Newly Published Portras Document a Century of Gay Men's Relatnships | Smart News | Smhsonian Magaze

Contents:

• GAY MEN’S FEARS OF LONG-TERM ROMANCE
• AGE DIFFERENC GAY COUPL
• GAY MEN'S PREFERENC FOR "TOP" VS. "BOTTOM" CAN BE JUDGED BY THEIR FACE
• GAY RELATNSHIPS CAN BE MORE STABLE THAN STRAIGHT ON
• HOW TO HAVE A GAY OR LBIAN RELATNSHIP
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

GAY MEN’S FEARS OF LONG-TERM ROMANCE

The night June 1969 that gay men fought police raidg the Stonewall Inn Greenwich Village marked the begng of wir acceptance of male homosexuals. Homosexualy has not been nsired pathologil by mastream psychiatry sce the 1970s, and the years that followed, gay upl have begun to acknowledge their partnerships publicly.

He believ that the social acceptance of homosexualy “has not filtered down to the way homosexual boys are raised. Mothers who enjoy the sensivy and shared terts of gay sons may lean too much on them, g them to fulfill their unmet emotnal believ that the dynamics n prevent adult gay men om formg long-term romantic bonds. Many gay men seek affirmatn not through an endurg, lovg relatnship, he said, but cultivatg large works of iends, pursug transient sexual liaisons, focg on profsnal succs and creatg flawlsly appoted environments for his new book, Commment and Healg: Gay Men and the Need for Romantic Love, Isay scrib how therapy n help provi gay men wh sight to the effects of childhood fluenc on the pacy to m to a partner.

AGE DIFFERENC GAY COUPL

In a book accsible to nontherapists and illtrated wh se studi, Isay shows how gay men n rever om childhood wounds and learn to sta mted monogamo partnerships. A clil profsor at Weill Medil College of Cornell Universy and a faculty member at the Columbia Universy Center for Psychoanalytic Trag and Rearch, Isay draws upon his experience as a Manhattan psychotherapist wh mostly gay published his first book, Beg Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development, 1989, at a time when he was g out.

GAY MEN'S PREFERENC FOR "TOP" VS. "BOTTOM" CAN BE JUDGED BY THEIR FACE

His 1996 book, Beg Gay, outl the ways which gay teenagers and adults velop said that his new book has stirred up some ntroversy bee he argu that gay upl who tolerate sexual adventur outsi the partnership may do so out of an unnsc fear of closens rather than a sense of liberatn om tradnal heterosexual strictur. “It ns unter to the prevailg doctr of the gay muny that mata that our relatnships are fe, more mocratic and better than heterosexual relatnships, ” said hop that his new book will help gay men to exame the patterns of their romantic relatnships and perhaps seek the guidance of a therapist attuned to gay issu. Many quiri I have received over and over aga through the years beg somethg like this: “I've always liked olr men, but many gay iends close to my age are cril of me and spic of my motiv.

” One young man said to me, “If I see a handsome gay man my age, he might jt as well have a vaga. Var labels have been ascribed to tergeneratnal upl, whether straight, gay or bisexual: tergeneratnal, age-gap, age-discrepant, or, more often than not, “May-December” relatnships.

Inially, I was unnvced the relatnships were ser, but that was bee I held stereotypil views: an olr gay man who was lookg for a trophy-mate and has the money to take re of his boy toy and a younger man who was lookg for a sugar daddy. I now regnize this as a hackneyed ia that furiat men age-gap gay relatnships.

GAY RELATNSHIPS CAN BE MORE STABLE THAN STRAIGHT ON

Based on the number of tim this qutn drops to my mailbox, the reasons for the age-discrepant attractns nsum a great al of bandwidth the thoughts of a lot of young gay and bisexual men. Was pletg his doctoral dissertatn, “May-December: Navigatg Life as an Intergeneratnal Gay Couple, ” he thoroughly rearched what proved to be the limed available lerature on tergeneratnal upl.

Their work will fort men the double jeopardy of beg both gay and lovg someone much olr or younger. It’s been known for a while that tak ls than a send for people to e their ternal “gaydar” to ci if they thk a man is homosexual or heterosexual, and such snap judgements tend to be right.

But n facial differenc be ed to distguish between different typ of gay men — specifilly, those who fe themselv as “tops” vers “bottoms”? The participants were asked to look at 200 photographs of gay men found on an onle datg se (100 tops, 100 bottoms) and tegorize them as tops or bottoms. ”Accurate Intifitn of a Preference for Insertive Vers Receptive Interurse om Static Facial Cu of Gay Men“In terurse between men, one of the partners typilly assum the role of an sertive partner (top) while the other assum a receptive role (bottom).

HOW TO HAVE A GAY OR LBIAN RELATNSHIP

Although some rearch suggts that the perceptns of potential partners’ sexual rol gay men’s relatnships n affect whether a man will adopt the role of top or bottom durg sexual terurse, remas unclear whether sexual rol uld be perceived accurately by naïve observers. Sce 1975, APA has lled on psychologists to take the lead removg the stigma of mental illns that has long been associated wh lbian, gay, and bisexual orientatns.

The prejudice and discrimatn that people who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual regularly experience have been shown to have negative psychologil effects.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

This page provis accurate rmatn for those who want to better unrstand sexual orientatn and the impact of prejudice and discrimatn on those who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual. gay/lbian (havg emotnal, romantic, or sexual attractns to members of one’s own sex).

In the Uned Stat the most equent labels are lbians (women attracted to women), gay men (men attracted to men), and bisexual people (men or women attracted to both sex). People n be celibate and still know their sexual orientatn—be lbian, gay, bisexual, or heterosexual. Different lbian, gay, and bisexual people have very different experienc regardg their sexual orientatn.