It all seemed to be gog so well for ‘dis diva’ Donna Summer. After eight years of succs as the queen of the dis scene she had moved out of the club circu and was now playg large theatr and arenas. The gay muny had helped build her reer by buyg – by the tckload
Contents:
- AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY
- WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER
- 1980S. MEDIA: REGNAL GAY PUBLITNS
- THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S
- “IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN
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 in the 80's *
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”. Bee no one really knew anythg about AIDS when spread like wildfire the 80s, many referred to as the “gay plague” and many wanted this to lead to a ban on homosexualy. 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’.
And even the US Army, who had clared homosexualy to be “patible wh ary service” 1982, were forced to adm 1989 that gay recs were “jt as good or better” than heterosexuals.
Article 325 of the Guea Penal Co stat that homosexualy is illegal wh punishment beg 6 months to three years prison and a fe of 100, 000 to 1, 000, 000 Guean ancs. Although the Brazilian nstutn of 1988 prohibs any form of discrimatn, was not until 2019 that homosexuals and trans people were fively regnized as one of the discrimatn be illegal some ntexts.
WILL WE SURVIVE THE 1980S? A SNAPSHOT OF A GAY CULTURAL MILI
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 in the 80's *
Sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act 1988 stated that lol thori uld not "tentnally promote homosexualy or publish material wh the tentn of promotg homosexualy" or "promote the teachg any mataed school of the acceptabily of homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship". Sectn 14 of the Sexual Offenc Act 23 of 1957, as serted by the Immoraly Amendment Act 2 of 1988, set the age of nsent for gay and lbian sex at 19, as opposed to 16 for straight sex. (date unknown)Censorship of LGBT Issu be archaic 1988 law "banng homosexual or gay topics wh school classrooms" was donatns by MSMs be banned (fe ferral) 1988, Denmark had a life-time ban on blood donatns for men who have sex wh men.
Legalised wh the mencement of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986, troduced as a bill by former member of Parliament Fran 27Homosexual activy be 1Same-sex adoptn be Feral law. Unfortunately transgenrs have not yet gaed the right to ary service Italy 1985April 17LGBT discrimatn be illegal some of Genr Inty 12Homosexual activy be legal. Homosexual activy be illegal (ath penalty as punishment) homosexualy is punishable by stong; female homosexualy is punishable by f or imprisonmentsJuly 8Servg openly ary be homosexualy is illegal, servg the ary by LGBTQ+ dividuals are also illegalJune 26Homosexual activy be Supreme Court lg issued Lawrence v.
Acrdg to Amerin Pk(date unknown)Blood donatns by MSMs be banned (fe ferral) on blood donatns om MSMs appli to any man who has had sex, even once, wh another man on or after January 1, donatns by MSMs be banned (fe ferral) on blood donatns om MSMs appli to any man who has had sex, even once, wh another man on or after January 1, employment discrimatn be sexual orientatn and genr law prohibs employment discrimatn on the basis of "homosexualy" and "transgenr stat". Missg non bary to change legal genr be legal, but requir is legal for dividuals to change their legal genr whout havg to go through genr reassignment 4Equal age of nsent be age of nsent France is 15 for both male-male, female-female, and male-female 8Homosexual activy be illegal (imprisonment as punishment) to 5 years imprisonment and/or 1, 000, 000 anc 14Right to change legal genr be legal, but requir surgery.
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
* gay in the 80's *
Sectn 8 § 1 of the German Transsexuellengetz (Transsexuals Act of September 10, 1980) stat that transgenr people n change their first nam and genr entry unr the ndn of genr-affirmg surgery, sterilizatn, and 13Homosexual activy be male illegal, female legal. Homosexual acts were legalized prr to the feral lg which legalized homosexualy for all feral jurisdictns donatns by MSMs be banned (fe ferral) to November 2011, a lifetime ban was place for MSMJanuary 1Homosexual activy be legal. 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.
The gay muny had helped build her reer by buyg – by the tckload – what The Advote magaze lled “fuck anthems” like Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love and Hot Stuff. The mpaign was far om unanimo; some gay clubs ntued to play her rerds and there was one notor cint where ACT UP members jumped on stage at an AIDS benef when the DJ played one of her tracks.
HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER
Buy the Book! I've now wrten a tailed 267-page book about the people, issu and events that ma the 1980s such a signifint perd queer history. It's also lled Gay the 80s and you n download the PDF versn here. The hard py is now available only om Gay's the Word bookshop * gay in the 80's *
The Lbians and Gays Support the Mers group, which the mpaign fed between the lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) muny and Brish labour groups, proved to be an important turng pot the progrsn of LGBT issu the Uned Kgdom. In Europe, Lbian and Gay Pri 85 march London saw thoands of participants the streets and on televisn, all the while beg an important turng pot for LGBTQ+ laws the UK. "Particular Voic" is an extraordary visual rerd of the flowerg of queer voic the wake of Stonewall and the AIDS crisis, while also payg homage to many earlier 20th Century activists and wrers who had urged the creatn of a muny inty, or otherwise gave public voice to gay and lbian sensibili.
1980S. MEDIA: REGNAL GAY PUBLITNS
In the followg excerpt om Betiful Aliens: A Steve Abbott Rear, Abbott offered a snapshot of the gay cultural i of the 1980s * gay in the 80's *
15 x 15" gelat silver (1908-2002) was a surrealist poet, magaze edor, filmmaker, photographer, llage artist and -thor of Ameri's first gay novel "The Young and Evil".
15 x 15" gelat silver Ao Homos was an Ain Amerin gay theater troupe om 1990 to 1995 found San Francis by choreographer-dancer Djola Bernard Branner, actor Brian Freeman, and sger, dancer, and actor Eric Gupton.
THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay in the 80's *
Duplechan is a novelist bt known for "Blackbird" which was adapted 2014 as a film starrg Mo'Nique and Isiah Washgton, and "Got 'til It's Gone", which won the gay romance tegory at the Lambda Lerary Awards. 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.
Sure, people of lor as well as transgenr and bisexual folks were often fightg for attentn om the margs, pared to the relatively more fancially secure and tablished whe gay men. 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. 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).
“IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN
One area of LGBT history that I feel is often neglected is that of regnal gay publitns. Admtedly, I do have a b of a biased view here given my own volvement one such publitn, Gay East Midlands. But, that fact notwhstandg, I do thk the publitns serve some regnn and a greater unrstandg * gay in the 80's *
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. In 1967, the Sexual Offenc Bill was passed, crimilisg homosexual acts between two long as they were over 21, both nsentg, and nductg any sexual acts wh the privacy of their own hom.
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. Sectn 28 banned lol thori om ‘promotg homosexualy’ or ‘pretend fay relatnships’, and prohibed uncils om fundg tnal materials and projects perceived to ‘promote homosexualy’.