Similarities Between Before Stonewall And City Of Night

Response Paper 1

The last century of LGBTQ+ history, and more specifically male sexuality has had its positive and negative shifts in time between the period of the 1910’s to present day. Beginning with the pre-Stonewall period, the 1910’s to June 28, 1969, gay men were in closets due to their unjust persecution, as depicted in the film Before Stonewall and John Rechy’s City of Night. After the storm, the sun rose and the most liberating time period for gay men surfaced, the post-Stonewall period upto the unearthing of HIV/AIDS in June 1981, as illustrated in the film Gay Sex in the 70s. The sun’s shine began to dim again from 1981 to 1996 as HIV/AIDS was discovered and began to extinguish the LGBTQ+ community, as depicted in the film, United

The film accounts for many of the white gay man experience and how many of them were perceived as diseased. The desire they had for one another was seen as an abomination. This is further supported by an event in John Rechy’s, City of Night, when the protagonist held hands with another man, but after holding hands they cannot bare to look at each other because it is something that is condemned during this time period. Unlike Rechy, the men depicted in the film were privileged because of the color of their skin. Other than being gay, they were not a minority. The Xicanx/Latinx experience was failed to be accounted for. This experience is a special one, because it would include the several intersectionalities of a queer Xicanx/Latinx person. Not only were they gay, but they were brown, and most likely came from a very conservative Catholic family which condemns homosexuality. The film includes several oral histories of gay men, rarely were those men Latinx. Chronologically, towards the end of the movie they mention the occurrences of Stonewall, yet failed to acknowledge that two transgender women of color, Sylvia Rivera a Latina, and Marsha P. Johnson, a black transgender woman, started the Stonewall riots. These names were never mentioned and much less known by people who are trying to gain consciousness about this occurrence

Larry Kramer, refers to this period in LGBTQ+ history as the “gay holocaust” for good reason. As depicted in the film United in Anger: A history of ACT-UP!, many queer peoples of color were dying because there was no one researching HIV/AIDS and there were no medications. A lot of people were dying, especially people of color, and no one was doing anything about it. This film showed the intersection with race and healthcare. If you were nonwhite your chances at survival were even worse than if you were white. In this film, more Xicanx/Latinx people were included. There were members of ACT UP who were Xicanx/Latinx who were ready to fight the genocide of queer people. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of minorities dying from seroconverting. On the other hand, it was essential for us to see the representation of queer Xicanx/Latinx in the film. This showed us they were present during this crucial time where they fought to save the lives who those who practically had a death