Who was a gay in of the 1970s? - out | Ask MetaFilter

Contents:

• WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
• DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• I LIVED UNAPOLOGETILLY AS A BLACK GAY MAN THE 70S. NOW I’M AGG WH PRI & DIGNY.

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

Amid the flurry of rabow-lan rporate logos, sponsored events and news ems about gay pengus, is difficult to turn on a televisn or set foot public durg June whout the remr that is Pri Month for LGBT and queer people. Gee Dudley, a photographer and artist who also served as the first director of New York Cy’s Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art, documented scen om pri paras New York Cy om the late 1970s through the early ‘90s. 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.

And October 1979, the Natnal March on Washgton for Gay and Lbian Rights took place wh roughly 100, 000 participants. “It was, a sense, the year we buted on the larger public stage, ” says Jim Saslow, a profsor of art history at the Cy Universy of New York and an early gay activist.

“We were beg acceptable enough that a gay person uld have a signifint polil reer, but we also beme very aware of how much of a nerve that was touchg for nservative people. Saslow, who was also a iend of Dudley’s, marks this era as a shift the gay liberatn movement.

DICK LESCH’S GUI TO SEVENTI GAY SLANG

But as the number of out gay people grew, says Saslow, the paras transned om timate gathergs of like-md people to events attend by a broar array of participants.

“The muny started to attract more mastream folks who weren’t necsarily polilly radil or untercultural — they jt happened to be gay.

“The guy a drs wh a beard, nng ont of the task force banner, ptur a lot of the atmosphere of the early gay liberatn muny, bee so much of me out of the hippie movement, ” says Saslow.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

Members of the Natnal Gay Task Force march 1981. Partners Charl Llie and Frz Lohman began to exhib art by gay artists their SoHo loft 1969, the same year the Stonewall uprisg took place.

“There weren’t that many people documentg the gay world at that time, so Gee’s photographs have an enormo importance, ” says Saslow.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

” Wh the visibily afford to LGBT people today, and particularly to gay men, is easy to fet that embracg on the street was a bold actn to make. I was the luckit gay Jew the world. The most wonrful thg about those days was that the gay folks power lent a hand to young gay people tryg to get a foothold the bs.

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.

They were a long-“married” uple a good half-century before there was gay marriage! One night at Juli’, the famo Wt Village gay bar, I met a man and took him home wh me.

I LIVED UNAPOLOGETILLY AS A BLACK GAY MAN THE 70S. NOW I’M AGG WH PRI & DIGNY.

Every gay bar had a ltle dance floor. If he shone three tim, they lled the NYPD, who had a al wh the Mafia owners of the gay bars to arrt a quota of “faggots” each week. The bar epted a gigantic brawl … the begng of the Gay Revolutn.

Gays were leadg the edge of the culture om 1969 to about 1983, when AIDS stopped all. To be gay the ’70s New York and L.

There was rampant homophobia by stud and work executiv and by some olr agents, notorly at CAA (though not Ron Meyer nor the Young Turks, several of whom were known to be gay).