Gay "scene" in USA during the 70s/80s

[Cum-ass]

Did anyone here ever experience the gay scene in the USA during its heyday? I'm talking about the Castro in San Francisco or perhaps the New York club scene. Anywhere where there was a lot of raunchy fucking on a grand scale would also be of interest

I have often googled for these first-hand reminiscences but I don't know if people are being secretive or they are just all dead?

It's all very well reading fiction about fuck-fest weekends but I'd like to hear what it was really like. Were guys really getting fucked by thirty guys a night on a very regular basis?

[muscmtl]

there s a great documentary on thiz

[fuckrogerbb]

May I ask what the name of the documentary?

[FelchingPisser]

Read 'Mineshaft Nights" by Leo Cardini.   Available on Amazon.  Details the biggest NYC sex club of that time.

[NLbear]

I read Faggots by Larry Kramer. I think it's still available. Supposedly caused a scandal at the time.

[theplayerking]

There's a documentary called Gay Sex in the 70s. I rented it from Amazon years ago. It has interviews with original participants who describe what it was like. 

[FelchingPisser]

Faggots is another...absolutely.  

[muscmtl]

17 hours ago, fuckrogerbb said:

May I ask what the name of the documentary?

 

[evilqueerpig]

I burst out of the closet in 1977.  Spent the night of my 18th Birthday at Club NYC, making sure I had sex with 19 men before leaving.  The 70s and 80s  in NYC was amazing and I took full advantage of a wide array of men, pretty much all but living at various bathhouses.

[barecubtop]

@NLbear and @Felchingpisser, thanks for the book recommendations.  I'm always looking for things to read about this kind of topic as well as just gay culture in general.  I recently read "City of Night", which I thought was very good.

[NLbear]

I remember reading "City of Night" (John Rechy) many years ago. Was and eye-opener at the time.

[Cum-ass]

16 hours ago, evilqueerpig said:

I burst out of the closet in 1977.  Spent the night of my 18th Birthday at Club NYC, making sure I had sex with 19 men before leaving.  The 70s and 80s  in NYC was amazing and I took full advantage of a wide array of men, pretty much all but living at various bathhouses.

Now you've just whetted my appetite! Love to hear more.....

 

[rede4it]

In the areas of Germany that had been part of the former East Germany (GDR) you sometimes hear the term OSTALGIE....a bit of a made up/pun meaning nostalgia for the things of the former communist nation.  No doubt, for many the current reunified Germany is a much better place, but people have a tendency to remember some of the good while quickly forgetting the bad---even from the oppression of that time in German history.

Yeah, there was some great sex in the '70's.  The clubs and baths were some of the only places queers could meet in relative safety.  As a result, we fucked our asses off and enjoyed the times.  But, you had to be a bit "hard core queer" to really have embraced that lifestyle.   Being openly homo meant a lot of negative things as well.....job loss, housing loss....family loss.

For me, the real awakening to that was a former standard movie house in downtown Akron turned porn (straight) theatre.  It is where I first experienced fully random and nearly unlimited queer sex.  It was seedy, dirty and fully of sketchy men and smelled like stale piss and cum.   I thought it was heaven on earth.  I probably could have paid my college tuition if I had gotten a dollar for every load that went in my ass or throat at that old place.   

For those in major cities, the life was even better--NYV, SF, LA all had an expanded version of what I had, and it was a bit more glamorous and inviting.  

Still I wonder how many married guys "of a certain age" avoided accepting their homosexuality due to the oppression of those days.  Now, in a more open time (we will see what Trump and the Supremes do about that) they can fuck on the dl.   But the hostilities and risk of those times 4 decades ago kept them from realizing their true nature.

I am glad I experienced that time.  I am glad I made it through the '80's without being a victim of AIDS, and I am glad I can experience the growing openness of being a fag in this century.   

So I suspect queer-stalgie is a real and important connection to those dark, yet exciting times of the past.  The benefit of time passing means they seem better now, but would we really want to give up what we have for that era once again?   I doubt it.....but to use a trite phrase, those were the worst of times, they were the best of times.  

 

[Cum-ass]

^ Actually, I would swap today's environment for that of the mid 70's in a heartbeat. I find that the way guys meet, in this social media rich world is deeply dissatisfying. It's all become sanitised, whilst the gay world 40 years ago was seedy, hot and it felt very special and like one was in a secret club. I was 20 in the mid 70s and hadn't formed my opinions and honed the way I wanted my gay life to evolve. I would have loved to have been a cum-slut in the clubs back then. Although, I would want it all but allied with the internet

 

[theplayerking]

The real question is, have people changed because of the AIDS crisis, or are there just more people who are out, including more conservative views of casual sex? I know a lot of guys (most?) who would never consider going in PrEP, even though their insurance covers it and would never dream of going to a bathhouse. They may hookup on occasion, but it's infrequent and highly selective. I don't think those people would have done much in 70s.