How was the gay scene in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s

[nitish]

ok, so i was reading a wikipedia article on bette midler, and midway through the article, they talk about how she started her singing career in a gay bathhouse in New York. Curious, i click on the bathhouse link and start reading about early bathhouses and how pivotal they were for gay social life etc. For those who know and remember, how was gay life in the last century?

 

[jhmphx]

"Gay New York" by George Chauncey is a great history of NYC gay culture. There are more books I oculd suggest if anyone is interested.
JHM

 

[RationalLunacy]

ok, so i was reading a wikipedia article on bette midler, and midway through the article, they talk about how she started her singing career in a gay bathhouse in New York. Curious, i click on the bathhouse link and start reading about early bathhouses and how pivotal they were for gay social life etc. For those who know and remember, how was gay life in the last century?

Do you know how fucking old you just made me feel?

 

[star-warrior]

The Orton Diaries - ed. John Lahr for the 60's London/Tangiers.

 

[Txgoodoldboy]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Sex was on every corner, behind every tree, in every bar, sex was everywhere. The baths were like an all you can eat buffet. I knew gays needed to slow down and get a grip, but it didn't need to come to a complete stop. AIDS was the brakes.

Bette Midler, she's the best!

 

[Great Big C]

Do some research on Stonewall in the late 1960's - it was the true beginning of what we are able to enjoy today, and those drag queens and "fancy men" of that time are what started us on the path to equality.

One of my all-time favorite movies, Long Time Companion will give you a great deal of insight into the late 70's and early 80's and the beginning of the AIDS crisis in and around Fire Island. And, as a bonus, it's a great movie!

I'm to young to have been part of that, having grown up in the 80's - but I distinctly remember "gay cancer" and all of the hype and panic and blaming of the gay community, as well as the elation of some that the gay community was killing itself of, or God was using AIDS to kill us off...

 

[FPNY]

I came of age in the 70's and lived very near New York City. I can tell you from experience that it was indeed a wild time. Like Texasgoodoleboy says, there was sex everywhere. It seemed to me that entire city was horned up and needed to get off right away. The bars were a blast with dancing, people used to snort poppers on the dance floors and the whole crowd would move as one. Then there were the back rooms...all unbelievable.

I just got the movie Before Stonewall from netflix. It's funny that you bring this up when that just came in the mail.

 

[Claudio63]

I must read about NY bathhouses before the 80s. Seeing Bette Midler in concert and getting a blow job at the same time sounds too good to be true. But I guess she didn't perform in places where "other acts" where being performed.

 

[josher]

I would suggest watching Long Time Companion too.

The 70's were a very liberating, free wheeling decade. if you were out. (In those days that meant you had accepted you were gay and lived it out. It didn't mean you had told any friends or family members, necessarily.)

Gay themed movies and plays were just starting to hit the theaters, but gays and lesbians were rarely mentioned on TV or in newspapers, even in NYC and LA.

Magazines tended to do stories about "gay liberation."

The political organizing that was born in the late 50's and the 60's began to attract more attention and numbers.

In the big cities the police gradually stopped raiding gay bars (largely because of the Stonewall Riots), but it still went on in smaller areas.

Disco music (stolen from the black community, as per usual with popular American music) reigned everywhere. The straights picked it up from the big "mixed" clubs, like Studio54 in Manhatten.

Drugs became much more commonplace. Pot had already taken a foothold, largely stemming from the 60's Hippie/anti-war crowds. "uppers", "downers" and coke hit big in the 70's.

The clothes were terrible in retrospect, but everyone who "went out" wore the uniform: very tight jeans or cutoff jeans, and either a plaid or "disco" shirt or a white tee-shirt.

Moustaches were a very common "fashion accessory" for gay men. (The Marlboro Man look) Everybody smoked.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure many people here will add information.

Needless to say by the early 80's everything changed due to AIDS. I lost almost all of my good friends to AIDS by the early 90's. (Probably 20-25 guys.) How I avaided the infection is to me a miracle.

