The New Old Gays
Remember Those Good Old Tragic, Magic, Diva-Loving Retro-Gays? Swish is Back With a Vengeance! So Gather Round the Piano Bar, From Patti LuPone to Barbra, We’re Taking a Trip to … Xanadu!
“It’s one of the last fabulous things about New York,” a dark-haired young man nursing a drink at the nightclub Splash, on West 17th Street, said the other night. He was referring to Musical Mondays, a weekly event at which a VJ plays video clips from Broadway shows—plus films based on Broadway shows, films featuring Broadway stars, Broadway tribute shows, and Tony Awards shows—to an audience of mostly gay, mostly young men, and a smattering of theatrically inclined young women.
A clip from the musical Wicked, featuring the actress Idina Menzel, came on. A cheer went up from the crowd. “I’ve been coming on and off since I was 22 or 23,” said a 26-year-old blond named Kevin, who is in cosmetology school. He wants to design wigs for Broadway shows, and, he said, the union requires its wig designers to be licensed hairstylists. “It’s very word-of-mouth. I was working at a press office—you definitely run into people you work with.”
A clip of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s January 2007 appearance on Saturday Night Live, when he sings the song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” from Dreamgirls, came on. “I knew since I was 7 that I was moving to New York,” continued Kevin, who was raised outside of Washington, D.C., and now lives in Hell’s Kitchen. He is skinny, with spiky hair. He wore an aqua blue T-shirt, jeans and flip-flops. “I moved here two months after I turned 18. I was temping, working in restaurant jobs. I came to be an actor.”
If that sounds like a familiar path, one trod by thousands of young, good-looking gay men before him, it’s nevertheless no longer the gay cliché. These days, the young gays of Williamsburg and the East Village—the ones who wear pointy shoes and tight cutoff shorts, who studied queer theory and dabbled in heroin at Sarah Lawrence or Bard or Wesleyan, hang out at bars like Metropolitan and Sugarland in Williamsburg or the Phoenix and Eastern Bloc in the East Village, and listen to Chromeo and Girl Talk and Le Tigre—get all the attention. Corner one of these young men, and he will profess ignorance of that other scene of youthful gays, the gays of the Friends of Dorothy variety. As one of the New Gays confidently told me, it is a scene made up exclusively of the old and, quite possibly, fat, adding that the only young men who fraternize with this group are those who cannot, in all likelihood and despite their best efforts, get laid.
Ouch.
Of course, to paraphrase Barbra Streisand, they’re still here. One might even say they’re flourishing. Here come the New Old Gays!
To be classified as a New Old Gay requires more than an appreciation of Patti LuPone, though love of somewhat tragic, just a tad grotesque, totally fabulous divas is a requirement. In some ways the New Old Gay can be read as a reassertion of a gay identity that had all but been given up for dead: If gays can be married and have children and live contentedly in the suburbs, or on the other end of the spectrum, do the same drugs at the same loft parties as their Oberlin classmates, and if everyone thinks AIDS is no more serious than diabetes, then, really, what’s the difference between the gays and the straights? By dialing back to and reinventing the old gay stereotypes, they may have the best shot at reclaiming gayness as something actually different.
It’s akin to the ways in which identity politics have played out for various minorities and ethnic groups; everyone makes this huge effort to assimilate, and then, after 10 or 20 years or so, they realize: It’s boring!
And thus, the New Old Gay appreciates and embraces camp and high kitsch, but not ironically; ultimately, the New Old Gay is earnest. He doesn’t even necessarily have to be into musical theater, though he almost always is.
Project Runway Season 1 contestant Austin Scarlett is New Old Gay, Project Runway Season 4 winner Christian Siriano is New Gay. The Scissor Sisters are New Gay. Rufus Wainwright flirts with being New Old Gay, but he’s really New Gay in a Judy Garland costume. New Old Gay is The Golden Girls; New Gay is America’s Next Top Model. New Old Gay is putting together a reading of a Wendy Wasserstein play and singing show tunes around the piano at Marie’s Crisis, the West Village bar with colored Christmas lights arranged in a rainbow pattern on the ceiling; New Gay is karaoke at Sing Sing after a birthday party at Primorski’s in Brighton Beach. Next Page >
Fab, Doree.
What do you think we are? Zoo monkeys? Yes, that's precisely what you think we are.
Hey Doree,
I must say this is one of the most ridiculous articles I think I've ever read. Trying to connect people's taste's based only on age is well let me see ageism. Not to mention all the stereotypical crap added in for good measure. Though I do love the use of the word "gays", it's so generic...
Kisses, MargOH!
Hey Doree,
I must say this is one of the most ridiculous articles I think I've ever read. Trying to connect people's taste's based only on age is well let me see ageism. Not to mention all the stereotypical crap added in for good measure. Though I do love the use of the word "gays", it's so generic...
Kisses, MargOH!
