Never Gonna Give You Up
Posted on January 16, 2014 Leave a Comment
Never Gonna Give You Up is a song by Rick Astley and a chapter in Stonewall to Obama. It describes coming face to face with AIDS for the first time. Here’s an article and excerpt from Canada’s PositiveLite Magazine.
http://positivelite.com/component/zoo/item/never-gonna-give-you-up
Stonewall to Obama now available on Amazon
Posted on January 15, 2014 Leave a Comment
Get your copy here.
Cover Art
Posted on January 7, 2014 Leave a Comment
The image above is a photo collage which became the image base for Jeff Huntington’s painting S2O. It’s the cover art for ‘Stonewall to Obama.’
YMCA
Posted on December 26, 2013 Leave a Comment
If ever there was a gay recruiting song, it was ‘YMCA.’ It was every parent’s worst nightmare. In fact most of the Village People’s music was an assault on the heterosexual ideal. ‘YMCA,’ ‘Crusin’,’ ‘In The Navy,’ ‘Macho Man’ and ‘Go West’ called out to all the young boys to come join the gay revolution. Really, they had nothing to fear. A straight boy wasn’t going to be seduced by the Village People. But, randy young gay boys, like me, suddenly were made aware that there was a place to find other people like ourselves. ‘YMCA’ did more for big cities than it did for the Young Men’s Christian Association, that’s for sure. Gay boys flocked to large metropolitan cities to find their people. ‘YMCA’ was our call to arms.
Over the Rainbow
Posted on November 17, 2013 1 Comment
Somewhere Over the Rainbow is considered the first gay anthem. Of course, there were songs prior to SOTR that closeted gays identified with throughout the ages. But, movies and later, music videos play a huge role in gay culture. We’re a very visual people – and The Wizard of Oz was over the top and about as gay as you can get, in a campy, epic and cinematic way. Its rainbow is one of the first and most important icons of the gay rights brand. The gay rainbow flag directly references the song implying that someday we’ll find ourselves in a land where the dreams that we dare to dream really do come true – equality for all. ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ was on the juke box at the Stonewall and was played at least once a night. I would sing it in my bedroom, standing in front of the mirror, in my footy pajamas, and often I’d be transported over the rainbow to a place where gender roles were irrelevant and it was acceptable for boys to wear cute, blue and white gingham, pinafore dresses and ruby slippers.
“Somewhere over the rainbow, Bluebirds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then, oh why can’t I? If happy little bluebirds fly, Beyond the rainbow.”
Culver McCall 