Welcome to Screen Gems, Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.
The Eye-Opener: Gay Sex in the 70s
For most of us, the 1970s represents an idyllic age, a time after Stonewall granted LGBTQ people more visibility and freedom before the scourge of AIDS brought it all crashing down. Gay Sex in the 70s, the explicit documentary by director Joseph Lovett, eulogizes and defies the period, and the explosion of gay sex that came along with it. Featuring interviews with writer Larry Kramer, photo Tom Bianchi, animator Robert Alvarez, and more, the film reconstructs the era when queer culture thrived around bars, clubs and bathhouses, and an attitude of sexual freedom not seen since. For most of us, it’s the closest we will ever get to the real thing.
Nostalgic, sexy and frank, Gay Sex in the 70s offers up a crash course in a chapter of LGBTQ history, and one told in rare detail. We recommend it to anyone that has ever danced to disco…and because we always recommend gay sex to anyone.
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Streams on iTunes & VIMEO.
RBYapok
Seen it. Own it. Highly recommend it.
Especially for those younger Queer folks who find it difficult to understand the open, seemingly constant sexual activities of their Gay elders.
Also for those who want to completely desexualize the LGBTQ community. No, we’re not all/only about sex. But in one way or another, our human sexuality is part of who we are.
trsxyz
I also own it & highly recommend it! It’s entertaining, and also a damn good history lesson about “pre-AIDS” 1970s sex in the big city, when the gay liberation movement was just beginning to become more visible.
barryaksarben
I was on the west coast in the mid 70s and honestly it was heaven. It wasnt just the sex it was the sense of freedom. That we had FINALLY gotten past the uptight puritan sexphobic handcuffs that we saw when we were kids and our parents were finally divorcing or swinging. We had been disappointed in the late 60s hippies whose free love somehow DIDNT include us so we rejected them and looked to ourselves to lead. Even if you hate disco music you would have loved going to the clubs back then as every night was a celebration of joyous freedom. We were in ghettos where we made the rules or soon would be and many of us were NEVER in the closet so felt free of the past completely. WIthout AIDS there were no serious health issues or at least that was what was told to us by many experts so celebrate we did in every way possible. I am so glad young people are being safe as they should be. I am also proud of my generations response to AIDS. We were left out to die by REagan and the governement and we proved we were as strong as we thought we were. I do have to say I feel bad anyone missed that initial feeling of celebration and the sex was amazing in its JOY
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I wonder if the movie touches on the free clinic being basically the only clinic many gays went to and only because they were sure they had VD of some sort. Hopefully when they get to the bathhouse segment they will mention that Bette Midler and Barry Manilow performed in NYC bathhouse when they were unknowns and grew a following.
cwaigy
Where can we get it in Australia?
Boodlen Groodenff
If you can access ITUNES or VIMEO you can stream it over the great invention of this utility we are using right here.
NateOcean
Is this an oral history?
Boodlen Groodenff
I have heard some of the research was very anal.
148jules
My local library in Vancouver has a copy! But of course it’s lent out.
Ginger Tom
That was then, this is now. What do people feel characterises gay sex in the 21st century, given that it is not about sheer, unbridled freedom and hedonism? All time classics such as syphilis and gonorrhoea have made a comeback recently but in an antibiotic resistant form. What would a film about modern gay sex look like?
Vince
Probably allot of the same. Now it’s just done behind closed doors thanks to the apps.
If you watch the documentary you’ll notice antibiotic resistance was a concern back then as well.