Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.
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)
Jaguars assistant Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's pro sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer. * gay man 70s *
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.
JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS 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.
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.
KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
“There weren’t that many people documentg the gay world at that time, so Gee’s photographs have an enormo importance, ” says Saslow. ” 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.
I LIVED UNAPOLOGETILLY AS A BLACK GAY MAN THE 70S. NOW I’M AGG WH PRI & DIGNY.
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. Every gay bar had a ltle dance floor.