1990s Gay Culture Essay

The sexual revolution has given rise to the prominence of “out” homosexuals and helped to increase cultural acceptance of gays, lesbians, and transsexuals. The Gay Rights Movement started in the late 1960s and drastically changed the meaning of being gay. Prior to the sexual revolution it was extremely uncommon for a gay individual to “come out;”

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, society wasn’t the most accepting of places for people who were different from the “social norms”. Now I know, people today still struggle with trying to fit in and be “normal” but it was different. Being a gay man living in San Fransisco at the time, which had a large gay population, Richard Rodriguez had a hard time dealing with the discrimination he faced. Richard Rodriguez was an American journalist who wrote and published a memoir about his life as a gay man. In October of 1990, Rodriguez published his memoir “Late Victorians” in Harper’s Magazine, a critically acclaimed publication of the time. In his memoir, Rodriguez describes what it was like to realize he was gay and watch as the country changed to become a more accepting place. He does this by setting up how things can change and then explaining the actual ways things change for the gay population.

Over the next two decades, half the states decriminalized homosexual behavior, and police harassment grew less frequent and obvious to the public. Also in 1975, it became legal for gays to hold federal jobs. However all this headway also made room for more opposition. In 1977, Anita Bryant was so successful at obtaining a repeal of a recent gay ordinance in her home state of Florida that by 1980, a league of anti gay clubs had come together to make a force, led in part by Jesse Helms. The AIDS scare that began in the eighties did not help the gay image either, but more citizens joined their ranks in order to combat the oppression and fund a search for the cure, so in the end it actually made the movement stronger. According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (2000), by 1999, the anti-sodomy laws of 32 states had been repealed, and in 1996 Vermont granted its gay citizens the right to same sex marriages. Gay rights has come a long way as a social movement, and though it still has a long way to go, it makes a good topic to analyze the process of the social movement.

“Sex was something mysterious which happened to married couples and Homosexuality was never mentioned; my mother told me my father did not believe it existed at all ‘until he joined the army’. As a child, I was warned about talking to ‘strange men’, without any real idea what this meant. I was left to find out for myself what it was all about.” Mike Newman, who was a child during the 1950s America recalls how homosexuality was perceived during the post-World War II era (F). This sexual oppression was not only in Newman’s household, but in almost everyone’s. While the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s and ended late 1960s, the LGBT community started to come out of the closet slowly. The gay rights movement stemmed from the civil rights movement

Gay liberation throughout the United States had a purpose for lesbians and gay men to have gay lifestyles be normal. Gay liberation affected politics because gay men and lesbians wanted to inform their peers and family, which changed how citizens would view their sexual orientation. The gay liberation took place during the 1960’s through the 1980’s in which changed many cultures. The culture in the United States changed dramatically because during the 1960s through 1980s , there was an AIDS outbreak. AIDS was a sickness after HIV that would cause an individual’s body to weaken, therefore United States citizens would link AIDS to people who were gay or lesbian. For instance, David Rayside compares the United States to Britain, “After World War II, however, Britain once again stood out in the extent to public anxieties about sexuality were fanned and legal regulation of homosexual activity policed”(40) and “British authorities were especially preoccupied with the condemnation and strict containment of homsexuality.”(40). Homosexuality affected politics because authorities would prioritize the gays and lesbians before anything else. There were clear observations that governments from Britain and United States were not in favor for homosexuality, therefore attempting to change people's views on homosexuality so gays and lesbians would not be accepted into the society. Being accepted into a society requires majority of citizens to approve of other’s decisions. For example, citizens viewing gays or lesbians in public without attempting to discriminate their sexuality. The women’s movement was similar to the gay liberation because it affected politics greatly by hierarchies being

This paper will continue on, researching the societal change/acceptance in the gay and lesbian community as no longer being unorthodox and with the stigma coming from the gay community itself.

When people think of the 1980’s the first thoughts that many have in mind is that of music, movies, and technology that has helped shaped the present. Unfortunately, just like this longing for the 1980’s as something remarkable is limited to those that did not have to struggle through the AIDS epidemic or those that did not had to watch their friends, family, or loved ones die. The LGBTQ+ community faced struggles once it became apparent that AIDS was killing people, which runs counter to the ideology that the 1980's were full of nostalgia.

