The 1920s and early ‘30’s looked like the begng of the end for centuri of gay tolerance. Then me fascism and the Nazis.
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THE 1990S MANIA FOR OUTG GAY MEN!
Ever heard phras like “LGBT+ is a new thg” or “back my day, there weren’t as many gay people around”? This perceptn obvly is not reflective of realy, but ’s also not pletely wrong. * gay erasure in history *
Before examg the fluidy of ias like genr and sexualy the Middle Ag and Renaissance, is important to acknowledge that many of the terms we e today (and ntue to velop and refe) such as hetero-, homo-, bi-, and a-sexual, did not exist at the time. Sats Mrice and Theos—third-century CE soldiers of the Sacred Band of Theb North Ai and Christian martyr-sats—are among the fac of the past who had a homosocial relatnship, volvg iendship, fily, or a bond among members of the same sex (a bromance, so to speak, but on a eper level).
WRG GAY HISTORY
From 1990, there was a mania the LGBT muny for outg high profile gay men polics, bs, and entertament. Why? * gay erasure in history *
For example, is there a potential “gay” (or sodomil) unrpng to Gvanni Anton Bazzi’s drawg of Christ Carryg the Cross, given that the artist appears to have loved boys and men “more than was cent, ” as we are told by Vasari? The prent thors have crged mm galleri when tour guis or visors fixate on Gvanni Anton’s bgraphy to the pot at which a drawg like the one above, or a patg of The Martyrdom of Sat Sebastian, is rced to ttg a visor’s gaydar, so to speak.
Devotn to the sat creased followg the Black Death (1348), and imag of his toned body and serene exprsn the face of tremendo torture and imment ath have a lastg appeal for the gay muny today, pecially the wake of the AIDS panmic of the 1980s. The pated the picture that lovers would be buried together, and that they were men and women, so the disvery of the two men the same grave has rearchers and historians a flurry to piece together the most likely explanatn given what’s known about that culture, s burial practic and s viewpot on homosexualy. Current unrstandgs of ancient cultur n only be taken g a morn lens but nsirg that lens is largely homophobic to beg wh, bears argug that more historil figur were members of the LGBTQ+ muny, however ltle their bated sexuali are known.
GAY RIGHTS
Christa B. Hanhardt Among the first lsons stctors teach lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr (LGBT) history class is about the changg fns and of the word queer. Up through the neteenth century the word was primarily ed to mark dividuals nsired odd or outsi social norms. Queer rried particular currency sndal om the * gay erasure in history *
“Gayns” is hard to gge through skeletal specimens, personal letters and ted gus at ancient cultur, but historians, rearchers and the public need to open a dialogue about LGBTQ+ history for the good of our world. So while whe gay men have also been hidn om history, gay men of lor are, wh notable exceptns like Baldw, Langston Hugh and Bayard Rt, also absent om the historil lexin that eras women and queers and trans people.
I want to know more about the bravery of women who were burned as wch for beg lbians, the two-spir people who were revered among Indigeno trib, the social reformist women who were also lbians, the Black and brown Civil Rights activists who were also lbian, gay, bi and trans, the artists and wrers whose work is tght while their sexual orientatn or genr inty is kept hidn. The fierce queer polics of Bronski Beat and the barely-d sex-posivy of Frankie Go To Hollywood ma some noise on the US charts the early 1980s while Elton John still prented as bisexual, but really wasn’t until Erasure explod onto the scene a uple years later that an open and fiant gay voice uld be heard at your high school dance.
You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web I love Queer ins were a really weird thg the UK bee like Andy was sayg, a lot of the TV personali that were gay were such stereotyp. I wanted to nail my lors to the wall and be as gay as possible, which I suppose is jt like those telly nelli on the now, people e out wh a bang and a wallop, and 's all embracg, but seems to last five mut.
