The Myth Of The Ancient Greek 'Gay Utopia' - CURVE

Contents:

• THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’
• THE RADIL PLAN TO TURN ONE CALIFORNIA TOWN TO A GAY UTOPIA
• THE PURSU FOR A GAY UTOPIA.
• GAY UTOPIA

THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

The persistent dream of a “gay utopia” is one of the nstants gay and lbian historil imaggs over the last 200 years.

This was the world of ancient Greece, a supposed gay paradise which same-sex love flourished whout discrimatn. It was a powerful, ptivatg dream, one which scholars of ancient Greece have started to pull apart, revealg a culture which homosexualy was much more regulated and ntrolled than prevly thought. In this spired fense of same-sex love, Wil created a genealogy of historil moments which homosexual love had blossomed.

From the days of the Old Ttament through to the flourishg of culture Greece and the Renaissance, Wil sought to bear wns to a gay past of ee romantic exprsn. Any ted homosexual the 19th century uld have given you a speech along much the same l, cg the same nonil figur and possibly a few more. Wil was tappg to a shared gay fantasy about the past, a fantasy which one culture stood out above all others, the world of Classil Greece.

THE RADIL PLAN TO TURN ONE CALIFORNIA TOWN TO A GAY UTOPIA

It is hard to overstate the affectn wh which 19th-century homosexuals like Wil viewed the Greek world. Here was the utopia that they dreamed about – a place which homosexualy was not only accepted, but celebrated. In the warmth and light of the Mederranean, numero 19th- and early 20th-century gays and lbians sought to fleetgly repture visns of this lost paradise and recreate amongst s s.

THE PURSU FOR A GAY UTOPIA.

This legacy ntued well to the 20th century, so much so that the homosexualy of the Greeks probably unts as one of Wtern culture’s worst kept secrets. Every time that the legal rights of gays and lbians have been discsed, somebody will evoke the Greeks. Ined, the associatn between Greece and homosexualy is so strong that even anti-same-sex marriage advot are not above g to support their arguments.

GAY UTOPIA

In the US Supreme Court se that legalised same-sex marriage, one of the dissentg judg, Jtice Samuel Alo noted that while the Greeks and Romans approved of homosexual relatns, they never created an stutn of same-sex marriage. Dried fish and fightg cks were the ancient homosexual equivalent of flowers and cholat. Ined, he was so succsful proselytisg for homosexualy that he upset the lol female followers of Dnys, the god of we and drama.

Neverthels, all the efforts unrtaken by the Greeks to regulate the relatnships do challenge to nsir why societi are so ightened by love, not only gay, but straight sire also.

A gay utopia may be possible, but is a project for the future, not a lost relic of the past. In December 1969, jt months after the Stonewall Rts that sparked the gay liberatn movement, activist Don Jackson clared that the queer muny need a terrory of s own.

To a symposium Berkeley, California, Jackson asked his dience to “image a place where… there is no job discrimatn, police harassment or prejudice… a place where a gay ernment n build the base for a flourishg gay unter-culture”—a place wh a populatn so small that jt a few hundred queer activists uld move and outvote the current rints.

In effect, if jt 400 queer activists moved , wh three months Alpe County uld bee a gay utopia, plete wh a gay mayor, a gay sheriff, gay judg, and a gay board of supervisors. In the precedg months, gay polics had radilized—young LGBT Amerins began rejectg the unwaverg pragmatism of the 1950s and 1960s, stead adoptg slogans like “Gay Power. One rnatn of this new activism was the Gay Liberatn Front, a disparate anizatn wh chapters New York Cy, Washgton D.

) But even many members of the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF) qutned the legimacy of Jackson’s proposal, fearg would only create a slum. He hoped the protts would attract media verage so he uld spread his ultimate msage: he wanted everyone to know that gay people were anizg, and they were a force to be reckoned wh. Acrdg to The Gay Revolutn by Lillian Farman, Kight told his tsted iends, “Alpe is eezg.

Petersburg Tim (now the Tampa Bay Tim) published an article entled “Thgs Aren’t Gay Alpe—Yet, ” which quoted the Chairman of the Alpe County Board of Supervisors Herbert Bns sayg, “We’re all very ncerned. ” Meanwhile, the same piece, Morris Kight promised that the new Alpe County would be “a mec for gay tourists” and “straight cursy seekers. “Gays’ Plan of Takeover Confirmed, ” read an October 21 article the Long Beach Inpennt, which a GLF anizer, Don Kilhefner, claimed that GLF has “479 [activists] who have signed up already” to move to Alpe County and that “migratn… will beg about Jan.

Morris Kight told another paper, the Fremont Arg, that the Alpe County takeover “would mean a gay ernment, a gay civil service” and “the tablishment of the world’s first mm of gay arts, scienc and history, paid for wh public funds. Now that existence stands threatened, and by as unlikely a force as uld be imaged—the ant homosexuals of the Gay Liberatn Front. The media enzy also helped to popularize the word “gay” as an alternative to “homosexual”— the fal months of 1970, the word appeared the public nscns as never before.

Carter not his this “Gay Outlaws: The Alpe County Project Rensired, ” the plan—led by Don Jackson—veloped a dited followg. It was pecially popular among gay separatists, who voted months to raisg money, stockpilg food, and sewg blankets preparatn for wter the Sierra Nevada.