Forty years after Stonewall, the gay movement has never been more uned. So why do olr gay men and younger on often seem so far apart?
Contents:
- UNRSTANDG GENERATN GAPS LGBTQ+ COMMUNI: PERSPECTIV ABOUT GAY NEIGHBORHOODS AMONG HETERONORMATIVE AND HOMONORMATIVE GENERATNAL COHORTS
- THE GAY GENERATN GAP
- 'GAY GENERATN GAP' EMERG
- THE GAY GENERATN GAP: REFLECTNS ON THE NATNAL EQUALY MARCH
- ARE 'THE GAP' STOR NAMED FOR 'GAY AND PROUD'?
UNRSTANDG GENERATN GAPS LGBTQ+ COMMUNI: PERSPECTIV ABOUT GAY NEIGHBORHOODS AMONG HETERONORMATIVE AND HOMONORMATIVE GENERATNAL COHORTS
* generation gap gay *
The generatns often have different views on social, polil, pop culture and relig issu, and while the differenc are universal, they are also played out wh Gay Rights movement trac s begng to 1969 when New York Cy police stormed the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar, and rather than pacifilly be arrted, the bar’s patrons, led by black transgenr women, fought back. The chapter nclus wh five takeaway msag that clarify the relatnship between LGTBQ+ people, the generatnal horts to which they belong and wh which they intify, and the attus of var LGBTQ+ generatnal horts toward gay neighborhoods.
Through this rehed unrstandg, we exame parative s that scribe the bgraphi, general behavrs, and generatnal loc of four well-known gay men as a means to explore how dividuals born a particular birth generatn may experience vastly different experienc life due to the LGBTQ + generatn wh which they intify. This parison provis a basis for better unrstandg broar societal forc that shape the evolutn of gay neighborhoods throughout the twentieth century and to the twenty-first century along wh observatns about the perceived cle or plate of gay neighborhoods. 3, the homonormative experience is shaped as a summatn of the valu, experienc, and events that shape a birth generatn pl the valu, experienc, and events that impact that person relative to their g of age as an LGBTQ+ dividual.
THE GAY GENERATN GAP
Younger gay men and women live a much different world than the Stonewall generatn did 40 years ago. Mark Harris lls the "gay generatn gap." For olr gay activists like Harris, the AIDS crisis and the Reagan are central them the stggle for civil rights. But, he tells host Guy Raz, gay men and women unr the age of 30 are tired of the Stonewall generatn prattlg on about the stggle. * generation gap gay *
Explorg LGBTQ+ Generatns: Through the Ey of Warhol, Vidal, Capote & HudsonExamg the liv of celebri and well-known LGBTQ + dividuals offers a lens to summarize and illtrate typil behavrs and attus that have been formative shapg gay culture and the LGBTQ+ llective inty.
'GAY GENERATN GAP' EMERG
In this se, the disntuy between the birth generatn to which each man belonged and the perd durg which their g of age wh regard to their LGBTQ+ inty occurred was shaped not only by the valu, behavrs, and mor of their birth generatn but also overlaid by the generatn to which they “me of age” as a gay man and a member of the LGBTQ+ muny. His g of age occurred early life, which plac his behavr, the outward exprsn of genr inty, and sexual orientatn a much more ntemporary timeame closer behavr to a member of Generatn X (people born about fifty years after Capote) ntrast, Vidal did not publicly acknowledge his sexual orientatn or genr exprsn, and much later life vaguely intified first as bisexual (1999), and later as homosexual (Kaplan 2013). Their behavrs, outward exprsn of genr, and gree of fort wh intifyg as LGBTQ + varied pendg more on their LGBTQ + generatn than their birth wh Capote, Vidal, and Hudson, a sire or lack of sire to ngregate and be associated wh other LGBTQ + dividuals public impacted the emergence and subsequent velopment of gay neighborhoods.
In this way, Warhol’s liberal attu mirrored attus gay neighborhoods as home to not only LGBTQ+ dividuals but as clive, accsible, and permissive neighborhoods where enomic stat beme ls important than creative energy, potential, and persona. In the old days you uld go over there on a Sunday and nobody would be around, but now ’s gay gay gay as far as the eye n see—dyk and leather bars wh the nam right out there broad daylight—the Ramrod-type plac” ( Warhol and Hackett 1989: 51).
