LGBTQI+ Artistic Activism

 1970s Gay Activism Movement

Before the dawn of the 1970s, a majority of the gay population had to hide their truths. Those who preferred the same gender lived in fear of homophobia and homophobic violence. U.S. citizens who, under the constitution, were given the same freedoms as other men and women in the nation had to hide behind the thin veil of ignorance that heterosexual Americans placed upon them. That veil remained until June 28th, 1969. On that day in New York City, police stormed the Stonewall Inn which was located in Greenwich Village (history.com editors). The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police transported employees and patrons out of the bar. The police raid led to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, in neighboring streets, and in nearby Christopher Park. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Before the Stonewall riots lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans were not welcomed into everyday American life. In fact, at the time of the Stonewall riots, the solicitation of same-sex relations was illegal in New York City (history.com editors). In order to find acceptance among the world people of the LGBT community attended underground, notoriously gay, mafia ran bars and clubs around the nation (history.com editors). Despite flocking to these “accepting” bars, same-sex relations were illegal, leading to constant harassment and policing. 

Those years that followed, the decade of the 1970s, represent a remarkable period of transformation for gays and lesbians, particularly those living in America's coastal cities. At its core, that transformation was about visibility. During those years, there was the first gay television movie; a sexy on-screen kiss between two men in Sunday, Blood Sunday; and the release of Cabaret, which has been hailed as the first movie that "really celebrated homosexuality" (Kaiser in Rosen). There were gains in politics too: Edward Koch, then serving in Congress, "became one of the first elected officials to publicly lobby on behalf of the homosexuals of Greenwich Village," (Kaiser in Rosen). Gay Pride Week was established. Perhaps most significantly: In December of 1973, the board of the American Psychiatric Association voted 13-0 "to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders."

With the initial acceptance of LGBTQI+ members in the community came the rise of LGBTQI+ advocacy in mainstream media. Acceptance of those in the 1960s-1970s LGBT community became more and more prominent, with heterosexual Americans beginning to embrace their “different” sexuality. 

As lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender acceptance grew larger towards the late 1970s, the AIDS epidemic followed suit. Due to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, acceptance of homosexuality was, once again, regressed. Nonetheless, the artistic support of the LGBT community in the world remained. From infamous artists to poets, to pop-art painters, the advocacy for LGBT lives moved forward despite the negative connotations that surrounded the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community throughout the 1980s. 

Political, Artistic Pieces of the 1960s-1980s LGBT Movement

Effeminate by Steven F. Danksy (1972) 

In Steven F. Dansky’s piece Effeminate, the activist, writer, and documentarian explore what the word “effeminate” means in the 1980s LGBT community and the United States as a whole.  Using his innate ability to write with efficacy, Dansky looks at the nation's approach to becoming “unmanly” (Rosen). With regard to the 1980s AIDS movement, the idea of being “effeminate” took on the connotation of being broken, insufficient, gross, or ungodly. As the AIDS epidemic worsened, so did the discrimination against LGBTQ members. With hopes of portraying the honest reality of “effeminate” men that did not fall to the AIDS epidemic, Dansky continued to create literate art in hopes of bringing awareness to the acceptance of his community (Rosen). 

AIDS #5 by Marc Lida (1983)

Marc Lida's 1983 watercolor "AIDS #5" shows Death hovering over, and rats surrounding, two men having sexual intercourse. With the intention of bringing a “shock factor” to the viewer, AIDS #5 tries to portray honestly and not conventionally “pretty” reality of LGBT relationships. Hoping to make viewers see these relationships as “less beautiful” than they truly are, AIDS #5 and Lida’s other pieces set a bar lower than it should with the hope that others would see the LGBT community as more (visualaids.com)

Freddie Mercury

 It is no secret that Queen’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, has been one of the biggest artistic advocates for the 19702-1980s LGBT AIDS and advocacy movement. By 1986, when Mercury and Queen gave their most iconic performance at Live Aid, there were some openly gay performers in the mainstream; the UK’s biggest-selling single that year was Don’t Leave Me This Way by the Communards, whose frontman Jimmy Somerville was proudly gay and highly engaged with the LGBT-rights movement (Levine). Nevertheless, Wham! singer George Michael remained in the closet, and Culture Club’s Boy George had navigated his first flush of fame a few years earlier by toning down his homosexuality. “Although I famously said at the time that I’d rather have a cup of tea than sex, my sex life was actually really rampant,” Boy George told The Guardian in 2007. “But I’d been brought up to think it was dirty and wrong, and not to be made public.”

A Letter to the LGBT/AIDS Movement of the 1970s-1980s

You uncovered the world. The world of pain that so many people who are built with the exact same face. Although I can try to sympathize, I cannot relate. As a straight, white female I do not know what it is like to face the pain of such a disease. To have to riot in the streets is something I do not know. Nonetheless, I have an unwavering respect for those who have taken the time, patience, and energy to improve the quality of life for the LGBT community. 

Works Cited

Visual AIDS. “Art, AIDS and Activism.” Accessed March 16, 2021. https://visualaids.org/gallery/detail/art-aids-and-activism.

Levine, Nick. “Who Was the Real Freddie Mercury?” Accessed March 16, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191010-who-was-the-real-freddie-mercury.

Miss Rosen. “The Radical History of LGBTQ Protest Art.” Huck, April 12, 2019. https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/art-2/the-radical-history-of-lgbtq-protest-art/.

Rosen, Rebecca J. “A Glimpse Into 1970s Gay Activism.” The Atlantic, February 26, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/a-glimpse-into-1970s-gay-activism/284077/.