One Town’s War on Gay Teens – Rollg Stone

Contents:

• THE ROLLG STON’ MICK JAGGER PARTI AT GAY CLUB AFTER HIS HEART OPERATN
• COUNTRY MIC HAS NEVER BEEN MORE GAY
• THE GAY ARCHECTS OF ROCK
• SAM SMH’S NEW SGLE ‘MAN I AM’ IS THEIR GAYT SONG YET
• IS TOM CISE GAY? ROLLG STONE FOUNR REVEALS THE 'SUPER-SECRETIVE' REASON WHY HE THKS SO
• ONE TOWN’S WAR ON GAY TEENS

THE ROLLG STON’ MICK JAGGER PARTI AT GAY CLUB AFTER HIS HEART OPERATN

Photograph: Hulton Dtsch/Corbis via GettyFrom early on, Brish rock stars, om Cliff Richard and Billy Fury through to the Beatl, had a softer masculy that reflected the gay showbiz i as well as the target market of young femal.

COUNTRY MIC HAS NEVER BEEN MORE GAY

No major Brish star me out as gay durg the 1960s: the fluence of homosexualy, while embedd ep wh pop culture, was still ’s also important to note that the passg of the act had no direct put om pop culture. Unlike Ameri, where the homophile movement – as was lled 1966 – was pursued by young activists and termed prsure groups, the attempt to change the UK laws was unrtaken wh tradnal lobbyg and parliamentary guil. Most of the people ncerned – the two policians who unrtook the bnt of the work the ho, Leo Abse and Lord Arran, as well as the members of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which beme the Campaign for Homosexual Equaly – were olr, pre-pop.

Some people thought was about time, while some olr gay men, born well before the send world war and steeped the reprsive atmosphere of the 1950s, rented the fact that the whole topic had been ma public and the supposed glamour of illegaly removed. “I never worried about whether my homosexualy was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – bee seemed perfectly natural to me and by the time I had bee aware of society and the law’s attus, was too late for me to change me. Loted on D’Arblay Street, Soho, the centre of London, was nceived as a gay versn of the mod venue the Scene – a club for ’s list of tun om Le Duce’s jebox ntas a great al of Motown (the Elgs, the Marvelett, Martha and the Vanllas, the Suprem), soul (Otis Reddg, Bob & Earl) and Dty Sprgfield’s You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me.

THE GAY ARCHECTS OF ROCK

Dty was a huge gay favoure the mid 60s, maly bee of the no-holds-barred nature of her performanc and her often melodramatic Suprem 1967, who played wh the drag troupe The Jewel Box Revue.

Wh equent black Amerin and female guts and the gay prenter Michael Aldred, was a visn of a more pluralistic world to were gay rerds released the mid 1960s, but they were paratively few and aimed at an dience still strictly wh the ghetto: drag queen rerds by the lik of Mr Jean Frerick, or the extraordary seri of sgl released on the Camp label, wh tl such as I’d Rather Fight Than Swish. Jt like today, that left young gay men ee to project their own feelgs and sir to mastream pop was popular bee was perfect for dancg and the lyrics were all about fallg and out of love. The stylised appearance of many female performers fed to the gay appete for drag queens – the Suprem had performed wh the Amerin drag troupe The Jewel Box Revue Beatl also had gay fans, although that is ltle discsed.

SAM SMH’S NEW SGLE ‘MAN I AM’ IS THEIR GAYT SONG YET

In tumn 1966, the Who had a No 2 h wh I’m a Boy, an extraordary rerd which had as s subject the angst of a young boy drsed by his mother as a girl – helpfully scribed by bassist John Entwistle as “almost a queer song” the pop prs of the ’s temptg to thk that 1967 would be full of gay pop statements: this was not the se. Cocintal wh the wave of progrsive legislatn put forward by the Labour party (laws ncerng abortn, homosexualy and, later the , divorce and equal rights), a younger generatn – enuraged by 60s pop culture – were begng to agate for greater eedom.

Acrdg to Jenny Spir, Syd Barrett’s iend at the time, this provotive aspect was liberate: “Arnold Layne was about a knicker snatcher but was also a nod to the crimalisatn of homosexualy bill. ”David Bowie a drs signed by Mr Fish on the ver of The Man Who Sold the WorldIn the tumn of 1967, the Kks released David Watts, a song about Goln Boy envy that had s roots an enunter wh a gay promoter. The band had long been fascated by gay styl and behavur, and, his Top of the Pops performance of Autumn Almanac that year, Ray Davi let rip wh the full gamut of mp gtur what is perhaps the most overt performance of this nature before the early 1970s.

IS TOM CISE GAY? ROLLG STONE FOUNR REVEALS THE 'SUPER-SECRETIVE' REASON WHY HE THKS SO

On the way to Lola, he’s clearly havg a great 1967 Sexual Offenc Act was many ways promised – as Peter Tatchell has noted, nvictns for var gay offenc went up the years followg s enactment – but, as wh the laws ncerng abortn and divorce, began to loosen up society a manner that reflected the openns of pop at the time. It was all about eedom – for everyone – and s full impact would not be seen until 1972, when David Bowie, havg laid asi his Mr Fish man-drs, openly stated that he was gay and fairly short orr beme a superstar. While some classics do appear on our list, others do not – sorry, Gloria Gaynor, Kylie Mogue, RuPl, Brney and Cher, we still adore you — here are 25 sential pri songs om the 1970s to today.

Somewhat rctively lled the “Queen of Dis, ” the virtuosic, openly gay sger approached genr ( his performative and private liv) as a fluid, non-bary ncept a pre–Judh Butler era.

Although seems most of Queen’s fans were cluels as to how openly gay and subversive ontman Freddie Mercury was – spe the unabashed swank of his stage prence – he also never really tried to hi .

ONE TOWN’S WAR ON GAY TEENS

Much of Erasure’s disgraphy embodi not precisely celebratory gay pri but gay romantic realy – a ankns about the emotnal, if not overtly sexual, liv of gay men toward the end of the 20th century. The Bay Area gay punk pneers found a ht of mastream fame when they toured wh Green Day on their Dookie n 1994, but was their sexy lyrics and who-giv-a-fuck attu that enared them to a generatn of queer kids – before that term was even fashnable. It’s difficult to pick one song that f them – wh songs like “Dick of Death, ” “Groovy Unrwear” or their classic ver of Prce’s “Jack You Off” – but we went wh one that seems to fy the ia of a gay “anthem” no matter how you thk of .