Can't wait for your next condescending article on "the blacks"!
it'd be easy to agree with those who say the piece belittles today homos...but truth is i am now 55 and living in westchester (after lifelong manhattan residency) and for the last few years have LOVED to stay home and listen to show tunes, arrange flowers and lay in the sun while drinking gin and tonics. so there u have it. i think the author has a case.
Of course David Ehrenstein is not amused by this article (which has the best ending ever, incidentally). Ehrenstein has a picture of Betty Grable on his website. Heh, New Old Gay or Old Old Gay? You decide.
And I don't understand for the life of me why he doesn't think communities are worthy of study and interpretation. Has he not heard of anthropology? Are people not ALLOWED to write about gays, blacks, Catholics, Jews and Italians? What the hell post-P.C., anti-culture sort of line is that anyway? Jesus, lighten up, missy.
Hey MargOH!,
I must say your comment is one of the prissiest, most condescending, most generically *Outraged* and wholly unnecessary comments I think I have ever read.
Thanks, sweetie!
Sorry, but I am forty year old married woman living in the South, deep in the South in fact, moonlight and magnolias, all that crap. And I am thoroughly enjoying my biography of Jackie Curtis with accompanying dvd, whilst drinking pinot grigio by the gallon, and following that will watch Liza and Judy Live at the London Palladium for the 7 millionth time. I cry EVERY time, my husband can't understand why I watch something that "gets [you] upset." As for stereotypes, I only know what I like, and gay-oriented musical theater is brilliant, exuberant, romantic, moving, and fun.
Mwah to everyone! I will check out Marie's next time I'm in town!
THIS IS NOTHING MORE THAN AN OLD CLICHE. THERE ARE ALL KIND OF PEOPLE IN THE GAY WORLD.
I don't get it. The "old gays" never went away. There have been piano bars and show tunes for decades, attended by all ages of people. Maybe the author of this article just forgot and spent too much time in Williamsburg. Down in DC, we're spending a lot of effort to give those "new gays" opportunities to form community and be themselves despite the pressures to conform in order to gain acceptance from the "old gay" community.
The citation of Barbra Streisand as the original source or definitive reading of "I'm Still Here" just shows how poorly thought out this tired, stereotyped, mindless article is.
I could see some of the outrage, but the gays tend to get cattier on message boards. As a "new gay" myself (see you at the Metropolitan tonight!) I, of course, could be a little miffed by the description of queer Williamsburg. I mean, you forgot to mention the "new bear" (HX of all sources did a cover story about Pin-Ups Magazine that should thoroughly explain what that's about). Christian Siriano is technically new gay, yes, but he's more specific than that--he's a new queen (and can be found at Sugarland).
And to any homosexual who freaks out about being pigeon-holed as a certain stereotype, we typecast ourselves to attract what we want to attract. As gay men, we are all ultimately narcissists--I wouldn't want to (can I type expletives at the Observer?) a theater queen or a fashion fag. I find body hair, intelligence, and a well rounded iTunes library totally hot. But that's also because I'm intelligent, hairy, and try to keep up on current events and cultural trends.
General conversation is ultimately how one weeds out people that they either want to have sex with or befriend, and ultimately, it didn't seem like there was anyone Doree talked to while compiling this article that I'd be interested in in either manner.
Gays create their own subcultures. Don't shoot the observer.
I'm a 25 year old gay man who was not the least bit offended by the article. But I do agree its a croc of $hit. All the "New Gays" I know love their showtunes just as much as they love their Top Model and their Le Tigre. Phoenix is just a gross bar...we party at RITZ. Xanadu was freakin' amazing but the RENT soundtrack will always take the cake for me. I'm a big fan of the new direction musicals are taking though I could never deny the talent of Bob Fosse. So what does that make me?
The problem with this article isn't that it's offensive, because it isn't, not really. But it implies that this is a new thing, or a rebirth of some kind - and while it's true that gay culture isn't as monolithicly camp-oriented as it once was, it's not something that ever went away. The affinity of gay men for musicals is something that's been written about a lot - taking a look at D. A. Miller's Place for Us would have been an informative start.
The other main problem with the article - which is almost too obvious to mention, as I know it isn't what the author meant - is that it also stresses that gay men are either one or the other, New Gay or New Old Gay. Which not only isn't true, but leaves out a whole swath of gay identity in between.
Also, "I'm Still Here" would have been more accurately ascribed to Yvonne De Carlo. (Can you tell that I have the soul of an Old Old Gay?) Love the closing anecdote, by the way.
Um, excuse? "To paraphrase Barbra, they're still here?" Huh? Barbra has NEVER sung Sondheim's "I'm Still Here" and isn't that ironic in the context of your little piece? I'm an OldNew Gay at 46 BTW. But I never had and still don't have a problem getting laid, butch enough to hang drywall and move a tree, and can still set a table for a fab brunch with Judy and Liza in my Hamptons house. So there. Still here. Pthhh.
