1980: In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons extends the Sexual Offenses Act to cover Scotland, decriminalizing most private consensual sex acts between men.

1980: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make their debut in the San Francisco’s annual Gay Freedom Day Parade. 1980: Can’t Stop the Music – a sanitized film “biography” of the Village People, directed by Nancy Walker, opens nationwide. The Advocate calls it “thunderingly bad,” while The New York Times dismisses it as “mostly dead air … … Read More

1980: CBS broadcasts an hour-long documentary entitled “Gay Power, Gay Politics” that alleges to be about the emergence of gay political clout in San Francisco, but instead focuses obsessively on more lascivious aspects of gay sexuality, making them seem like the focus of the entire gay rights movement. In one segment, close-ups track the arrival … Read More

1980: William Friedkin’s Cruising opens nationwide and is blasted by critics (gay and straight) for its depiction of homosexuality, but also, as one critic puts it, “[its] narrative loopholes [and] unconvincing plot twists.” 1983: Lesbian playwright Jane Chambers (A Late Snow, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove) dies of a brain tumor at the age of … Read More