Gay rough trade
&#;Rough Trade&#; and &#;A Sticky End&#;
In my first week as Lambda’s male erotica editor I received enough pornography to keep a lonely woodsman happy for an entire winter. The first one I picked up was A Sticky End, a Mitch Mitchell mystery (great alliteration). Mitchell is a wealthy doctor out to discover who murdered Bartlett a wealthy married man who’d lavished attentions and gifts on Morgan, a married banker who is one of Mitchell’s favorite bottoms.
When I came out in gay bankers and doctors lived in the closet. I knew them but never had to live like that because my gay friends were Hippies. Professionally I made a career as an out gay man active for three Mayors of San Francisco and various civic groups, and you say there’s nothing pornographic about that. I used my nights and weekends to earn my erotic bona fides in the bars, baths and private clubs. (I had so much fun.)
James Lear’s A Sticky End jolted me back into those years, providing all the details of the time and place, the fear of discovery. The book has all the intricacies befitting a Sherlock Ho
Apps often cop blame for hookups gone wrong. But meeting strangers for casual sex was never risk-free. In pre-Grindr times, male lover men still fell prey to the perils of rough trade.
In the prior nineteen hundreds, former Ipswich boy William Johns worked as a groom for Sir Alfred Cowley, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament. The year-old received room and board in Sir Alfred&#;s Toowong home, and a wage of 15 shillings a week, about $ in today&#;s cash. Despite his low income, the good-looking young bloke was a snappy dresser.
On Christmas Eve , William caught the tram into town. He knocked about Queen Street and Fortitude Valley, checking out the festive store displays. At about 10 pm, he ran into a juvenile man in Queen Road who&#;d said hello to him in the avenue a few weeks before.
John Lowry introduced himself as a mate of one of William&#;s brothers. He asked if he could come and stop with William for the night.
&#;Oh certainly, if you are a respectable man.&#;
Pre-Grindr coarse trade
John apparently assured William of his respectability. That was not the perspective of the pol
&#;Rough Trade&#; review: Surviving modern gay Brand-new York
The late playwright Terrence McNally hated being called a “gay playwright” almost as much as he hated the term “gay plays.” It’s a valid point: Why, he asked, shouldn’t there simply be plays and playwrights? Notwithstanding, there is a specific sub-genre of plays from the midth century forward that deal specifically with the lgbtq+ male experience in the culture. Some of these contain been cultural masterpieces — “The Boys in the Band,” “The Normal Heart,” and recently “The Inheritance.” Others possess been in the vein of “cute boys in their underpants,” which own been titillating but almost instantly forgettable. Off- and Off-Off Broadway have been rife with the latter for years, notably “Naked Boys Singing,” which, now stripped of its more serious songs, is a destination for bachelorette parties as much as anything else. Leave figure.
A substantive — and entertaining — gay play that is neither superficial nor a political screed is uncommon, and when one comes along, it should be celebrated… and seen. The play in this case is “Rough Tra
A rough trade
CLASS is an issue not widely acknowledged within gay circles. Homosexual or not, who you hang out with, have access to and have relationships with is either class defined or class restricted. Class differences within the gay group keep gay men separated through fear, historically grounded but unreliable feelings of disgust for other classes, and pressure to conform and participate in a community where we can all be "out" together. Class differences are a major barrier to queer liberation.
In general, working-class men are portrayed as the most crude, the most sexist, the most vicious and particularly the most homophobic of all men. It crosses few people's minds to even regard there being gay working-class men. Yet among men, gay or straight, there is more opportunity for most working-class men to break out of the homophobia to explore creature real mates. Many working-class men have a fantastic ability to get very close to each other. Through work, sport and socialising, they have earned each other's respect and know they can rely upon each other. Despite the amo