Bonus! Why were there so many gay marriages in the 1970s?
Why was there a surge in TV episodes with gay couples in the 1970s, after decades of queer people basically being invisible on television? And especially at a time when gay marriage was barely a gleam in anybody's eye, why did so many queer characters start describing themselves as "married"? We're investigating in this week's bonus video!
Also, I may be taking a trip to Europe this summer, and I'd love to do some talks while I'm there! If you have a connection to any museums, bookstores, community centers, universities etc that might like to host me, please let me know!
Backup link to the bonus video: https://youtu.be/DyEPNCQfEPI
Comments (11)
Queer Britain is a museum in central London. It is the first ever dedicated LGBTQ museum in the UK. They deal with mostly UK specific history but definitely worth reaching out to them: https://queerbritain.org.uk
Buddy Rasmussen, bartender at the Upstairs Lounge in the "promiscuous" French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 1970s, was with his husband 52 years, until he died last year.
IHLIA (LGBTQ Archives) in Amsterdam sometimes hosts talks.
If you make it to London, I'm sure Gay's the Word bookshop would be interested in hosting a talk on queer cultural history!
Yes that's very much on my list!
I was born in the early 1950s, so I saw at least one of the documentaries on homosexuality. I remember the statement about gay men being promiscuous and not able to be in a committed relationship. Even at the time I thought that maybe if they could get married to someone they loved it might encourage them to faithful. I mean that was a big thing about straight men, that they would "run around" before marriage, but once they found the "right girl" they would cut out that nonsense, settle down and have a nice monogamous relationship. I figured if it worked that way for straight men, then it should work that way for gay men as well.
Matt, I would LOVE to have you come to Porto, Portugal this summer. I can host you. We have a gathering of gay Ex-pats who all speak English on the 3rd thursday of of each month, and we would LOVE to have you as a guest speaker. I will coordinate to see if there is a queer book store that would also like to be involved. Hope to have you here soon, my friend.
LGBTQ bookstores in Porto to reach out to. Livraria Aberta at Rua do Paraiso 297, 4000-378 Porto. Livrariaaberta.pt. also University of Porto at Casa Comun. Www.up.pt/casacomun. as well as Rosebud Bookshop on Rua de Cedofeita 634, 4050-176, Porto. Hope this helps bring you to my new home city, my friend.
I don't think you can extrapolate what Wallace says about men to women. Women were just spinster living together over years.
Yep. The fact that women were paid less meant that it was understandable that they had to live together to share expenses Women, supposedly had lower sex drives than men, so they wouldn't have sex. Also, men were supposed to ask women to get married and women were supposed to wait around for that to happen. So if two women were living together, well no man had found them to be "worthy" of being picked. Stereotypes and financial reality created a perfect way for lesbians to have relationships and still fly under the radar.
Oooh, pretty!