From the archive, 24 January 1976: Guardsmen gay magaze receive marchg orrs | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• FALLY THE GREAT GAY AGENDA IS WORKG! TWICE AS MANY OF NOW INTIFY AS LGBTQ+
• SEARCHG FOR SILVER LAKE: THE RADIL NEIGHBORHOOD THAT CHANGED GAY AMERI
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• WHICH ONE OF THE 'GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY' IS GAY?
• FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS
• GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS
• GAY GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER V. OHOOPEE REGNAL LIBRARY, 235 F. SUPP. 2D 1362 (S.D. GA. 2002)
• PATRICK STEWART HAS AN AWOME RPONSE TO BEG 'OUTED' AS GAY BY THE GUARDIAN
• SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

From Florida’s so-lled “don’t say gay” bill and Alabama’s ban on genr-affirmg healthre, a total of 28 stat have troduced more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ measur that seek to turn back the clock on our hard-earned eedoms and lim our abily to live almost feels like the past 60 years of activism, heroism and radil tn by queer folks have been undone. And Reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene recently tweeted that she will be “troducg a bill to make illegal for children to be exposed to Drag Queen performanc” misguid efforts to monize LGBTQ+ folks reek of s-old homophobia and transphobia that have placed a mented time warp and tapulted back to an era before Stonewall and before the advancement of the morn queer liberatn, even though buyg a rabow clutch om Coach might provi some momentary athetic pleasure, the way forward the midst of such rampant and vic attacks on queer and trans liv is through llective anizg, not llectg Pri merch.

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law.

FALLY THE GREAT GAY AGENDA IS WORKG! TWICE AS MANY OF NOW INTIFY AS LGBTQ+

The ernor and his supporters have labeled as a “groomer” anyone who believ children n learn LGBTQ+ people exist, argug that simply by talkg about gay relatnships to a child, you are sexualizg that child. ”To be gay, their view, is to be herently sexualized, a threat to nocence a way that straight Amerins are vehemence has ught even veteran LGBTQ+ advot by surprise.

He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”. The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia. ”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program.

SEARCHG FOR SILVER LAKE: THE RADIL NEIGHBORHOOD THAT CHANGED GAY AMERI

”The “don’t say gay” bill, Mter not, is very siar to what’s been passed Rsia, tetherg Amerin nservativ to their thorarian unterparts who have succsfully rolled back mocratic norms across eastern Europe.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

“I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay. “I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. As a rd-rryg member of the Internatnal Society for the Advancement of Homosexual Liftyl (ISAHL), I n assure you that the Gay Agenda explicly prohibs the e of bweapons.

WHICH ONE OF THE 'GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY' IS GAY?

I me out 20 years ago when “gay” was still an acceptable sult, you uld unt the number of out celebri on one hand and if you saw an LGBTQ+ character on TV there was a 99% chance they were a psychopath or a predator. We were standg on the hill where the Mattache Society was found 1950, and began to advote for homosexuals not as sners or perverts, but as an opprsed mory who served rights. Ls than two away is the Black Cat Tavern, the se of one of the first public gay rights monstratns, 1967, prottg the Los Angel police partment’s btal New Year’s Eve raid.

By the 80s, Silver Lake was a center of queer life, pecially queer Lato life, and, Palencia says, nearly every other storeont was a gay or lbian bar, a leather store, a bookstore, or a muny Aids anizatn.

FROM THE ARCHIVE, 24 JANUARY 1976: GUARDSMEN GAY MAGAZE RECEIVE MARCHG ORRS

Today, spe the rabow flags flyg along Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake is beg “-gayed and -Latized” queer history tour began at Silver Lake’s most famo gay landmark: the Black Cat Tavern. The prott outsi the Black Cat took place 1967, two years before New York’s Stonewall rt, which is often scribed as the foundatnal event of the US gay rights movement.

There’s no reference to the s when the Black Cat buildg transformed to a seri of different gay bars, cludg Le Barco, which offered drag performanc Spanish, and Club Fuck!

At Basgo’s Dis, which was famo for s art-punk athetic and BDSM performance Sunset Boulevard, there are other holdouts om Silver Lake’s gayer past: Rough Tra, a leather and fetish shop, is a few doors down om the Black Cat. Photograph: ONE Archiv at the USC LibrariOff Sunset Boulevard, the neighborhood streets that were once statns for gay cisg now have hardly any traffic, Palencia poted out as we drove through.

GAY QATARIS PHYSILLY ABED THEN RECED AS AGENTS, MPAIGNER SAYS

”Silver Lake, then a largely Lato neighborhood, beme a haven for Palencia and his iends, who -found Gay and Lbian Latos Unidos (GLLU), an advocy group foced on issu and people they felt whe gay anizatns and whe femist anizatns ignored.

