My contribution to the Stonewall Anniversary is a three part series on my blog on the sad state of gay activism. But rather than just kvetch, part three will provide a road map for moving forward and securing civil rights for future queers.
Part One, which is running today addresses the history of gay activism and how AIDS hijacked the fight for gay civil rights and left us with polite advocacy and a world dominated by gay "partyism."
These are long pieces and I invite you to vist my blog over the next three days and read and comment on this post. I would be especially interested in comments by straight readers, exposing my mostly gay readership to that point of view.
Homophobes need not apply. :)
Thanks!
http://rjr10036.typepad.com/...
After the jump you'll find a teaser...but I don't know how to post graphics on kos? Can anyone help?
Extraordinary changes occurred in the years immediately following Stonewall.
Gay activism came out of the closet and swept across the land like an angry and joyous adolescent. The Gay Liberation Front, the Gay Activists' Alliance and many other groups took to the streets and college campuses, demanding a place next to Black Power, Women's Lib and the Anti-War movement, not always welcomed but there nonetheless.
But another equally potent and less considered change occurred as a result of Stonewall: Gay Partyism which manifested itself in the Saint, circuit parties, openly gay bars, clubs, bathhouses and brazenly public gay sex. Gay Partyism also took to the streets and has been there ever since.
While Gay activism reflected the militancy of Black Power, Feminism and the anti-war movement, Gay partyism reflected the free love, psychedelic drugs and sense of celebration that was born out of the less militant side of the anti-war movement, Flower Power.
And unlike the militant movements, Flower Power and Hippies comfortably welcomed and celebrated their gay brethren. In fact, for a brief and wonderful moment, the sexual revolution preached the beauty and wonder of sexual diversity, neither gay nor straight. For a fleeting second there was a movement to end the artificiality of sexual categories.
The 70s were a remarkable and unique time in gay history. So much was accomplished and so much was changed. Gay activism for civil rights flourished as never before or since. But thanks to AIDS, today's younger generations of gay men and women mostly remember that decade for the sex and mostly focus on just half of the legacy of the 70s: Gay partyism.