The plexy of his g of age a time when homosexualy was illegal, mixed wh his fascatn wh celebry and outlandishns, sparked a cursy Warhol that helped to shape and support the culture of gay neighborhoods New York Cy the 1960s through the 1980s as clive and creative spac. He provid for his followers and for succsive generatns of LGBTQ+ people a type of eedom that he himself seemed reluctant to Homonormative Saeculum and the Events that Shaped a Century of LGBTQ+ CultureThe experience for LGBTQ + people—amed by the unrstandg and treatment of LGBTQ+ dividuals reflected the valu of mastream society—is often que different om that of non LGBTQ+ people. We propose appendg the heteronormative generatnal nam popularized by Strss and Howe to better rporate LGBTQ+ experienc as follows:The Silent Generatn —or the “Closeted Generatn”—gay men me of age jt before, durg, and immediately after World War II and lived a world which there was tense social prsure to nform to genr stereotyp.
THE GAY GENERATN GAP: REFLECTNS ON THE NATNAL EQUALY MARCH
To avoid persecutn and harassment by the police, the early pneers further gravated wh the large metropolan areas to the margs of central ci—abandoned and fotten neighborhoods populated by those that heteronormative society has labeled social outsts and crimals—that beme some of the first regnizable gay neighborhoods. They were bolstered by the experienc of those om prev generatns as they began to shed the cultural shame that enuraged LGBTQ + dividuals to stay the closet, and they relished the out of the gay liberatn movement as gay and lbian dividuals and their alli began to celebrate “gay eedom.
High-profile efforts such as AIDS Coaln to Unleash Power ( ACT UP), Broadway Car/Equy Fights AIDS, and the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project helped to fe public awarens of the societal and stutnal margalizatn of homosexualy and the necsy to addrs the AIDS panmic wh facts and not wh fear. Generatn X took notice of members of the Greatt Generatn and Silent Generatn as they stggled—often publicly—to rencile the nflictg valu of their generatns: to acknowledge homosexuals as productive members of society while admtg that prev treatment of LGBTQ + people may have been unkd or ntrast to prev tim when popular cultural referenc implied shame or viance related to homosexualy, many of the cultural touchpots for Generatn X viewed homosexualy as a “normal” part of society, suggtg an openg for the acceptance of LGBTQ + people. In 1973, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn (APA) asked all members attendg s nventn to vote on whether they believed homosexualy to be a mental disorr: 5, 854 psychiatrists voted to remove homosexualy om the list of mental disorrs, and 3, 810 voted to reta .
Homosexualy beme creasgly more accepted by heteronormative society durg the perd as this generatn me of age, culmatg the legalizatn of same-sex marriage Canada 2005, Swen 2009, and the Uned Kgdom 2013; the Uned Stat, legalizatn of same-sex marriage first occurred state by state, but eventually the U. Bee of the lser exposure to social ictn for LGBTQ + members of the Millennial Generatn, may LGTBQ+ gays and lbians are unrstood by members of other generatns to be blhely unaware of the persecutn, harassment, and stggl endured by precsor LGBTQ + dividuals.
ARE 'THE GAP' STOR NAMED FOR 'GAY AND PROUD'?
They are unlikely to be subjected to the same gree of heteronormative social stigma of generatns past related to stat as a sexual mory Intersectn of LGBTQ + Generatnal Cohorts and Gay NeighborhoodsWhy is place so important for young gay people? For LGBTQ + people, this transn may be pecially important as young people transn om parental and faial ntrol to makg their own cisns adulthood, which unrsr the layerg for LGBTQ + dividuals of birth generatn and “ g of age” energy young adults brg to gay neighborhoods is the nsistent (Bterman 2020a). The sire among LGBTQ + dividuals to live a muny such as those found wh gay neighborhoods has been nsistently evolvg and changg over the past five generatns, and the flux of young adults om each LGBTQ + generatn, along wh their energy and ias helps to sta gay neighborhoods for the next generatn, as shown Fig.
The difference for most LGBTQ+ people is that the product is typilly more plex and multifaceted as the generatnal touchpot is rooted a heteronormative plexy of gay inty durg the middle to later twentieth century—borne of generatns fluenced by social valu and cultural mor stilled their parents by their parents a century before—rulted a nflicted state of existence for gay neighborhoods durg their emergent and formative years.
Those who equented, habed, and vised gay neighborhoods balanced a personal disassociatn wh their LGBTQ + stat, persistent cultural judgment and shame, and a sire for discretn wh the eedom to exprs their te feelgs through ut participatn and permissivens. The societal stigma attached to beg gay was magnified durg the HIV/ AIDS panmic—and the adversy experienced by gay men durg (and after) that panmic—shaped a generatn of LGBTQ + activists, pneers, and alli (Bterman and Hs 2021).