I wrote a long response about how this article is a piece of junk. For all of those who hated this as much as I did, please enjoy:
http://www.socialcrisis.net/news/doree-shafrir-is-an-out-of-touch-new-ol...
Gays can, AND SHOULD, do anything they want in terms of taste, fashion, career and entertainment. But the lingo in this piece gave me a $#cking headache! New / Old New Old / Old New FEH!
Fun is well and good, but how about laying off defining ourselves (for once) by what bar we hang out in and what music we like? Maybe we should define outselves more by our actions and beliefs. Spend some time really getting to know yourself, and go from there. The bars will always be there for fun. But they shouldn't be there for a way of life.
what kind of cat ?
Hmmmm... Interesting theory, and an endearingly perky attempt to define a new Zeitgeist-y catchphrase, but I'm not sure that it works. Firstly, the New Gay/Old Gay thing is only relevant to big metropolitan cities, where there's enough of a gay demographic, a baseline of tolerance towards different sexual orientations and sufficient generations of gay existence to be able to compare and contrast one homo from another.
Outside of the big cities, in the American heartland, I don't think there's a New Gay/Old Gay distinction - there's just a No Gay policy at work. Over-sensitive little mummy's boys all over the country flock to New York so they can sing and dance their little hearts out, in ways they couldn't do in their tiny Bible-thumping small towns. It's always been this way.
I'm not sure that it's a case of New Gays wanting to be New Old Gay because it fills a hole in their Tuesday nights or it makes them cool and counter-cultural - I think it's just the same old "Miss Thing Goes To the Big Smoke" scenario that's been playing out since the 1950s. Musical theatre is a Morse code of hope to small town gay America - it's a smoke signal to wannabe chorus boys everywhere that they can get away from the High School Prom and be Homecoming Queen all on their own, and that everyone will applaud them, rather than hate them, pity them, despise them and want to kill them. This isn't New Gay or Old Gay - it's just gay. Or, at least, 1950s, Nellie Gay - living vicariously through their musical comedy heroines like Judy and Liza and Barbra who release the palpitating femininity they can't express for fear of being considered unmanly.
Of course, not all gays are like this, and not all gays are into musical theatre, and homos now have the right to be lumberjacks or transvestites or transvestite lumberjacks, blah blah blah. But don't try and sell New Old Gay as a new phenomenon - it's just an old one that's always been with us, and just getting a new lease of life.
Gay boys are fun! Especially when you're on the down low.
I often hang out at Phoenix, then head over to Marie's with a friend of mine, and hang out there. I don't wear pointy shoes, or really care about fashion, nor do I know the lyrics to hardly any broadway musicals. I don't watch project runway, and I don't really care for Liza or Barbara. I was never really into musical theater, and I don't even know what the Friends of Dorothy are.... So, Doree, what does that make me? You didn't cover what kind of gay I am. How will I ever be able to exist in society unless some person I've never heard of classifies me in a group, and puts a label on me? None of my other gay friends will ever talk to me again!
It's amazing that we as gay people get so upset when people stereotype us, but then we turn right around with articles like this and do it to ourselves... Thanks Doree!
somehow, i don't believe that the writer of this article considered gay men of color when he researched the topic. why am i not surprised?
Oh the witless joylessness of these posters...
where have all the flowers gone?
wow. started out so promisingly ( By dialing back to and reinventing the old gay stereotypes, they may have the best shot at reclaiming gayness as something actually different. ) and then turns into the most mindless article i've read in a while. here i am, expecting an investigation of those of us who haven't - and won't - jump on the gay train headed for "normal" suburban family life, never having envisioned a life like that for ourselves. and i get something about how gays like musical theater. i feel somehow dumber having read this.
Sounds like someone is intimidated by the L train junkie hipster fags. Which is fine by me, kudos.
New Gays are doing the same with with their disco/sleaze/leather/mustache club nights and with nary a trace of irony to be found. The difference is, they can't pull it off convincingly because there is no danger. Try having sex with someone wearing pointy shoes - nothing to get excited about. On the other hand, say a bad word about Babs or Patti - you'll get your teeth knocked out.
I found it a stupid uninformed piece of garbage. The ideas aren't bad for exploration, but the execution was miserable.
Is it written by a 19yo female college student? What kind of background work did she do? How does she find these people to interview them? Why are they relevant? Was her criteria just to find the youngest person in the bar? What makes them an authority? or even quotable? and then the private Starbucks interview...why? who is he? Where's the editor?
And what about those that don't fit into either category? The gym bunny whole foods health nut Chelsea boys... or the gay gaming computer and comic loving geeks ...or the super Mary ghetto thugs ...or the salsa dancing Latinos contingent ...or the fuzzy burly "real men" bears ...or the sober ...there are endless labels walking around out there.
How this made it to print is beyond me, and to be a featured article. It's just ridiculous. I LOVED the art work though.
My dad would have loved this. He was definitely New Old Gay...Or maybe he was just plain Old Gay. Either way he would have loved it. Thanks for letting me look through the window.