Why Beg “Gay the ’70s New York and L.A. Was Magic” (Gut Column) – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• REVIEW: 1970S GAY STREET FASHNS AND OTHER VTAGE DISVERI ‘PHOTOGRAPHY AND LANGUAGE’
• DISVERG THE “GAY LIFTYLE” THROUGH 1970S MAGAZ
• POIGNANT, EXUBERANT PHOTOS OF GAY LIFE THE ’70S — JT TIME FOR PRI
• WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
• LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976
• DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
• MEET GAY BOB, THE 1977 DOLL THAT URGED PEOPLE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET
• MARV GAYE

REVIEW: 1970S GAY STREET FASHNS AND OTHER VTAGE DISVERI ‘PHOTOGRAPHY AND LANGUAGE’

“The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men. ”) “That’s the kd of imagery”—backwards stereotyp that basilly villaized queer people—“that a lot of my generatn who beme the clone people grew up wh the ccible of the 60s, ” Calendo ntu, when the civil rights and gay liberatn movements were expandg ias of equaly and eedom. Drsg like a clone, he says, was a rejectn of those olr gay ’s not so easy to ppot precisely who origated the clone ial, guys who were alive at the time ually brg up Al Parker, an adult film star turned producer and director who worked om the 70s to the early 90s.

“The clone look was certaly about a whe gay man’s rponse and engagement wh those archetyp, ” says Ben Barry, the an of the school of fashn at the New School’s Parsons School of Dign, whose rearch foc on fashn’s relatnship to masculy, sexualy, and the body. The years saw Ana Bryant’s homophobic csa through the “Save Our Children” mpaign 1977, the electn and assassatn of Harvey Milk 1978, and the Whe Night rts the followg summer after the lenient sentencg of Milk’s murrer, Dan Whe. “The turn toward liftyle, straight and gay, volved a turn toward nsumptn as a form of self-ventn, yet the gay liftyle media stcted s rearshp not only how to bee ‘themselv, ’ as the straight publitns, but also how to bee gay, ” Hilrbrand wr.

Sli 1 of 13, A ftg acpaniment to the NYC Pri celebratns around the cy this weekend, the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art on Wooster Street has an exhibn up this season centerg on a sgular era gay history: the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS 1970s. There had always been gay men who drsed a nventnally mascule style, but the early 1970s, gay men New York and San Francis looked to the epom of Amerin masculy-the wboy, the lumberjack, the nstctn worker-for spiratn for a new drs style. Gay men have terpreted and monstrated their mascule looks through the celebratn of mcular "gym" bodi and clothg that shows off those bodi, as well as the emergence of other mascule subcultural styl such as the shaven-head, boots and brac wearg, but not necsarily racist skhead.

DISVERG THE “GAY LIFTYLE” THROUGH 1970S MAGAZ

The large proportn of gay men who have worked creative fields of fashn and the theater and service dtri, such as terg, has been well documented by historians such as Ross Higgs, whose study highlighted the volvement of gay men at all levels of the fashn dtry Montreal. Ined, many of the greatt nam twentieth-century fashn were gay or bisexual, cludg such figur as Christian Dr, Cristobal Balenciaga, Yv Sat Lrent, Norman Hartnell, Halston, Rudi Gernreich (who was one of the foundg members of the first Amerin homophile anizatn, the Mattache society), Calv Kle, and Gianni Versace. There’s an impish exuberance to the cloth and headpiec, many of which wouldn't look out of place at Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World petn (which, cintally, Jarman won 1975, unr the moniker Miss Crepe Suzette) BlamePl Hartt/Pym/REX/ShutterstockPugh’s llectn, meanwhile, paid homage to Blame, another gay man who rebelled turng the mundane upsi down.

