Gay Men--I just read an interview with John Waters, and I feel old!

[joeybee12]

He talks about how he liked it better when homosexual sex was illegal, so there was a taboo and sort of a fetish with it. Of course, I'm thinking that he's just being nostalgic. And then I realized that I'm nostalgic for the "good old days" too. He's older than me, but I still recall the days when you had to go to the bad part of town to find the bar, etc. And for those of you in L.A., wasn't Halloween a blast when it was just a few hundred people running around in costumes on Santa Monica Boulevard? Now homosexuality is so accepted that MILLIONS of people show up on Halloween, bring along their kids, and as a result, there are like 2 costumes. It was a lot more fun when no one knew about this.

Anything you think might have been better in the good old days?

[UdoKier]

1. Who's John Waters?

Psych.

Just trying to make you feel a little older...

As for the rest of your comments, I have no idea - but I'd sure love to be 25 again...

[joeybee12]

3. And how many years ago was that????????????????????

[UdoKier]

15. About 10 to be exact.

But I'm just playing with you.

I've seen Hairspray, Serial Mom, Polyester and Pink Flamingos (:puke:).

Waters' films are nothing if not unique.

I'm not ga, but I live in SF and know some gay people, but I can't really speak for what life is like for gays now as compared to then.

But as I enjoy entertainment produced by or about gay people -camp stuff like Waters or Rocky Horror, etc. - I can say that what's out today does seem kind of trite and homogenized, whereas the stuff from the 60s and 70s was just trippy!

But the same can be said for "straight" entertainment too. Everything seems so corporate and fake now...

[joeybee12]

18. Thanks for fessing up! I never would have!!!!!!!!!!

[UdoKier]

20. I still would feel 25...

...if I didn't have 2 rugrats in my hair all day (work-at-home dad)

So gay men are sheepish about telling their real age?

35 doesn't seem THAT old to me...

[joeybee12]

21. Oh! I meant fessing up to age in general--not to 35 in particular!

It's the Nancy Reagan gene all we gay men share!

[malatesta1137]

2. i LOvE Waters!

POLYESTER is an all-time favorite and he was on Air America yesterday, but he's just talking out of his behind. Gays have come a long way to wish they were back in a time of fear, secret and prejudice.

[joeybee12]

4. He does go on about how he's glad that there is more acceptance, but

still I think he's nostalgic for a simpler time, which we all are to some extent.

[mark0rama]

27. Waters likes to wax nostalgic about his outlaw youth.

Read his memoir, Shock Value, and you'll see what I mean.

I suspect he likes the exhilaration of being rebellious, but wouldn't really want to turn back the clock on people's attitudes.

Note also the title of that book - Shock Value. I think that's at least a secondary goal of his in this interview too.

[terrya]

5. This gay man isn't nostalgic for "the good old days"

Because, for the most part, "the good old days" was invisibility. John Waters is of an age (in his early 60's, I believe) when he remembers gay life immediately after Stonewall.

No, thanks. I like gay life today. :-)

[joeybee12]

9. But don't you think it's more that he's being nostalgic for a simpler time

Hell, we all do that--it'd be nice to be young again and know what we know now.

Also, he was really talking more about the sexual act--like it was kinkier knowing you were breaking the law.

All I know is that I hope we get to see Johnny Knoxville's butt in the movie!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. the sex may have been more exciting

but i doubt that a life in hiding was a particularly happy life

[wtmusic]

7. Volunteer for Rick Santorum

He'll help make it taboo again! :crazy:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. I was just telling someone the other day that the 70's were a fun time

to be gay...no aids...lots of campy drag shows...hell, I went to the very first Gay Night at Disney (they stopped us from dancing)

[joeybee12]

10. You know, it's like you were one of the few people in on a great secret!

And remember when all you had to worry about was herpes???

[Dookus]

11. he has a point

I've often wondered what gay culture will be like in the future when homosexuality is perfecty acceptable. A lot of great kinks will go the way of the dodo.

I don't think Waters WANTS to go back in time... but he's pointing out a simple truism - illicit sex is ALWAYS more fun.

[Squeegee]

28. Boy did I read that one wrong...

I thought you said "dildo" instead of "dodo". :o

[Dookus]

29. oh you...

:P

Get to work! I wanna upgrade my lifestyle.

[DemWitch]

12. I came out in the late 70's...

While there were many interesting and exciting things for a 17 year old to engage in, ahem... particularily on weekend jaunts to NYC, ahem...

I'll take now over then anyday...

[joeybee12]

17. What's "ahem"? Don't think I went to that particular bar!

[DinahMoeHum]

13. John Waters - artistic heir to the just-departed Russ Meyer?

Whaddaya think?

:think:

[joeybee12]

16. Do you think a gay man could channel an OBVIOUSLY heterosexual

man like Meyers? I mean, the fascination with BOOBS! They're similar, but in one way on a very different wavelength!

[xchrom]

14. yes and no

i loved the illicitness of yesterday.
but -- i find a whole new crew of folk to fool around with today -- and some of them are straight or questing/curious however you want to call them.
which only shows that the sexual revolution is still evolving and newer people are opening up to different experiences without some of the nightmares i went through when i was younger.
yeah i fooled around with them back then too -- but now they have something to say about it all.
and yeah, some of the celebrations have become common -- and for a long time i thought gay pride marches were going to be nothing but big memorials to victims of the epidemic.
but that's gotten MUCH better and we're back to celebrating our community.
i simply hope that the gbltq&c community has a desire to remain distinct from the larger hetero population -- and we don't all become mc-culturised.

[joeybee12]

19. Yeah, I'd hate for all of us to move to the suburbs!

I guess it's always a case of you'd like the best of every time, and I guess you can't have that, and it makes one nostalgic! Like your nightmares, I know I had some dreadful experiences, but looking back you usually tend to forget that part, and think it was amuch simpler time, when really it wasn't.

Still I was young..................

[ronnykmarshall]

22. Halloween

I hear ya about Halloween. Even back in 1987 in SF, it was still a fun local event. By 1990 it was a mess. A bunch of fucked up straight 20 and 30 somethings from the East and South Bays trashing our hood.

It got to the point that the locals in the Castro would go out the night before and stay away on Halloween.

[joeybee12]

23. I'm gonna try out New Orleans this year for Halloween--I just made my

reservations! Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!

[ronnykmarshall]

24. Sounds fun

Since I live right off Santa Monica Blvd, it's right outside my door here in WeHo.

Last year it POURED down rain. Ain't nothing purdy about a wet drag queen.

[Zookeeper]

25. I used to have great fun on Castro St....

at Halloween way back in the late 70's. At the time, the real party had just shifted from Polk St. to Castro, due to too many tourists on Polk. I suppose there isn't a neighborhood left to shift the party to now.

Sometimes I'm nostalgic for those times (and S.F.), but mostly for being very young and completely free of adult responsibilities.

:toast:

[Terran]

26. At 44 , I don't remember "the good old days"

Not sure which good old days you're talking about: the 70's? Before that, even? No, I like my own time better. I like being out of the closet.

[joeybee12]

30. The "good old days" are always the times of our youth...

...for some it's the 60's, others the 70's, and, yes, believe it or not, ther'll be posters in 20 years talking about the good old days of 2004!