Ameri Se Shas of Gay: A Once-Invisible Group Fds the Spotlight
Contents:
- SPECIAL REPORT: THE GAY 90'S
- THE GAY '90S: A REVIEW OF REARCH THE 1990S ON SEXUAL BEHAVR AND HIV RISK AMONG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN
- HOW AMERI GOT PAST THE ANTI-GAY POLICS OF THE '90S
SPECIAL REPORT: THE GAY 90'S
* gay guys 1990s *
Or maybe was Tom Hanks, acceptg an Amy Award for his portrayal of a gay lawyer Philalphia, and tearfully thankg his high school drama teacher and a classmate—"two of the ft gay Amerins that I had the good fortune to be associated wh"—before a billn movie fans around the world. But however all began, look at where 's led: Jt as Elvis and his ilk plumbed Ain-Amerin mil tradns and turned them to mastream rock & roll the 1950s, moviemakers, TV producers, media people, and rock stars have turned entertament on s head by eely mg the gay culture for s sarsm and style, s glter and gr, s secrets and celebratns. Comedy's most popular styl now utilize the gay sensibily—a reliance on irony that's omni-prent products as varied as Letterman (not him, jt his raised eyebrow) and The Ln Kg ( which Timon and Pumbaa are … well, whatever you want them to be).
On Broadway, gay-themed works are the most domant genre, and for three seasons, gay-themed plays by gay playwrights (Tony Khner's two-part Angels Ameri and, most recently, Terrence McNally's Love!
Now straight men are expected to be jt as mosed and buffed as their gay unterparts; and they are subtly prsured to emulate the exhibnistic sex appeal of mols like Marky Mark and Michael Berg, who have posed sctively ads tend to sell shorts not jt to gay men, but to all men. " Gradually, the entertament dtry me to realize that gay n sell a niche-market art film (such as the mor summer h The Incredibly Te Adventure of Two Girls Love), as well as help to sell a film wh crossover appeal (Four Weddgs and a Funeral). Explas David Lee, the gay creator of Frasier and director of last season's accintal date episo, "There was humor the suatn [the characters] found themselv , but you weren't lghg at anyone bee he was gay.
THE GAY '90S: A REVIEW OF REARCH THE 1990S ON SEXUAL BEHAVR AND HIV RISK AMONG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN
Prime-time soap hunks and nascent superstars livered the beefke, while Stallone and Schwarzenegger changed the ial male body to impossible standards that gay men still stggle to achieve. * gay guys 1990s *
The revolutn has been slower to take hold at movie studs, which all but banned gay characters after the dismal failure of Makg Love, the oh-so-ser 1982 drama which Michael Ontkean left Kate Jackson for Harry Haml (actually, dienc shied away om the film bee stank).
But not until 1993 did a major stud, TriStar, release a film hgg on gay characters—Philalphia, which was cricized wh the gay muny for playg safe and never even givg Hanks and his lover Anton Banras an on-screen kiss. Or so said gay groups earlier this year when the actor-turned-director (who has received flak for publicly exprsg his disda for homosexuals the past) picted Braveheart's Prce Edward as a rouged-up, mcg queen (a pictn, should be noted, that might have a basis historil fact).
HOW AMERI GOT PAST THE ANTI-GAY POLICS OF THE '90S
1990s timele of major events LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) rights history, cludg homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * gay guys 1990s *
It's drawg long l s limed release, and 's st wh an imprsive lot of stars playg a balanced array of gay characters, om Patrick Stewart as a likable (and stereotypilly flamboyant) terr rator to Steven Weber (Wgs' womanizg Brian) as a stralaced young gay Manhattane who swears off sex for fear of AIDS.
And as g out beme more mon, there was a ccial shift the perceptn of those veterate culture nsumers, the baby boomers: Acrdg to an Entertament Weekly/Gallup poll, 71% of 30- to 49-year-olds say they unt a gay person among their relativ, workers, or iends. Both Frasier (about a straight man who tak his retired father) and Roseanne (about a uple tryg hard to raise a fay while balancg on the poverty le) are among the Nielsen fay edi wh substantial crossover appeal to gay dienc—and not jt bee they have rporated gay characters.
" The gay sensibily was born om the plight of the disenanchised—gay people are aware, as much as anyone, that life acrdg to The Brady Bunch exists nowhere outsi a Hollywood soundstage. Last sprg's send-up The Brady Bunch Movie ( which a gay teen had a csh on an obliv Marcia) was a triumph of the new mp, a shy subversn of mastream Amerina that proved a h wh mastream Amerins. Gay dienc have always had a soft spot for certa performers—Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Jam Dean—but the attractn was an -joke among the stars' gay fans, who turned the cur hero and hero to almost mythic begs based on their mascule/feme personas or operatilly tragic liv.