The origal ‘Tal of the Cy’ was a gay rights trailblazer

Contents:

• TAL OF THE CY THOR: 'GAY ACTORS FOR GAY ROL'
• THE ORIGAL ‘TAL OF THE CY’ WAS A GAY RIGHTS TRAILBLAZER
• ‘TAL OF THE CY’ REVIEW: COZY NETFLIX REBOOT HARKENS BACK TO THE GOLN AGE OF GAY TV
• WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND GAY, UNR THE DIS BALL
• “TAL OF THE CY” REVISS GAY SAN FRANCIS’S PAST

TAL OF THE CY THOR: 'GAY ACTORS FOR GAY ROL'

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 ORIGAL ‘TAL OF THE CY’ WAS A GAY RIGHTS TRAILBLAZER

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.

‘TAL OF THE CY’ REVIEW: COZY NETFLIX REBOOT HARKENS BACK TO THE GOLN AGE OF GAY TV

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. ”What’s more, there is a much greater awarens of tersectnaly among the young: that is, of how racism and sexism tersect wh homophobia.

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND GAY, UNR THE DIS BALL

But the velopments n be treated wh bafflement, even disda, by olr generatns, not least olr gay whe men, who, for all the sufferg they have unrgone, have enjoyed much greater visibily and acceptance than other LGBT groups over the years.

Landlady Mrs Madrigal (Olympia Dakis) is a queer mentor like no other – and today’s young LGBT people still need such figur (Cred: Netflix)Do Mp thk a divi has opened up between whe gay men and the rt of the muny? Old and young, gay and straight, cis and trans, black, brown and whe: all ngregate the kooky mune of Barbary Lane a way that still feels prsgly is, above all, a portra of ‘logil fay’ – that’s the gen phrase Mp himself ed one of the novels to scribe the rmal fay that many of , particularly LGBT people, make as an alternative to our blogil one; he subsequently ed as the tle of his 2017 memoir. Four s on om that first lumn, is profoundly movg to see mother figure Mrs Madrigal still acquirg new ‘children’, to whom she opens her home and dispens gnomic life younger gay people the Wt, wh all their relative eedoms, still need ‘parents’ like this?

“TAL OF THE CY” REVISS GAY SAN FRANCIS’S PAST

It’s tertg to note how a feature entled The Gay Generatn Gap New York Magaze back 2009, the teemed culture wrer Mark Harris referenced Mp when he clared that “today the notn of quasi-parental gay mentorship feels ancient, a trope out of Tal of the Cy.

”Ots, by ntrast, thks tergeneratnal dialogue has been on the sli – but, when LGBT battl are still far om won, spe superficially rosy velopments such as gay marriage, we really need to foster Lney and producer Alan Poul at work on the Barbary Lane set, which was created on a New York soundstage and is vaster and more unreal than ever (Cred: Netflix)Of urse, Tal of the Cy is unashamed make-believe: now filmed on a soundstage New York, Barbary Lane is a vast theatril set that looks bigger and more unreal than ever. In fact, whout givg too much away, the new seri cleverly satiris the goln-age thkg that n go on when to gay culture. Out of the Shadows: Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv by Walt Ots is out you would like to ment on this story or anythg else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or msage on if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly featur newsletter, lled The Essential List.

Media ptn, Armistead Mp: "Gay actors brg somethg special to gay rol" More than 20 years sce Armistead Mp's Tal of the Cy books were first ma to a seri for UK TV, a new adaptatn for global dienc begs this week wh a 10-part Netflix revival. But didn't stop the protts om groups promotg fay valu who lled "gay propaganda" and "anti-fay, anti-relig".