 

[Orlandude]

Based on a lot of books I've read, those 30 years were anything but boring and often tumultuous. Back in the 50's, everything was hidden. Nobody dared to "come out" and the few who tried were treated horribly and viciously. Bars were hidden and never advertised except "word of mouth" among gays. A " gay bar" was usually in a dark alley with a naked lightbulb burning over the door (no signs) and you had to know someone to get in. The turning point really was the 60's and Stonewall and the beginning of the "liberation" era that included "gay liberation", "women's lib" and widespread racial unrest. The country went headlong into social and racial reform. By the 70's, it was suddenly "vogue" to be gay and all the huge "disco palaces" sprung up and the word was "out of the closets and onto the streets"! Even straights were lured to the gay clubs and it was "fashionable" to be seen in places like Studio 54 in New York and Studio One in LA. The big gay "palaces" became THE places to go. Then around 1981 it all started to unravel. AIDS hit. The government ignored it for years and most considered it "the gay plague". The "anything goes" mentality of the 70's came to a screeching halt, bars closed or were forcibly closed, "disco" died along with countless AIDS "victims" who had nowhere to turn and no help from the medical community. So many got sick and, within a year, were gone. It was like "overnight", it all reverted back to the 50's because of social prejudice and the unfounded notion that AIDS was a "gay thing", therefore gays needed to be avoided. The extreme right and people like Jerry Falwell even called for the "quarantine" of all gays until he was muzzled by the Feds. It was a dark time even though the bars prospered and everyone learned to live (or not live) with this new virus. It has really been only the past 20 years that AIDS research began and new drugs were developed, yet no "cure" is in sight. So, here we are today, in the 21st century. We've come a long way but, unfortunately, the stigma's still exist and there remains that element of society, under the guise of religion, that insists and maintains that we are a "problem" they would like to push back into the 50's, sight unseen.

 

[Shepherd 2]

OK, Shep is here to report.
I lived in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s.
Only the last 15 to 20 years have been safe for gay men.
Need I remind people of Matthew Shepherd in our present time
more or less.

Gay was good enough to be bashed, imprisoned
for probable cause of sodomy, or some drummed up charge.
Bath Houses were far off for many of us, and the dangers
far outweighed the risks. Read the books, I have no desire to
even remember those things much less to post that story here.
It is a journey of tears, depression and fear. Some count Stone Wall
of major importance, and it was for some in the city.

The plague of HIV/Aids in the mid 80s was the turning point that I see. It begins a time of healing where families began to care for one another. The scenes are heart rending. Let the past be past.

Live today. This is a great time, explore and make it better. I hope it will continue to improve for us in the legal system and our legislatures. There remains much to concern us all. Let us work tirelessly to change it for the better. That includes our families.
Yes, and in our churches who have often been communities of meanness and cruelty.
Shep+

 

[Croynan]

ok, so i was reading a wikipedia article on bette midler, and midway through the article, they talk about how she started her singing career in a gay bathhouse in New York. Curious, i click on the bathhouse link and start reading about early bathhouses and how pivotal they were for gay social life etc. For those who know and remember, how was gay life in the last century?

well many of us lived in caves, BC. a lot of us had fire and even the wheel. you did have to do a lot of walking to get to places. homosexual life was just homo sexual life - you know if involved homo homo sapiens who did all those homosexual things that homosexuals normally and abnormally do.

there were no homosexual websites. they did not have homosexual parades mainly do to the dinosaurs stomping all over the place. if there were homosexual clubs, they were hard to find as there was not an alphabet yet so there were no signs. there were not homosexual escort services that i know of. i think most homosexuals kept to themselves so they could lead their homosexual life style(s.)
​

hope that helps - being just a local village idiot quasi homosexual this is what i basically remember.
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and there was no theatre or classical concerts for homosexuals to go to - as there were no actors and or instruments.
​

eM.​

There was a song a lot of homosexuals use to sing and listen to:

The Song: "Happy Days Are Here Again" - Barbra Streisand sang it in the homosexual hotels and lounges.

So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now
Theres no one
Who can doubt it now
So lets tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone
Therell be no more from now on
From now on...

Happy days are here again
The skies above are here again
So, lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!​

​

 

[Croynan]

BBC News

Timeline: 25 years of HIV/Aids


On 5 June 1981, the first case study detailing an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases among gay men alerted the world to Aids.

Here are some of the key dates in the history of the illness since then.

1982 - Aids, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is first used as a term.

The condition had earlier been known as Grid - Gay Related Immune Deficiency.

The first case of Aids is reported in Africa.

1983 - The US Centers for Disease Control adds female partners to the list of groups at risk.

1984 - HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is isolated by Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Robert Gallo of the US National Cancer Institute.

1985 - Hollywood star Rock Hudson is revealed to have Aids.

1987 - The UK government's "Don't Die of Ignorance" campaign is launched.

