Maybe it happened (as so many things do) with our desire to dance, drink and generally cut loose in a little-known bar in New York when its patrons decided enough was enough and it was time to rise up and stand their gay ground against police harassment.

Maybe it was down to that gay stalwart Madonna, who siphoned off a myriad of homosexed iconographies and spiked the mainstream with all of them. Or maybe it was Tom Hanks, picking up an Oscar for his portrayal of a queer lawyer in Philadelphia and tearfully thanking his high school drama teacher and classmate who were “two of the finest gay Americans that I had the good fortune to be associated with,” before a billion, predominantly conservative, movie fans around the world.

Maybe it happened aeons ago, when Sappho reached for her biro and waxed lyrical about the laydeez. Maybe it’s happened hundreds of times since time immemorial, in ways just as memorable and just as forgettable. It’s never easy to trace the roots of a revolution, especially in something as quicksilver and ephemeral as culture. But however it began, just look at where it’s led!

Here’s our rundown of the major tipping-points of contemporary gay culture.

1. The Stonewall Riots
Often credited as the genesis of the modern gay movement as we recognise it today, the Stonewall Riots, like most historical events, are subject to much fevered debate. Was it pre-empted by the death of perennial gay icon, Judy Garland? Was it down to police harassment? Was it started by a bunch of bewigged, bespangled drag queens? Was it just the right time? Some details, however, are certain.

In the early hours of 28 June 1969 (the day after Garland’s funeral) the police raided NYC’s Stonewall Inn, a private members-type club with a predominantly queer clientele. It was the second time that week the bar had been targeted by police, and other gay bars had been raided in the weeks prior. The Stonewall’s staff and a few drag queens were arrested, prompting a minor demonstration that mushroomed into a violent, prolonged stand-off leading to more organised confrontations later that summer. And so the kernels of gay liberation were sown…

2. Decriminalisation Of Homosexuality
Back over this side of the pond now and the law that finally made gay men legal. Whereas lesbians have never been criminalised (largely thanks to Queen Victoria who thought they couldn’t possibly exist; mind you, she did love her Prince Albert) it wasn’t until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act that man love got the green light. Well, sort of.

Unlike gay men, it didn’t go all the way and was only a partial decriminalisation of male homosexual behaviour in England and Wales. If they wanted to do the dirty, they had to be over 21, in complete privacy [behind blackout curtains and under a 100 tog duvet? Ed.] and ‘fully’ consenting. Strangely, us gays call sex without consent the same thing the straight world does: rape. As Catherine Tate’s Lauren would say, “Whatever!” It was a start all the same.

3. Rock Hudson’s AIDS-related Death
On 2 October 1985, Rock Hudson, erstwhile big cheese film star, beefcake pin-up and bastion of hetero-maxed machismo, died from what was being tagged at the hysteria-ravaged times as ‘the gay plague’. Although he remained firmly in the closet throughout his career, Hudson finally came out towards his final days, thus shocking the world (and his ex-celluloid partner-in-crime Doris Day in the process) and forcing an ultra right-wing America deep in denial to take the disease seriously for the first time and, more importantly in our celebrity-suckered age, giving it a face.

Ironically for someone who rigorously resisted publicly acknowledging his gayness, Hudson’s death proved a turning-point in our collective attitudes towards AIDS (the concept of HIV didn’t even exist then) and galvanised Elizabeth Taylor to become the epidemic’s first star crusader and surprisingly powerful lobbyist.

4. Equal Age Of Consent
The age of consent was finally universally equalised on 30 November 2000, but like a circumcised man, it didn’t come easily. Predictably, religious groups went stratospheric, spouting the same old clichéd arguments that gay men roam the streets like lubed-up Lotharios continually raring to go and recruiting fresh meat with no teenager safe. Let’s face it, if we wanted gay sex on tap, we’d join the Catholic Church.

Die hard homo objectors from both Houses of Parliament reared their ugly mugs to mobilise their displeasure as well as the usual hand wringing from the Daily Mailers gobbing off their outrage at ‘the debasing of this great country of ours’. You know the type: people who are still valiantly trying to get over women having the vote and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

5. The Civil Partnership Act
This is a bit of a contentious one as some welcome it as a breath of equal rights fresh air whilst other sectors of the homo community gripe that it’s no more that a traditionalising nonsense that apes the straitjackets of straight culture. Whatever your view on ‘gay marriage’ (though it’s not really marriage as there’s no religious element) it does definitely level the rights playing field. We too can now write up an outrageously cheeky wedding list (only Dualit toasters for us though, if you please), have a shindig and eventually a homo version of a Macca vs. Mucca divorce. We’d show ‘em what real acrimony is, the wimps!

