AFTER STONEWALL, THE EVOLUTION OF THE GAY MALE CHARACTER IN AMERICAN CINEMA

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AFTER STONEWALL THE EVOLUTION OF THE GAY MALE
CHARACTER IN AMERICAN CINEMA
By M. West 8/15/2007
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In the Beginning The Stonewall Riots

• Location the bar of the Stonewall Inn, located
  in Greenwich Village, New York
• The event 8 police officers enter the bar at the
  Stonewall Inn on the night of June 27, 1969 7
  in street clothes, only one in uniform
• The officers raid the bar for selling liquor
  without a license and begin arresting anyone in
  drag for indecency
• No one knows what exactly prompted the fighting
  that ensued but riots broke out that lasted
  several days

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New York Post June 28, 1967
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New York Times June 29, 1969
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New York Times June 30, 1969
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New York Times July 3, 1969
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After the Riots

• Riots marked by many as the beginning of the gay
  liberation movement
• And prompted a transition in the role of the
  homosexual male in American media

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American Cinema in the 1970s Coming Out and In
Your Face

• Due to the relative freedom from persecution by
  police and censors gained by the notoriety and
  resulting gay liberation movement of the
  Stonewall Riots, the American cinema embraced
  many homosexual male characters in the 1970s
• From the stereotypically gay characters in the
  famed 1970 movie Boys in the Band, to the 1974
  debut of the comedy/crime drama Freebie and the
  Bean, to the 1976 release of the Rocky Horror
  Picture Show, the American public was assaulted
  with flamboyant, neurotic, and sometimes just
  plain scary images of the gay male
• However, a new image was emerging the
  homosexual male as a normal human facing all of
  the trials and tribulations that heterosexual
  males face
• Or example, in the 1974 film, A Very Natural
  Thing, we followed the life of a homosexual man
  as he teaches in public school by day and looks
  for love in gay bars by night. We watch as he
  flounders through the dating game and eventually
  commits himself to another man. Then, they face
  all of the same rituals and challenges that a
  traditional heterosexual couple must face.
• This image of gay men facing all of the same
  challenges as the normal heterosexual people
  was strongly reinforced by the 1978 documentary
  Gay USA which focuses on the events surrounding
  the gay rights movement and features footage of
  on-the-street interviews with gay men and women
  discussion topics such as coming out, dealing
  with their lovers, and their families reactions
  to their life choices.

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The 1980s The Reagan Era and the AIDS Epidemic
Change the Cinematic Roles of the Gay Male

• After 12 years of newly realized sexual freedom,
  the discovery of the newly discovered disease
  AIDS decimating the homosexual population
  prompted a dramatic change in the cinematic gay
  male persona
• Fearing this new disease, some cinematic
  producers reverted to the portrayal of homosexual
  males as murderers and maniacs in movies like
  Cruising (1980) and Partners (1982)
• In Cruising (1980) a gay music student turned
  serial killer is stalked through an underworld of
  gay leather bars and kinky sex by an undercover
  police officer. This movie also played on the
  heterosexual fear of being homosexual as the cop
  struggled with his own sexuality.
• Partners (1982), a gay-themed cop movie, saw
  the Los Angeles gay community suffering from a
  series of horrific murders. So, the LA police
  department sent two of their own undercover into
  the local gay community. However here is the
  twist one of the policemen is straight and the
  other is in the closet. The movie had a
  decidedly homophobic bent to the dialogue and
  implied one of the great fears of the
  heterosexual male of the era gay men cannot be
  trusted to work with straight men without falling
  in love.
• However, a change was on the horizon..

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Change is in the Air

• As the American people began to learn more about
  HIV and AIDS, they started to more fully
  understand that it was not only a homosexual
  disease, but that it affected everyone.
• So, once again, the producers of American cinema
  began making films depicting gay men not as the
  bad guys, but as victims themselves and normal
  people just like everyone else.
• Making Love, which opened in 1982, depicted the
  struggle of a married man trying to come to terms
  with his homosexuality and the repercussions of
  admitting it to his wife. This movie closely
  mirrored the struggles of any marriage in which
  adultery occurs.
• With the ground-breaking movie, The Times of
  Harvey Milk (1984), American film producers
  captured the essence of the struggle of the
  homosexual male in American politics. The movie
  followed the career of famed San Francisco
  politician Harvey Milk and the dangers that being
  openly gay brought him (he was assassinated in
  the end). It also brought to the forefront of
  the American moviegoer mind the strife faced by
  homosexuals.

