The meaning of gay
Subtitle: interaction, publicity, and community among homosexual men in 1960s San Francisco
By: J. Todd Ormsbee.
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Lanham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 337
ISBN-13: 9780739115978; 9780739115985; 9780739144718
Subjects: Gay men -- California -- San Francisco -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Gay men -- California -- San Francisco -- Social life and customs -- 20th century; Gay community -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century; Gay culture -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Description: "Homosexual men in San Francisco had started the 1960s interacting mostly in private, informal groups, meeting in bars and house parties. But by 1972, the city had a "gay community" and "gay pride," all celebrated with a parade. Through numerous organizations and publications, gay men created a counter-publicity to fight against their domination and subordination, and had begun to try to build a community that would foster deeper, more meaningful relationships with each other. The emergent counter-publicity and community in turn created the social spaces necessary for gay men to create an expanding range of possible meanings for their "gayness," meanings that aligned more closely with their experiences and which better helped them meet their needs and desires. The gayness they created could expand and contract depending on the needs and circumstances of the individual or group." "Rather than the typical story of the evolution from "conservative" to "radical" social movement, The Meaning of Gay sees the development of gay politics as the shift from the need to establish a public-facing gayness in the early 1960s, to the community building efforts that began in the mid-1960s, through the efforts to create a gayness based in authenticity, brotherhood, and revolution in the early 1970s. Each of these developments flowed from gay men's responses to the swiftly changing San Francisco and American environment. The dramatic explosion of possibilities for gayness that emerged during the 1960s may serve as a touchstone for those concerned with the problems of gay male life in the twenty-first century. This book traces these developments as they was recorded in the gay periodicals of the era, and analyzes them from the perspective of John Dewey's theory of mind, desire, public, valuation, and democratic community." --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Sickness and sin: gay men confront symbolic domination; title: The origins and values of a gay male public; title: Conflict over the ends and means of gay counter-publicity; title: The struggle for a gay community; title: The meaning of gay sex: intimacy, love, and friendship; title: Gay masculinities; title: The meaning of "gay".