Elsewhere, Ashish’s glz and neon affair uld have been lifted om a 1990s rave (and me wh a seri of msag about clivy – on ma pecially ronant the wake of the signer’s powerful words the week before on the crimalisatn of homosexualy India). There was a powerful work of olr succsful gay men like theatril agent Milton Goldman and entertament attorney Arnold Weissberger who troduced younger gay men to succsful showbiz typ at their betiful apartment on Sutton Place overlookg the East River.

Tommy Nutter, who was known for the betiful pipg on the cloth he signed for Mick and Bian Jagger, picked me up at a dis New York one night and I end up at Stigwood’s offic at 135 Central Park Wt, n by Peter Brown, who ed to be Tommy’s boyiend and who had worked for the very gay Beatl manager Brian Epste. Unlike the precsor Homophile Movement (which sought out social acceptance through formal anizg), The Gay Liberatn Movement took on ant tactics to bat LGBTQ+ discrimatn and mataed momentum throughout the new Gay Liberatn Movement’s ntributns stilled power wh queer voic that would later spire mastream fashn’s rejectn of genr Cockett (an experimental theatre group nsistg of drag queens om San Francis) migrated to New York durg the 70s where they stumbled upon fashn photographer Peter Hujar.

POIGNANT, EXUBERANT PHOTOS OF GAY LIFE THE ’70S — JT TIME FOR PRI

Staple dis fashn enpassed sk-tight bell-bottoms and low-neck jumpsus for men and Bs InsirOverall, the stagnant fluence of the Gay Liberatn Movement and queer culture provid androgyny wh a solidified prence spanng most of the 1980sA newfound sense of Amerin psimism characterized the 1980s; the radilism and foc on self-exprsn that fed the 60s and 70s were begng to though figur like Mercury and Prce ntued to blur genr l the 80s, a clg enomy batn wh the rise of nservatism and neonservatism obstcted the existence of another wave of androgyny men’s January 1980, the U.

“For many Amerins, this vio—which was choreographered by Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza and was st wh members of New York’s unrground New York ballroom scene—was the first time they had seen gay culture displayed so artistilly, so lovgly, ” not In Vogue’s host Hamish Bowl this week’s fact, queer culture had been fluencg mastream culture for s. Jt this month, GQ magaze has enuraged a whole bevvy of bloke-ish celebri - among them stalwart gay favour Dermot O'Leary, Ross Kemp and Nick Moran - to sport fulsome, bhy and even handlebar motach aid of tticular ncer awarens. And, further, a summer which even the Daily Mail is clgg to s hope that homosexual upl should not be given the right to sign the ath certifite of their life-long partners by the narrowt of are now a very gay untry, ed.

WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)

This was a tsle back on the behalf of malens for gay folks may now seem like a m look, but no more so than the gay northerners that stole low-end sportswear labels like Umbro and Reebok om their tate buddi an attempt to "straighten" up the gay look the 90s and subsequently turned wearg a baseball p your 30s to jt another gay cliche.

Ined, they themselv have bee known by some as the new Lang's appropriatn of the origal clon' favoure troer is a sweet homage to the men who stggled through a perd that would eventually enable gay men to drs exactly as they pleased. Fashn spac have always had a fair amount of cis gay male signers, but seeg female, trans, and genr nonnformg signers shakg up the sug dtry (Kirr Fch and SharpeHs) and the swimsu game (Beefke, OUTPLAY, and HUMANKIND) really ma known to that this was a space for all of .

Openg s Goln Gate to a world of diverse culture, viewpots, and sexual 'I'm so glad I did this': Comg out, growg up at San Francis PriWe've been diggg through our archiv and found an amazg seri to give you a glimpse of gay life here late 1976. "BAY GAYS" was shockg for s time and is stunng still today for how many of the issu still the vio above for the ABC7 special reports prented as they aired the text om the special reports below:The Queen Cy: San Francis 1977Durg the past six months or so, several of here at Channel 7 have been focg our attentn on the homosexual muny of the Bay Area pecially San Francis, wh the hope of prentg for you a report that would shed some light on the darkns of the gay scene and generally show that people of homosexual persuasn are no different except their sexual preference. Mart Stoll, a former State Department official and now one of the most rpected lears of the San Francis gay muny, "I thk San Francis is attractive to all people who are particularly those mori and that this has always been known as a place that uld accept people wh different liftyl and certaly the gay liftyle is a different liftyle.