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80s Movies and Documentaries Breaking Down
Barriers

• In 1985, filmmaker Lucy Winer produced a
  documentary called Silent Pioneers, which
  highlighted the homosexual relationships of
  elderly gay men and lesbian women which have
  withstood the tests of time and prejudice. This
  film furthered the battle to show heterosexuals
  that the relationships of gay men and women are
  as durable and fulfilling as those of
  heterosexual couples.
• The next year also saw the release of a movie
  called Parting Glances which portrayed very
  realistic gay urbanites facing the challenges of
  living openly gay in the ultra conservative
  Ronald Regan Era and at the height of the impact
  of the AIDS epidemic on the gay community.
• Then, in 1989, yet another ground breaking
  semi-documentary called Tongues Untied was
  released. This movie depicted struggle with
  prejudice by the gay black man not only in the
  straight white community but within the straight
  black community as well illustrating that
  prejudice does not only follow racial lines.

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The Early 1990s The Outing of the Extent of
Americas Prejudice

• The early 1990s were a eye-opening time for the
  average American movie-goer.
• With films like the documentary, Paris is
  Burning (1990), the American people were allowed
  to see into the lives of the often poor, African
  American and Latino gay and transgendered people
  who participated in New Yorks drag balls. It
  chronicled their fight against racism,
  homophobia, poverty, and their struggle to gain
  acceptance and validation from the rest of the
  world.
• Subsequently, with the release of Philadelphia
  in 1993, the American public was confronted with
  their own prejudice against not only gay people,
  but people with AIDS. This movie also reminded
  people that gay men are not so very different
  from themselves and that they should shirk their
  preconceived notions and give them the same
  chance at life that everyone else gets.

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The Mid and Late 90s Using Comedy to Turn the
Tables

• During the middle and late 1990s, American movie
  producers changed venues once again
• In order to reach a wider viewing audience, they
  hired popular actors to portray gay men and
  created more comically inspired movies (so called
  safe movies)
• Movies like The Birdcage (1996) and In Out
  (1997) used comedy to bring the struggles facing
  gay men in modern American society.
• These films were widely accepted by the American
  public because of their relative safety and
  intentional comic over exaggeration of the gay
  male stereotype (especially those found in the
  film The Birdcage). These factors did not make
  the viewer uncomfortable like the in-your-face
  documentaries and dramas of the past but made the
  gay characters both more approachable and more
  familiar

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The 2000s An Era of Healing and Acceptance

• In 2000 and 2001, movies like Big Eden, Common
  Ground, and Trembling before G-d portrayed the
  gay males endeavors to reconcile his lifestyle
  not only with those around him, but with himself.
  Moreover, these movies illustrated the dilemmas
  that occur when ones sexual preference goes
  against ones faith and/or upbringing.
• 2004 found filmmakers once again focusing on the
  struggle of the gay black man with the release of
  movies like Brother to Brother and De-Lovely
  both of which show the trials and tribulations
  which gay black men of notoriety had to face.
• Finally, in 2006, the widely lauded Brokeback
  Mountain hit American theaters depicting two
  cowboys finding their sexuality together and
  following them through several decades and one of
  their untimely deaths. This movie was
  groundbreaking in not only the amount of revenue
  it brought in, but in the compassion that it
  engendered for the struggles of homosexual men.

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A Final Note from the Author.

• This presentation lists but a small portion of
  the American made movies portraying homosexual
  males and if you are interested in finding a list
  of more films on the subjects mentioned here,
  type into your internet address bar
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lesbian2C_ga
  y2C_bisexual_or_transgender-related_films_by_year
  
• And remember
• media shapes us as we shape it, it impacts not
  only our mental images of others but of
  ourselves