Gay men in the 80s
Gay in the 80s
While there have, undoubtedly, been significant milestones in LGBT history in earlier decades, I believe the 80s was a particularly important period.
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That decade saw a major move towards the emergence of a global gay culture. The lgbtq+ genie came right out of its little pink bottle and into the streets (and the media&#;and politics&#;and the arts&#;)
Ironically, much of this was driven by adversity. The appearance of HIV/AIDS was most certainly a factor: it ripped through our communities but, at the same moment, engendered a spirit of oneness and resistance that transcended national borders.
But there were many other storms &#; great and little &#; that had to be weathered too. For example, in the US, the Court of Appeal ruled that there was no &#;fundamental right&#; to be gay.
In the UK, the Thatcher government created Section 28 of the Local Government Act, making it illegal for local authorities to support anything that might promote homosexual relationships as a viable alternative to heterosexual &#;family life&#;.
Will We Survive the s? A Snapshot of a Gay Cultural Milieu
The recently released Beautiful Aliens: A Steve Abbott Reader (Nightboat Books) offers an illuminating survey of the labor of beloved Bay Area writer Steve Abbott (–). Abbott, a poet, critic, editor, and novelist, was not only a champion of the literary arts, but he was also a thoughtful cultural critic. In the following excerpt, originally written in the late 80s, Abbott proposals a highly personal seize on the late-century social milieu and unknowingly provides insight into our current political moment.
WILL WE SURVIVE THE 80’s
Never has evaluating the present and future of gay politics and culture been so problematic.
The Supreme Court decree (Bowers v. Hardwick) was a setback, but AIDS has become our greatest challenge. And yet we‘ve made great gains over the past 20 years. Before the Stonewall Riots in , our universe was virtually unspeakable. The phrase “corruption of morals past all expression”—used by European colonists about Native American sexual practices—was America’s prevalent attitude towar
There’snothingphysically pleasant about climbing Mount Everest. As you get to the top, your body is depleted of oxygen. You become nauseous, dizzy, irritable, and forget your appetite. Quite simply, you can die from exhaustion… and many include .
As a questioning teen in the 80’s, coming out seemed like an impossible mountain to climb. The Mount Everest of my life. There it was, standing before me. Yet, I didn’t even acquire even a hint as how to get there. I didn’t know who had climbed it before me or how they made it to the top. I didn’t even know what was on the other side. For all I knew, it was a dark abyss of sadness and detest. All I knew was that is was going to be a very unpleasant experience because that’s what I was told. I was surrounded by a culture… movies, media, education, and social norms, that told me I was to fit into a convenient label that made others comfortable.
Being gay in the 80s meant existence isolated from an identity. There was no discussion of homosexuality in school… not even in our year extended “Health and Sexuality” class, even though we were in the midd
Three years before the AIDS epidemic swept the nation in , the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus opened its doors. We couldn't imagine how much the crisis of AIDS in s would alter our community and we could not have predicted how many people would turn to the Chorus for refuge and a sense of community.
Let’s seize a look back at the AIDS epidemic history over the past 40 years and how it affected not only our Chorus and our collective, but our entire society.
The Beginning of the s AIDS Crisis
There is no clear explanation for the cause of HIV. The first recorded case was in in a Congolese man's blood sample. While he was HIV positive, the exact details of whether he developed and died of AIDS are unknown.
Decades later when the s AIDS crisis started, there was only one understanding of HIV/AIDS: it only affected young lgbtq+ men. These men soon developed uncommon opportunistic infections that previously only affected individuals with compromised immune systems and rare forms of cancer.
As a consequence, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) formed a Task Force in the su