Amazg imag om one of the earlit gay groups of the morn era.
Contents:
- LONGG AND BELONGG: TOWARD A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE US
- RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
- GAY HISTORY – MEET THE SATYRS MOTORCYCLE CLUB. AMERI’S OLST GAY ORGANIZATN
- THE QUEER ISSUE: GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS NEW YORK
- STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
LONGG AND BELONGG: TOWARD A CULTURAL HISTORY OF GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS THE US
Motorcycle clubs, a mastay of gay culture sce the 1950s, hered a new brand of queer masculy and gave rise to today’s leather/SM muny. Motorcycle culture emerged the Uned Stat the 1920s and 1930s, often revolvg around racg. The populary of motorcycl grew durg Wor... * gay motorcycle club history *
The Satyrs Motorcycle Club is the olst gay ntuo motorcycle club the Uned Stat. Established 1954 Los Angel and still gog strong, they have bee one of the bt known gay MCs the untry. We are lookg at how the nex of two inti – gay and motorcyclist – self-imposed as well as imposed by society at large, plays out public and private.
While there have been gay and lbian motorcyclists almost as long as there have been motorcycl, thgs don’t get tertg until World War Two ends.
The first imag popular culture of the gay motorcyclist seem to be tertwed wh postwar and Cold War polics, often reflectg and optg the imag of mastream motorcyclists the procs. The vtigatn supposedly was to addrs munist fluence and filtratn, but quickly veloped a homophobic and anti-Semic edge. Homosexuals were seen as eher munists or secury risks, if not both, which lead to mass firgs of homosexuals om ernment agenci.
RIDG WH THE OLST ALL-GAY, ALL-MALE, ALL-RIDG MOTORCYCLE CLUB
* gay motorcycle club history *
By lkg munism wh homosexualy, the heargs created a sense of guilt through associatn, pecially when any real evince was lackg, as was so often the se. By the time the first half of the 20th Century was drawg to a close, both gays and motorcyclists had inti as outlaws, threats to the Amerin Way of Life, imposed by the mastream. And ntug the ncept of guilt by associatn, many saw the aggrsively mascule behavr of the motorcycle clubs and gangs as exampl of overpensatn by men who really weren’t mascule, that is, were gay, or latent homosexuals.
GAY HISTORY – MEET THE SATYRS MOTORCYCLE CLUB. AMERI’S OLST GAY ORGANIZATN
David Thomson his obuary of Brando for The Guardian claims “the biker…[is] a very mp figure, a gay in”. Others mented that the bikers the film were jt latently homosexual. Bee of the Lavenr Sre wch hunt, most homosexual anizatns followed the cell stcture format tablished by Harry Hay for the Mattache Society, an early lbian and gay rights group.
The bylaws bee the template for most gay motorcycl clubs of the perd.
If Larry Townsend is unrstood rrectly a passage about gay motorcycle clubs The Leatherman’s Handbook, due to perd attus toward homosexualy, many of the gay motorcycl clubs beme disenchanted wh the AMA and broke formal ti while followg the anizatn’s lead qutns of safety and the like. While the two outlaw inti were beg creasgly tertwed, a third velopment grew importance: what Jack Frscher would later dub “homomasculy”, which the web-based Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia f as a “subculture of gay men who prefer mascule-intified men”, or men who prefer men who look and act like men, sometim exaggerated, vaguely workg class, who were often seen as more thentilly male than men form other soc-enomic class.
THE QUEER ISSUE: GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS NEW YORK
Homomasculy was the real foc of the 1950s physil culture magaze, providg jt most imag of well-mcled men wh such mascule props as wboy hats, Roman swords, engeer boots, and the like. His homoerotic imag of hyperstylized homomasculy were as facile as they were mercial: he was very much the right artist at the right time. The trial emphasized yet aga that dividuals were rponsible for war crim; while the novel troduced gay motorcyclists to the world at large.
(That the Rockers clud gay and lbian rirs would not have been news to eher group. ) The workg-class gay lovers, Dick and Reggie, want each other to be as they are and not pretend to be women, htg that homomasculy note softly. The Hells Angels weren’t amed to be thought homosexual bee of the film; the Amerin Nazi Party threatened to sue Anger for famatn of character.
After that, the film versn of The Leather Boys 1964 would have seemed tame parison even if had left the gay ntent tact.
STORI OM L.A.’S PNEERG GAY MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE TOLD THROUGH USC’S ONE ARCHIV
Instead was toned down nsirably, but neverthels nveyed a more posive attu toward homosexualy than was ual for the time. That same year, while the Beatl were by vadg Ameri, a small rerd pany Los Angel released a seri of 45 rpm novelty songs wh gay them and edic lyrics. Wilr, madr, gayer than a Beatle’s hairdo!
The song is about an outlaw biker who wants to beat up effemate homosexuals, but who may be the closet himself. Whether that closet is imposed upon the biker by a society at large that rejects him bee he is not heterosexual or by a gay subculture that rejected the workg class as anythg more than rough tra is left ambiguo. The anti-war movement also lead to the femist and equal rights movements, the later origally lled the Gay Liberatn Front.
It was time for homomasculy general and gay motorcyclists particular to e out of the closet, if not the garage. Derated wh not much more than several ats of black pat and an old beat-up motorcycle, the Eagle beme the place where gay biker clubs held their club nights as well as other groups and dividuals wantg a more mascule atmosphere than was available the nventnal gay bar of the time. In 1972, Townsend published The Leatherman’s Handbook, which Frscher argu his troductn to the Silver Jubilee edn “was a claratn of pennce for ‘anatomilly rrect’ homomasculy” and “as remarkable a nstct as Stonewall self” bee Townsend’s “specific subject is homomasculy” as well as that The Handbook is “targeted…to a mographic of mascule-intified men”.