GAY GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER V. OHOOPEE REGNAL LIBRARY, 235 F. SUPP. 2D 1362 (S.D. GA. 2002)

While there were tensns at the time between gay and lbian anizers LA, the gay men who started GLLU reached out to lbian Latas to get them volved as lears the group, as documented Unidad, a new film about the group’s history. Palencia said this was ccial: “Polilly, the lbians were much more evolved terms of their thkg of systems – like patriarchy, enomic systems, sexism, even racism, ” wh an agenda “that went beyond sexual polics” members supported Lato labor anizers and the Uned Farm Workers, and proment labor activists, cludg Dolor Huerta, marched alongsi them a 1983 Pri Wt Hollywood gay scene, ntrast, was sometim explicly racist and misogynistic: Stud One, a proment club, sparked protts for s excln of men of lor and of women, and s obv preference for wealthier whe male Silver Lake uld also be dangero, Palencia said: there were gay-bashg attacks rried out by lol Lato gang members. Photograph: Male Tolle/The GuardianTo addrs the tensns between gay and Lato rints whout turng to “mass rceratn, ” anizers started a ee lol mic ftival, the Sunset Junctn street fair, 1980, which had activi for kids and bands to appeal to a wi range of cultural terts.

Photograph: Male Tolle/The GuardianGay anizatns led by whe activists Los Angel often neglected outreach to people of lor, cludg Lato muny members, failg even to offer ccial rmatn Spanish. Palencia drove a few blocks off Sunset Boulevard to what he lled a “ltle oasis that’s still the same as what ’s been the past s” l Campo, an inic Mexin rtrant a bright pk buildg, has been a refuge for gay patrons sce s foundg 1962, and ’s still owned by the same Hollywood showbiz Del Campo, who started the rtrant, had been a dancer featured films like Wt Si Story, an Amerin Paris, and A Star is Born, and his old iends and lleagu beme his new patrons – cludg, of urse, many gay people.

PATRICK STEWART HAS AN AWOME RPONSE TO BEG 'OUTED' AS GAY BY THE GUARDIAN

Instead, her son said, the rtrant beme her the early days, closeted gay Hollywood celebri like Rock Hudson, one of the most proment people to die early the Aids crisis, equented the rtrant, which had dark booths wh curtas on the wdows, so that patrons uld de whout scty om outsi. One of Robert and Ga’s sons me out to them as gay while stg one of the booths once popular wh closeted rtrant host when we vised was 18-year-old Logan Wynn, who has lived the neighborhood his whole life, and who chatted amiably wh about the rtrant’s gay history and his memori of eatg here as a kid.

In 1984, when Calv Burde was awag sentencg for allegedly stabbg his gay lover to ath, the prosecutg attorney enuraged the jury his closg remarks to award Burde the ath penalty, rather than life prison, on the grounds that sendg a gay man to prison was ak to sendg a kid to a ndy store.

His ath sentence was later overturned (mostly bee Burde's public fenr had slept through much of his trial), but the homophobic thkg – that prison is some kd of paradise for gay men – lgers realy of life prison for homosexuals and transgenr dividuals do not appear to reflect this myth. He scribed a lany of btal rap, asslts, beatgs and, eventually, the total abandonment of his male inty as his only means of survival the hyper-mascule and often homophobic prison environment.

SIE MCCABE: ‘THE WORST ADVICE I’VE HAD? DON’T BE TOO GAY YOUR MATERIAL – MEN WON’T LIKE ’

His acunt suggts that far om beg a paradise, prison for gay men n be a livg days of his first enterg prison, the 23-year-old Rodney claimed he was the victim of three separate sexual asslts, volvg five different mat. The prison he was first sent to did actually have a separate tier for gay mat, but acrdg to Rodney, bee he did not "appear overly effemate" durg his classifitn, he was placed wh the general populatn; and bee was supposedly rare to have a gay person slip through the cracks of the system, his fellow mat took full advantage.

It's difficult to asss how typil Rodney's prison experience is, but numero studi nducted by the Bure of Jtice Statistics, based on anonymo mate surveys, have shown that gay and transgenr mat are among the most targeted groups for sexual victimizatn. Jt Detentn Internatnal (JDI), an anizatn whose aim is to eradite prison rape (pdf), is tryg to change has been workg wh the California Department of Correctns and Rehabilatn (CDCR) to tablish "sensive needs yards" (pdf), where gay, transgenr and other vulnerable mat n serve out their time safety.