Tal of the Cy: Margaly, Communy, and the Problem of (Gay) Inty Wallace Thurman's "Harlem" Fictn on JSTOR

Contents:

• TAL OF THE CY THOR: 'GAY ACTORS FOR GAY ROL'
• THE ORIGAL ‘TAL OF THE CY’ WAS A GAY RIGHTS TRAILBLAZER

TAL OF THE CY THOR: 'GAY ACTORS FOR GAY ROL'

Prid over by the transgenr, kaftan and nnabis-lovg landlady Mrs Madrigal, clud lbian firecracker Mona Ramsey and gay sweetheart Michael ‘Moe’ Tolliver, as well as self-admirg straight stud Brian Hawks, among s rints. Livg wh Tal of the Cy’s pag has provid gay rears wh a muny, even when real life may have not Mp ntued the lumns, duly llected to novels, until the late 80s, wh his characters ageg real time. Pictured 2001, Tal of the Cy thor Armistead Mp (centre) and his star Lra Lney (right) have rned for the anchise’s latt reboot (Cred: Alamy)What the seri has meant to gay rears, particular, over the years is lculable: livg wh s pag has provid them wh a muny, even when real life may have not.

The Ain-Amerin Ben is the sole person of lour amid a table of rich, whe, olr gay men, and when they start jokg about ‘Mexin tranni’, he tak exceptn and lls them out on their offensivens – only to enrage the assembled pany. There’s nsirably ls nnectn between olr and younger gay men than there ed to be – Walt OtsWalt Ots is a clil psychologist who has specialised workg wh gay men.

His new book Out of the Shadows: Reimagg Gay Men’s Liv explor how plited their liv still are, even wh a supposedly morn and progrsive Wtern society like the US. As part of this study, one notable trend he intifi is a dwdlg sense of mararie between olr and younger gay men – a si effect, part, of their growg assiatn.

THE ORIGAL ‘TAL OF THE CY’ WAS A GAY RIGHTS TRAILBLAZER

Gay people were outsirs, which gave them a very fed [sense of] muny, but that’s dimished to a signifint extent. I’ve heard a le many tim om younger men which is ‘I’m not the kd of person who gets HIV’ – Walt OtsOts believ that gay men now live “triparte muni”, spl to three distct generatns.

There is the olr group who lived through the HIV epimic as adults, and stand as the survivors of a severe trma; a middle group, who lived through the epimic as children, and so, Ots’s words, have “a kd of terrible inty that entangl beg gay and HIV”; and a younger group who grew up the wake of the disvery of effective antiretroviral treatments, and for whom HIV has therefore been a relatively margal if the issue of HIV no longer spir the dread among gay men once did, neverthels activat prejudic – both young and old. This year’s is more momento than ever, memoratg as do the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall rts, when on 28 June 1969, members of the LGBT muny rose up followg a police raid on New York gay bar the Stonewall the celebratns also tend to stimulate a bate over whether gay culture has, to s triment, bee creasgly policised.