TV drama It’s a S looked back at a dark era for the gay muny. Here, some of those who remember tell of the real-life agony – and the hope
Contents:
- AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY
- I WAS A YOUNG GAY MAN THE 80S WHO GOT BY ON SURVIVAL SEX
- HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT
- HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER
- THREE S LATER, MEN WHO SURVIVED THE 'GAY PLAGUE' SPEAK OUT
- WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY
While there have, undoubtedly, been signifint ton LGBT history earlier s, I believe the Eighti was a particularly important perd. That saw a major shift towards the emergence of a global gay culture. The gay genie me right out of s ltle pk bottle and to the streets (and the * gay man in the 80s *
Another was a Greek God of virily that ed his powers of bety and mcle to enchant both the guys and the girls… safely leveragg the nvenient tth that most of his peers wouldn’t be able to associate masculy wh homosexualy.
For example, the UK’s ernment add Sectn 28 to their Lol Government Act that ma illegal for lol thori to support anythg that promoted homosexual relatnships as an alternative to a heterosexual “fay life”. Beg open helped gays and lbians fd each other and, soon, ci across the untry experienced surg the number of gay neighborhoods, which spng up New York, Los Angel, San Francis, Chigo, and workg-class bar dyk to lbian femists (many of whom were bisexual but embracg the radil, polil choice to be wh women a patriarchy fed by what Adrienne Rich termed "pulsory heterosexualy"), plenty of queer women the 1970s and early '80s found themselv the pany of other women. Gay and bi men embraced the new openns too, darg to venture to public spac and explorg nontradnal relatnships, newfound sexual eedoms, and an pe om the tyranny of rtrictive mascule rol.
Others felt forced to choose between the endurg qut for their sexual eedoms (as gay rights were thought of then) or women's rights and the eedom of genr exprsn, or an pe om racial or sexual vlence, and raw the new dawned, herg the 1980s' generatn of greed and power, men who had sex wh each other, at least some of the time, began gettg sick.
I WAS A YOUNG GAY MAN THE 80S WHO GOT BY ON SURVIVAL SEX
Knowledge is power: If we learned anythg the gay male muny durg the early days of the HIV/AIDS epimic the Uned Stat, was that. No one knew what had h , and people were dyg huge numbers all around . The muny lost iends, lleagu, and timate partners. Inially mislabeled gay-related immune ficiency (GRID), valuable time was lost rpondg to the crisis bee most felt safe the belief that they were not at risk. Sce early victims were predomantly gay men, the stigma attached to homosexualy the medil, erng, law enforcement and eccliastil stutns beme a barrier to unrstandg, preventn, and treatment. * gay man in the 80s *
But harst h, pecially those early days, were gay and bi men and the transgenr women who had sex wh disease that later beme known as AIDS was first intified medil journals 1981 (Print Ronald Reagan's first year office).
HIV/AIDS AND EDUTN: LSONS OM THE 1980S AND THE GAY MALE COMMUNY THE UNED STAT
The 80s put the gay man ont and centre of pop. Then me the Aids crisis – and three s of monisatn, disrd and displacement. Now, wh Troye Sivan leadg a new wave of gay stars, has change tly arrived? * gay man in the 80s *
Facg annihilatn, gay men took upon themselv to found anizatns like Gay Men's Health Crisis (1982) and AmFAR (1985) to save their own liv and bat the the background, religo lears like Rev.
Jerry Falwell told followers "AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals"; policians like Lyndon LaRouche suggted people wh HIV be quaranted; and Reagan's own munitns director, Pat Buchanan, argued that AIDS was nature's revenge on gay men. In the 1970s, even the heads of the largt progrsive gay and lbian group, the Gay Natnal Task Force, Charlie Brydon and Lucia Valka were at odds, wh Valka tellg gay men to keep their pants and argug that gay public sex was hamperg the qut for civil rights. Valento, ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1975)The first rerd to feature lyrics about beg an out-and-proud gay man me om the mil performer Charl “Valento” Harris, who released “I Was Born This Way” as an apparently one-off release on Gaiee.
HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER
1980s timele of major events LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) rights history, cludg homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * gay man in the 80s *
” “The lyrics were perfect, ” she told me Summer, ‘I Feel Love’ (1977)Gay male dance crowds were drawn to rerdgs that featured Black female volists, often intifyg wh their emotnal exprsivens and strength the face of adversy, often to the surprise of the artists, who were ually gospel-traed.
THREE S LATER, MEN WHO SURVIVED THE 'GAY PLAGUE' SPEAK OUT
* gay man in the 80s *
Patrick Cowley, ‘Mutant Man’ (1982)Patrick Cowley fed his reputatn as one of the world’s most progrsive synthizer players durg rerdgs wh the dis pneer Sylvter, cludg “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), ” perhaps the ultimate gay male anthem. In the UK, the Thatcher ernment created Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act, makg illegal for lol thori to support anythg that might promote homosexual relatnships as a viable alternative to heterosexual ‘fay life’.
WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
Gay men who were diagnosed wh HIV the 1980s, before any treatment was available, reflect on the epimic they survived. * gay man in the 80s *
The Gay Black Group (formed 1981 by a number of Black and Asian gay and lbian people who found that most LGBTQ+ groups had a lack of mory members, makg hard for them to fd empathy and people to talk to who would unrstand) approached the Greater London Council 1982 to requt fundg.