Needle exchanges are first piloted in the UK.

The first antiretroviral drug, AZT, is approved in the US.

Pictures of Princess Diana holding the hand of a patient in an Aids ward are broadcast around the world.

HIV testing is introduced across the UK.

1988 - First World Aids Day.

1989 - The first HIV awareness materials targeted at gay men are produced by the Health Education Authority.

1990 - The BBC soap opera Eastenders runs a storyline in which Mark Fowler, a major character, is found to be HIV positive, raising awareness of the condition.

1991 - Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, dies of an Aids-related illness.

The Red Ribbon becomes the international symbol of HIV.

The US Food and Drug Administration licences the first rapid HIV test.

Ten million people around the world are HIV positive. Aids kills more men aged 25 to 44 than any other condition.

1995 - There is an outbreak of HIV among injecting drug users in Eastern Europe.

The first combination therapy - HAART, (highly active antiretroviral therapy) is approved for use in the US.

1996 - UNAIDS is established.

1998 - Trials of a vaccine against HIV begin.

2001 - Drug companies abandon their opposition to the generic production of antiretrovirals.

2002 - The Global Fund for the fight against HIV/Aids, malaria and TB is set up.

2003 - Results of the first major HIV vaccine trial - Aids VAX - show promise.

2005 - International leaders commit to universal access to treatment at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles.

About 1.3 million people in developing countries have access to treatment.

2006 - About 38.6m people are estimated to be living with Aids worldwide.

Story from BBC NEWS:​

 

[eddielee]

I didn't think things were all that bad in the late 70s and early 80s. AIDS was virtually unknown so condoms were hardly ever worn. Poppers seemed to be a big thing. Gay porn was very hard to get, but you could get Playgirl. William Higgins was a major gay porn director during that period.

Once AIDS became a serious issue, things gradually changed. Gays were targeted as being the cause of AIDS and were subject to violence and discrimination. Very little was known about AIDS and there were no treatments. Some people thought you could get AIDS by simply touching an infected person. There was a period of fear and hysteria propagated by ignorant people. It was a sad time.

 

[Kurn]

In the 70's and 80's the usual greeting was either "Do you have the time?" or "Are you hung?"

 

[LarsVenice]

Disco music was not stolen from the black community - it was manufactured using black singers found on the streets of Watts or Compton. I did come out in the 70s but I hated the fashion and the music. I started making my own clothes and went to punk clubs instead of discos, but fortunately in San Francisco, there were bars that played a variety of music. I still hate most disco music, and I hated the "clone" trend - mindless people who were the most conformist group I've ever seen. They didn't like me either because I didn't conform. I preferred drag queens to clones - they were much more interesting to talk with. You could meet a lot of extremely boring people at discos, but there were also interesting people who just happened to be there. I was very romantic in my 20s, and so I generally had a boyfriend (even if the relationship only lasted a couple of months), and so I was never part of the massive free sex movement. I went to the baths to see what they were like, but as it turned out, no one was interested in having conversations, and so nothing happened for me there. I've always been compulsive about talking to people, and the gay population in San Francisco in the late 70s was not that interested in talking. However, I was able to have quite a few interesting conversations on the Fillmore Bus going through black neighborhoods. I also got fashion inspirations on that bus as well.

 

[Yooper]

In Denver, as recently as the late 70's, the Police still were raiding the Gay Bars, arresting all who were in them. They would handcuff them, load folks onto school buses that had the seats removed, make everyone sit on the floor and then go raid the next bar.

In the early 80's, things changed. The bars were allowed to exist, and back in the 'Dynasty' days the bars even had 'Dynasty' nights which were a hoot. I remember the beginning of the 'Gay Flu', then GRID. How I never got sick is still a mystery to me.

I left the city in 1985 and move to the middle of nowhere where I by some miracle met my partner of 18 years in 1989.

It is interesting and very depressing to me, being back (temporarily) in Denver for the last two years (my partner is still home in nowhere), how many of my friends and acquaintances are missing. I recently found my old address book in my Grandmother's basement with the other crap I left here and started inquiring about some old names. All of them are dead.

 

[Shepherd 2]

Please, no more walks down memory lane
for a while.
Shep+

 

[leshe]

yah, and now there are sick fucks who actively try to get AIDS, ...

huh?

 

[hermanding]

my greatest admiration for the drag queens - who have been courageous beyond belief - taking all the horror inflicted on them - and leading the way. i love all of you
ding