untry. Sodomy laws all over Ameri attempted to outlaw gay sex by crimalizg any oral or anal erotic ntact. And Dan Savage, a sex-advice lumnist then only known to rears of a few pennt alt-newspapers around the untry, was pable of makg breakout news wh a sndalo revelatn: Mattel’s latt Ken doll, part of the Earrg Magic le of Barbie toys, was openly moled on gay fashn.
“For about a year every gay boy at a rave was wearg at least one, ” Savage wrote. “What the ltle girls were seeg, and tellg Mattel was ol, wasn’t what their relatns were wearg — unls they had hip queer relativ — but the homoerotic fashns and imagery they were seeg on MTV, what they saw Madonna’s dancers wearg her ncerts and films and, as happens, what ACT UP/Queer Natn fags and dyk were wearg to mos and rav, ” Savage wrote.
By makg him gay. Some fans, however, have noticed certa siari between Goslg’s look and another time gay fans went nuts over Ken. That’s right – Goslg bears a strikg remblance to Earrg Magic Ken – sometim known as Gay Ken or even Cock Rg Ken.
9 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT KIDD KENN, THE OPENLY GAY RAPPER WHO MA HISTORY AT THE BET HIP HOP AWARDS
Simply put, Ken isn’t ol — and Mattel isn’t havg . The children’s answers, likely rmed by media (some would later ce Madonna’s background dancers) and club-culture trends, spire Ken’s new look and what would bee an famo nightmare for Mattel. The doll was lled Earrg Magic Ken, which is the absolute bt name for an accintally gay doll. * gay rave ken *
Between his purple mh top and fx-leather vt, bleach-blon two-toned hair, sgular pierced ear and necklace holdg a good sized rg (whatever termology you want to lend to ), Ken screams early-’90s-gay-rave-attene. The trend started among gay men, but then spread, beg a fashnable accent piece regardls of genr. Word got around about how Mattel had created a gay Ken plete wh a ck rg, somewhat thanks to Savage’s article.
Tryg to shove their accintally-gay Ken back to the closet by pullg him off the shelv, Mattel martyred him stead, makg Earrg Magic Ken a llector’s em and an in. © 2022 GCN (Gay Communy News).
THE TE STORY OF MATTEL ACCINTALLY RELEASG A SUPER GAY KEN DOLL
On Sam Smh’s “Barbie” soundtrack song “Man I Am,” the performer sgs about a Ken who’s “not gay, bro,” but has “been on that lay low.” So, a Bicur Ken? * gay rave ken *
Spac like Paradise Garage, The Warehoe, Mic Box and Heaven were stmental the scene's rise, while the gay BIPOC rint DJs, Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckl, Ron Hardy and Ken Collier, rpectively, tly fed the genre's sound. Thankfully there has been a great al of progrs over the past battg this erasure: LGBTQ+ reprentatn media has been steadily on the rise across almost all forms, and studi show that Gen Z is poised to be the gayt generatn yet wh almost one three intifyg as queer. Photography: Jason SiegelWhen I was growg up as a fan of electronic dance mic, I stggled to fd any role mols or reprentatn of gay people the scene.
It's ol to be gay.
I stggled my whole life wh the fact that I was gay and I didn't fully e out until my early 20s, around the time I moved to Chigo. Frankie Knuckl wasn't fed by beg gay, but he blossomed a culture that allowed him to jt be himself.
THE LTLE-KNOWN, REAL-LIFE BACKSTORY BEHD THE BARBIE MOVIE’S VERY FUNNY GAY KEN JOKE
Remember when Mattel accintally ma a super gay Ken doll? We do. And queer people ma him the bt sellg Ken doll, ever. * gay rave ken *
As far as gay nightlife go, Paradise Garage had a big fluence on .
This diversy has been party of the earlit dance scene days but today, 's even more so, where you have straight, gay, young, old...
DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
Gay Events & Parti. The bt gui to gay dance parti, gay pris and other LGBT events USA, Europe and Asia. Updated regularly. * gay rave ken *
” — only a whole lot Cyle Suz for In The KnowThe doll was lled Earrg Magic Ken, which is the absolute bt name for an accintally gay doll. Te to his name, his ear is pierced on the left si, which was largely nsired to be “the gay ear” to pierce at the time and a vert way of ditg queerns. And that’s not all to mentn, his necklace was almost cidly moled after a sexual accsory trend of leathers and club-kids the doll’s 1993 release, activist and wrer Dan Savage, who at the time was workg for queer-foced newspaper The Stranger, wrote a piece about the doll’s cidly “gay” look.
GAY PARTI & EVENTS
“New Ken, ” as he was termed, was officially “Gay Ken.
Even before Earrg Magic Ken, gay jok surround fashn-lovg Ken for his sat sus and affiliatn wh the hyper-feme world of unlike the jok about Ken’s sexualy, Earrg Magic Ken was the first time queer people weren’t the butt of the “gay Ken” joke.
In fact, that year, 44 percent of the natn believed “gay relatnships” — not marriage, simply datg someone of the oppose genr — should be 1993, Mattel (or any other brand, for that matter) would have never knowgly released a product for queer people bee would alienate the brand’s re nsumer: nservative married moms middle Ameri who are buyg Barbie for their Katie Dupere for In The KnowEarrg Magic Ken likely stck such a chord wh gay men and queer people bee was reprentatn when no one wanted to reprent . The toy giant now sells Creatable World dolls which allow for genr exploratn and Ken dolls that, let’s face , are gayer than Earrg Magic Ken ever was.