6. Prisoner Cell Block H
The inclusion of this soap on the list may appear facetious or self-consciously postmodernly ironic, but this cult series did plough new and significant turf in the portrayal of lesbians. Set in an Aussie women’s prison, it had an almost exclusively female cast that counted characters christened ‘Vinegar Tits’ and ‘The Freak’ amongst its number. It also dealt with the subject of lesbianism in a truly radical way - realistically. It didn’t pander to stereotype, public prejudice or straight male fantasy à la The L Word. It was what it was. And this was in the late 1970s.

A televisual milestone, for those of you too young to remember it first time round (or even the repeats), think Prison Break with Pat Butcher in the Wentworth Miller role.

7. Robert Mapplethorpe’s Photography
Or, more accurately, the general reaction to his photography. “I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before,” is how the man himself described his approach to his oeuvre / modus vivendi and once you see his compositions his gravitation towards things you’ve never seen before is clearly his default setting.

From his celebrity portraiture and flower photos to his shots of the world’s biggest dicks and the S&M demimonde, the late Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) scandalised polite society and pushed the outer margins of queer counterculture centre stage. In 1990, a typically homoeroticised Mapplethorpe show in Cincinnati fuelled a tsunami of protest regarding federal arts funding in the US that persists to this day. That aside, his work is achingly beautiful to look at, which is more to the point.

8. Paul O’Grady
Again, at first glance this is a tad on the frivolous side, but think about it. He was a club circuit drag act who made it onto primetime via Blankety Blank and Lily Live! in full asbestos acerbic mode dressed as a Slim-Fasted Divine and shooting everyone down with a splatter gun delivery. Yet he was still accepted and loved by the nation’s multi-demographics. A gay man clobbered-up as a clapped-out old hooker on Saturday night mainstream telly, how subversive can you get?

Currently to be found in civvie drag drawing them in at teatime, he’s giving the epitome of smug marrieds, Richard & Judy, a run for their book club which is the ultimate in cosy acceptance.

9. k.d. lang And Cindy Crawford On The Cover Of Vanity Fair
Hetero women have long been inveigled into buying lipstick by impossibly gorgeous lovelies in advertising, but for the first time in the early 90s the top fashion houses opted for overtly Sapphic imagery to sell their wares. Chalk it up to ‘lipstick lesbianism’, a trend spawned by the movie The Hunger (in which Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon go at it as lady vampires), or Madonna playfully flirting with her lezza muckers, but it crested with Cindy Crawford shaving k.d. lang’s face on the cover of the August 1993 issue of WASP bible Vanity Fair.

Looking back it’s hard to appreciate its impact, but back then it pressed more than a few red buttons. Later, Cindy sort of ruined the effect when she and then hubby, Richard Gere, issued a statement declaring their avowed heterosexuality. The only consolation being that their marriage lasted no longer than a strawberry season. Oh, dear.

10. The Birth Of Metrosexual Man
Metrosexuality is a term coined by journalist / provocateur Mark Simpson and characterises the trait of an urban man of any sexual orientation whose style / grooming aesthetic is akin to the gay sensibility of high-octane maintenance. Dismiss this fad at your peril, because, as ever, money is at the root of this oak. The more gay culture is commercialised, by dint of product-buying, homogenisation and image assimilation, the more you cut to the heart of consumerism and the more acceptance, if not outright enthusiasm, reveals itself. Even those who think the novelty will wear off may find themselves in a different world if it does, as it may well be a more tolerant and compassionate place, at least for one minority. And as us camp sods say, wouldn’t that just be absolutely fabulous?


Want to know more about gay history? Then check out our article on queer history books and check out what you thought were the most important Queer Cultural Moments.

Gay History Features:
 
Out Of The Past
Out in History
Top Ten: Historical Queers
Top Ten: Modern Queers
Vox Pop: Significant Queers
Paul Patrick
Vox Pop: Queer Dates
Gay Dates
Queer Scandals
Homo History
Fact File: Queer Museums
Vox Pop: Gay History

Find out more at www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk.

NEXT WEEK: Historical Queers
To celebrate LGBT History Month we’re interested in finding out who you think are the most significant gay people in history.

Do you feel that Michelangelo is the deserving holder of the title, or should it go to a literary figure such as Virginia Woolf or E.M. Forster? Perhaps your tastes are more modern and you think that Elton John, MP Chris Smith or even Madonna have made the most significant contributions to gay life. If you have any comments to make and would like to share your thoughts, we would like to hear from you. Your confidentiality will be respected and you may use a pseudonym if you wish.

We want to know what you think. Are you man or women enough to drop us a reply? Contact us at editor@gaydarnation.com and we'll print a selection of them in the next column.