Although marriage has a long history it has become a major facet in the social life of the nation.50 years ago almost every state criminalized homosexual activity. The federal government would not hire people who were openly gay. Many openly gay men couldn’t even be permitted in the military. Despite the fact that there were little to none gay originations in the early 1970s a burst of gay activism unleashed the stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. (Davies)” The Stonewall riots were inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of

LGBT history has changed the way society works in the United States and has had an impact around the world. The homosexual community came as an impact to the world during the early 1900’s. They were considered different; odd, ill, and weak, but little did we know the effects it would have in today’s society and politics. The war, queer, and AIDs movements seem to relatively impact members of the gay and lesbian community the most. In an series of interviews in “Word is Out” conducted by Nancy Adair and Casey Adair, the reader is introduced into the lives of Pam, Rusty, and Pat; lesbian women living within their true identity during the mid-1900’s. Their stories consist of broken family relationships, marriage failure, and gender roles. To help one understand the dynamics of their relationships and lives, John D’Emilo talks about the effects of war and how it structures and damages the gay community and their opportunity for equality. Elizabeth Davis speaks about the Lesbian experience in public spaces that exposes many to find their character by associating with those that fit best to their community in “Lesbian Bar Culture in the 1930’s and 1940’s”. The LGBT community for centuries has won the spotlight in the news and many articles published in well know newspapers, but what many never get to hear or see are the struggle that many homosexuals face. Both gays and lesbians in the United States have received backlash because of their race, gender, and social class. The

Two Diaries, Donald Vining’s A Gay Diary Vol. Two and Martin Duberman’s Gay in the Fifties look into the everyday life of gay males in the post-World War II Era. While World War II increased freedom to explore sexually within the male community, post-World War II extended the freedom of exploration but also created a backlash against homosexual practices. Nevertheless, during and after World War II gay men were fully able to develop social circles and create a sense of community for the first time. Although Vining and Duberman encountered different forms of backlash in response to the extension of gay freedoms in the post-World War II period, they still shared the freedom to explore friendships, relationships, and sexual activity.

Greenan & Tunnel (2003) posit that the societal marginalization exerted on same-sex couples, translates into internalization of an inferior status (as cited in Wetcher & Bigner, 2012). Herdt (1989) describes the process of coming out as the process of introducing an individual’s sexual orientation to broader circles of people, commencing with the self. The fear of coming out is often associated with fears of emotional rejection by family members, or internal belief of disappointing one’s parents. To cope with this fear, often gay men resort to concealment of their identity (Herdt, 1989; Ramirez & Brown, 2010). The social construct of belonging to a minority community, the avoidant attachment style and the threat of conflict within the family of origin system acts as the reagent that evokes Steve’s emotional distress which he regulates by withholding disclosure. Brain’s feeling of insecurity and wanting reassurance could be attributed to the vast discrepancy between the interactions he has experienced with his family of origin and current family system he shares with Steve.

The topic of homosexuality elicits many reactions. It is forever played upon in pop culture for it's shock value if nothing else. Some demonize it, holding things like religion as proving, "alternative lifestyles," to be wrong. Some have erotisied homosexuality as in many of Anne Rice's vampire novels. Some laugh at homosexuality or people who are homosexual, calling it, "weird". Some react violently, as in the case of Matthew Shepard. And yet others have gradually turned towards acceptance shown (debatably) in such movies as, " To Wong-Fu Love Julie Newmar" and " In and Out".

The climate of the 1960s was turbulent. This decade was marked by many political movements, which reflected support for non-establishment themes. During this time the “sexual liberation movement” became a popular cause. This intensified social and political interest helped many disadvantaged groups to receive support and attention that previously had never been received. As part of the nation’s desire for sexual political liberation, gay liberation became visible.

As being developed by poststructuralism, feminism, lesbian & gay studies and even American pragmatist theory (Parker,2001; Seidman,1997), queer theory has become one of the most important theories, which contributes to the research of sociology, arts and organizations. On the one hand, queer theory has been used to study the relations between the sexuality, gender and workplace. On the other hand, by utilizing denaturalized, deconstructive and performative methods to queer the presumptions of the taken-for-granted norms, queer theorists question and disprove the traditions which people cherish (Seidman,1995).

In The Wedding Banquet (dir. Ang Lee, 1993) the inner conflict of “coming out of closet” is constantly at play as the main character Wai Tung (Winston Chao) juggles his partner Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein), a fake marriage and his parents. Coming out of the closet for some is seen as a form of both vulnerability and liberation, while remaining in the closet may be seen as a form of survival. For Wai Tung coming out of the closet would mean that his father’s dreams of continuing the family name would die out but remaining in the closet for Wai Tung means having to marry Wei Wei (May Chin) and alter his life with Simon forever.