Though sometim fotten, the history of gay liberatn was wrten wh the history of Ain Amerins md. * gay erasure in history *
But then I feel like when the dtry uld get away wh makg straight artists as gay and mp as you, they fot a lot of the actual gay really wasn't until Scissor Sisters me along that we were actually allowed to be there aga.
* gay erasure in history *
”Sometim, straightwashg tak the more explic form of rewrg a cidly gay character as tim, ’s a more subtle procs of “tong down” a character’s or an entire film’s queerns to make them “more palatable” to a straight plete list of characters that would have been queer if not for straightwashg is an example of how rampant the practice is and how LGBT+ dienc have long been forced to read between the l to fd ’s been two years sce She-Ra and the Prcs of Power wrapped up s fifth and “jt about perfect” fal season wh a queer kiss that’s been ld as one that would change TV show’s move to transform queer subtext to full-blown reprentatn Adora and Catra’s relatnship — a show that’s all about passn, remptn, and chosen fay — is one that is remarkable for several seri veloper Noelle Stevenson, this moment holds tremendo power for queer kids, showg them how there uld be “a future for them as bright as anyone else’s. ” Here, but Not QueerStraightwashg is fed as the terpretatn of a queer character or relatnship as other words, ’s when films and TV shows portray gay, lbian, bisexual, or asexual characters as cidly straight. Erasg QueernsMany films and TV adaptatns have changed queer characters to straight characters, as the se of Th Red Le (1998), which erased the male characters’ homosexual experienc as picted the wrer-gigolo Pl om Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) siarly had male and female clients the origal novella.
The gay rights movement the Uned Stat began the 1920s and saw huge progrs the 2000s, wh laws prohibg homosexual activy stck down and a Supreme Court lg legalizg same-sex marriage. * gay erasure in history *
One tratg example would be Pri (2015), a edy-drama film about gay and lbian activists of the ‘ DVD release referred to s protagonists as “London-based activists, ” which you might thk would be okay given that the film is lerally entled Pri, and maybe the distributors thought the distctn wouldn’t upon closer spectn, you’d see that the image prted along wh the DVD was photoshopped to remove a banner that explicly intified s holrs as “lbians and gays.
”The same erasure has been noted the DVD ver for A Sgle Man (2009), where the protagonist Gee Falner’s 16-year-long gay relatnship is disregard place of an image of Julianne Moore rtg her head on Col Firth’s promotnal posters for Brokeback Mounta (2005) siarly show the protagonists eher wh their rpective wiv or more recently, a now-leted tweet about Call Me By Your Name (2017) promoted the film as a romance but wh Timothée Chalamet’s El next to his childhood iend Marzia, wh whom he has a brief — but not the movie’s central — this isn’t to say, of urse, that queer media needs to e wh rabow flags on eher si of s posters, or that directors n’t make creative cisns of their own. Bis, prentg LGBTQ+ characters and narrativ through a straight lens is not only meang to actual LGBTQ+ people, but ’s also a ltle sultg to straight dienc, who are assumed to be pable of steppg to other people’s a New PhenomenonAs some of the olr films mentned suggt, straightwashg is far om a recent phenomenon, and ’s mostly rooted stutnal homophobia. Between 1934 and 1968, the Motn Picture Productn Co of the US prohibed major studs om pictg homosexuals, which were facto clud unr the ’s cls banng sex led, for example, to the erasure of Pl’s bisexualy Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).
Their relatnship has lbian unrton that do not make to the and Louis Interview Wh the Vampire (1994)While adaptg her 1976 novel to a film, thor Anne Rice almost ma Louis’s character to a woman bee of homophobia Hollywood. ”The league did s bt to femize s players as a lot of the girls were actually gay, and the film end up playg to the league’s wish and erasg their is some good news, though: The Netflix documentary A Secret Love (2020) tells the story of two baseball players who met and fell love the league, while the upg Amazon TV seri is set to explore them of sexualy and racism more than s (still well-loved) film unterpart.