The Gay Traveler’s Gui To San Francis - Gayety

Contents:

• THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS
• GAY CLUB TV

THE GAY TRAVELER’S GUI TO SAN FRANCIS

2 Seasons | 18 Episos | TV-MAWATCH NOWMAXMeet Patrick, Agt and Dom: three 30-somethg iends livg San Francis explorg the excg, sometim overwhelmg, optns available to a new generatn of gay men. From gay rights in Harvey Milk’s electn – and vastatg assasatn – through to last year’s regnn of the cy’s gay and leather cultural district, San Fran has always been a vibrant LGBTQ+ haven. In the first episo of Lookg, —HBO’s lovely new seri about a group of gay men livg San Francis created by Michael Lannan and directed by Weekend’s Andrew Haigh—Patrick (Jonathan Groff), a vio game signer, fds himself on a first date wh an onlogist who never plays vio gam.

Here we are, simultaneoly pletely faiar and unfaiar terrory: the bad first date that is, also, the bad, gay first date—and a bad, gay first date that is not the B storyle, will not be followed by scen starrg straight people, and do not feature stereotypilly mpy gay men.

It’s 2014 and there have been—as Ey Nsbm observed her glowg review for The New Yorker—a number of shows by gay men, but none as lmly, sularly gay as Lookg, which ntas ls than five (small) speakg parts for straight people. Lookg featur three gay men who are, as the tle suggts, searchg: for partners, for reers, and, mostly, for themselv.

GAY CLUB TV

It's well known that gay onle culture, "lookg" means "I'm available for sex - now. While QaF's characters spent a lot of time wrgg their hands over equaly, acceptance and pri, Lookg's whole approach to beg gay has matured along wh society and the dience. There's a post-gay sensibily about the characters (Yup; I'm a homo - so, what?

Lookg also avoids a pfall about which gays have long griped: the over-e of stereotypil, "fem-actg" gay characters.

I also hope will lve to the still-surprisg "ordars" of what is to be gay today, pecially a major cy. Dpe the good word of mouth, leadg a gay life n often be ls than fabulo.

Jt ask would be easy to pigeonhole this as a "gay" show, but I hope heterosexual viewers will fall love wh s quirky characters and sights. They'll disver that whether gay or straight, we're all more alike than many of realize: People are generally horny, driven to succeed and need to feel loved. What a shame that a show wh such promise—and which had a terrific queer storyle featurg a real-life gay actor—had to e to such a disappotg end.

Empire never tried to hi s own soaps, and always paid good attentn to the stggle of Jamal (played by Jsie Smollett) livg as a gay hip hop artist. ACS: Versace argu the magnu of that tragedy uld have been avoid were not for a society rife wh homophobia, where same-sex upl uldn’t marry, queer Amerins uldn’t serve the ary, and where succsful men lived closets and empty, straight marriag. Sorry Hannibal fans, but only one horror/mystery seri drippg wh homoeroticism mak the cut here.

But rarely has a show ever been this pro-LGBTQ, as evinced by the terracial, trans-cis gay uple of Nomi & Amana (trans actrs Jamie Clayton & Freema Agyeman). The San Francis-based show about the everyday liv of gay men ed s often soapy storyl of sex, datg, backstabbg, and iendship drama as a greater prism by which to view the changg inty of the LGBTQ muny, and s place the world.

She-Ra tak place a world of genr and sexual fluidy, of same-sex upl prented a matter of fact way, of gay parents, nonbary characters and where butch women and femme men have sex symbol stat.

What grand and gay adventur will she have store for . Lnched to fame the early 1970s and fluential electg Harvey Milk, the first openly gay official the cy, the Castro is fully open about s herage. It stars three gay iends who are lookg for love San Francis.

The most poignant part of the show me when one roommate, Pedro Zamora, an openly gay man, revealed that he was sufferg om AIDS. Prid over by the transgenr, kaftan and nnabis-lovg landlady Mrs Madrigal, clud lbian firecracker Mona Ramsey and gay sweetheart Michael ‘Moe’ Tolliver, as well as self-admirg straight stud Brian Hawks, among s rints.

Livg wh Tal of the Cy’s pag has provid gay rears wh a muny, even when real life may have not Mp ntued the lumns, duly llected to novels, until the late 80s, wh his characters ageg real time.

Pictured 2001, Tal of the Cy thor Armistead Mp (centre) and his star Lra Lney (right) have rned for the anchise’s latt reboot (Cred: Alamy)What the seri has meant to gay rears, particular, over the years is lculable: livg wh s pag has provid them wh a muny, even when real life may have not. The Ain-Amerin Ben is the sole person of lour amid a table of rich, whe, olr gay men, and when they start jokg about ‘Mexin tranni’, he tak exceptn and lls them out on their offensivens – only to enrage the assembled pany. There’s nsirably ls nnectn between olr and younger gay men than there ed to be – Walt OtsWalt Ots is a clil psychologist who has specialised workg wh gay men.

His new book Out of the Shadows: Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv explor how plited their liv still are, even wh a supposedly morn and progrsive Wtern society like the US. As part of this study, one notable trend he intifi is a dwdlg sense of mararie between olr and younger gay men – a si effect, part, of their growg assiatn. Gay people were outsirs, which gave them a very fed [sense of] muny, but that’s dimished to a signifint extent.

I’ve heard a le many tim om younger men which is ‘I’m not the kd of person who gets HIV’ – Walt OtsOts believ that gay men now live “triparte muni”, spl to three distct generatns. There is the olr group who lived through the HIV epimic as adults, and stand as the survivors of a severe trma; a middle group, who lived through the epimic as children, and so, Ots’s words, have “a kd of terrible inty that entangl beg gay and HIV”; and a younger group who grew up the wake of the disvery of effective antiretroviral treatments, and for whom HIV has therefore been a relatively margal if the issue of HIV no longer spir the dread among gay men once did, neverthels activat prejudic – both young and old.

This year’s is more momento than ever, memoratg as do the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rts, when on 28 June 1969, members of the LGBT muny rose up followg a police raid on New York gay bar the Stonewall the celebratns also tend to stimulate a bate over whether gay culture has, to s triment, bee creasgly policised. As time has gone on, ‘gay’ culture has bee more and more multifaceted, wh a whole spectm of genr and sexual inti clud unr the ‘queer’ umbrella.