The first gay pub I dared set foot now has a rabow plaque. Here’s why that matters | Gary Nunn | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS
• TOO GAY, TOO WEIRD, TOO PREGNANT: THE MOST NTROVERSIAL BARBIE DOLLS HISTORY
• GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• CAN YOU BE GAY AND HAPPY?
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

Frankly, I’d have served a prison jt for him to hold my hand, like he did his off-whe Vxhall Nova on the drive there, breakg only to change, he took me for strawberry cir the Gloucter, a pub at the park’s edge, takg my tremblg hand his and reassurg me: “It’s actually a gay bar. Gay pubs are far more than bars; they’re refug.

TOO GAY, TOO WEIRD, TOO PREGNANT: THE MOST NTROVERSIAL BARBIE DOLLS HISTORY

On Sunday, the first a new seri of rabow plaqu will be stalled at the Gloucter – now the Greenwich Tavern – cementg s place gay home the workg-class Medway area of Kent, where we met when he sold me a phone cred rd at the lol petrol statn, “queers” like were wily perceived as predatory, perverted, spic or simply scum. ”After the strawberry cir, served by a man a tight whe vt – the only other gay man I’d seen real life – the squiggly summer sunlight ma a strobe effect through the park’s tre. The first time I saw wh him, when I was 18, I realised he had echoed the love story of the two protagonists, who also had their first kiss the twilight of Greenwich Park’s tre, and their first experience of a gay pub at the Gloucter.

GAY (HOMOSEXUAL) AND GAY (HAPPY)

The explanatn for his obssn is now clear: there was such a pcy of same-sex love stori that this was the first time many young people had seen a same-sex kiss, or peeked si an actual gay bar after dark. The project remds people “that we have always been here, good tim and bad, ” David Robson of the London LGBT+ Foms’ Network said when the plaqu were film and my own story were workg-class gay love: not dandyish and sheltered by the polse of privilege, but the btal realy of beg perceived a non-mascule boy. It was a powerful and rarely told tersectn – and one that, even more rarely, ends rather happily, wh a betiful scene of fiance and acceptance played to a Mama Cass waltz on the sk I disvered that I wasn’t the only wi-eyed baby gay my boyiend had been chasg through those ancient chtnuts that summer.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

For me, the plaque honours that private moment as well as the shared history of the LGBTQ+ ’s the msage I’d impart to anyone who thks such symbols are meangls, as the unique social history of the UK’s gay bars is endangered by gentrifitn, hook-up apps, the st of livg crisis and even assiatn.

Like many workg-class, closeted gay boys, I’d hi unr the glovebox of my boyiend’s Nova when we drove back om the park, lt anyone saw. It whispered to ckney-accented gay boys like me: there are others like you.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

Throw his accsori – a sparkly earrg and a necklace that had an eyebrow-raisg circular charm on the end of – and seemed evable that the doll was dubbed “Gay Ken” or “Fey Ken” a New York Tim article published 1993, wrer Carol Lawson claimed that Mattel was attemptg to “genr bend” Ken by makg him appeal to both boys and girls. Tom Robson a Brish mician and sger, one of the first, if not the very first pop artist who did not disguise or hi his homosexualy om the general public. Until then homosexual actors, micians, athlet or anyone the public eye had two choic life: to keep their homosexualy a secret, pecially om the media, or adopt the mannerisms and a of drs which were very mp but at the same time (ironilly) never admtg their sexual preferenc publicly.

Tom Robson released a very succsful song entled (Sg if you're) Glad to be Gay, was the mid-70s, and I was still at a Catholic primary school when I remember que distctly hearg gay beg ed for the first time to unteract the BrEng rogatory terms such as: poofter, poof, queer, not normal, fairy and queen that were rife at the time.

Glad to be Gay. The song was origally wrten by Tom Robson for a London gay pri. An out gay sger, he subsequently formed the.

CAN YOU BE GAY AND HAPPY?

"Glad to Be Gay" is built around four vers cricizg Brish society's attus towards gay people.

In the first verse, criciz the Brish police for raidg gay pubs for no reason at all, once homosexualy had been crimalized sce the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act. In the send verse, pots to the hypocrisy of Gay News beg prosecuted for obsceny stead of porn magaz like magaz Playboy or the tabloid The Sun which publish photographs of topls girls on Page 3.

It also criciz the way homosexual people are portrayed other parts of the prs, pecially nservative newspapers News of the World and Sunday Exprs. On the third verse, pots out the extreme nsequenc of homophobia, such as vlence agast LGBT people.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

For me, a young child livg London at the time, the term gay (meang homosexual and not "happy") was ed much more equently by the media and the general public after the release of "Glad to be Gay". It also helped that Tom Robson looked straight and was not the least mp, he did not f the stereotypil ia of how homosexuals looked and behaved.

This turn has led to a rponse of an altogether more lic variety: Gay Water, a new premium nned cktail brand packaged lorful ntaers and named after the slang term ed for vodka and soda water wh lemon or lime, a popular drk served gay bars. Gay Water offers four different varieti of sugar-ee, gluten-ee vodka and soda cktails bed wh var, well, uy flavorg agents: watermelon, peach, lime, and grapeu. Gay means happy.

Appearg time to take advantage of the nned cktail boom, Gay Water won't be direct petn wh Bud Light, which is a beer brand. Hodson, a gay man, is not only terted Gay Water appealg to LGTBQ+ nsumers, of urse.