LOOKBACK: WHAT GAY LIFE WAS LIKE SAN FRANCIS 1976

Specifilly the people wh whom you go to bed, and then gradually you build up a support group of iends who are gay and tell them and then you beg to tell your iends that aren't gay, and then 's a gradual ongog thg until fally everybody your life knows that you're gay, and you disver you're out there the world and that hasn't all fallen apart bee everybody knows who you are. Society general would be the fact that we sleep together, " said San Francis rint Stan datg and meetg aspects of the gay world probably are more closely proscribe and more highly rualized than those of straight society. Other men were siarly cled o fd safe and nducive atmosphere for unhibed sensualy, and the expectatn that even if your fantasy is not fulfilled, somethg will whole experience is vted wh a dark sense of adventure that even the owner of a gay bar nnot expla do provi a safe alternative variety.

Make the assumptn that bee we've been a uple for twenty seventeen years that that's some sort of x of the relatnship for so long gay people have been told that you n't stay together for any perd of time and mata a stable relatnship as a rult of that a lot of people that you meet, ask how long you've been together and you say X number of years as if that were some magic x to the qualy of the relatnship and I thk that says really very ltle about whether you have a good relatnship.

DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG

The germatn of the gay clothg bs was right here, The Town Squire is the iron mag of the homosexual high-fashn world and started 16 years ago by a gay uple Augt Terro and Terry Popek, who still keep at the top of the fashn heap, and what's the reason for gays tert this? I thk that when people n rce their homophobia their fear of homosexualy when they regnize that there are aspects of themselv that are homosexual that they will be able to accept this more, " said that's our look at bay gays, the late fall of 1976, San Francis. I’ve heard gay people speak of Pl Lyn as a gay in of the time, but he was not out by FencgGal at 5:07 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [1 favore] Not an actual celebry but Billy Crystal's character Joey on the TV show Soap was probably the first time an out gay person was portrayed pop culture as an admirable or even relatable human by bonobothegreat at 5:39 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [29 favor] Wh given that Capote was a celebry and obvly gay, I don't thk anyone will argue that he was nsired "ol" 1970s North Amerin popular by bonobothegreat at 6:13 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [3 favor] Capote was fely out the 1970s.

MEET GAY BOB, THE 1977 DOLL THAT URGED PEOPLE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

I don't know if he was ol per se, but he was the one who popped to my by bgirl at 6:35 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [5 favor] Ra Mae Brown, who published “Ruby F Jungle” the early 70’s, might have qualified as a ol gay in at the by baseballpajamas at 6:35 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [6 favor] Jam Beard me out publicly his memoir 1981 but was openly gay long before that, had a partner of 30 years, by HotToddy at 7:06 AM on Febary 9, 2020 Oh, sorry, I lost track of the pot that you’re lookg for people who ma ol to be gay. I'd fd difficult to thk of anyone else by Vortisr at 7:23 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [4 favor] I agree wh the majory of posters re: “actually out, actually ol, and actually popular the 70s: pick two”, but offer jobrah as my choice, although he barely meets creria 3 (no sha, ’s jt not really generally popular) by holyrood at 9:42 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [1 favore] Mental illns and homosexualy were so nflated those days that mak the qutn really hard to answer.

MARV GAYE

Bowie was out as Bi and ol as anythg on the by merocet at 9:58 AM on Febary 9, 2020 [4 favor] To give another sense of that time perd, on llege mp the 70s, there was somethg lled Wear Jeans if You’re Gay Day started by LGBT groups.