What was the gay sex scene like in the 1970's?

[AlexThompson]

I came of age in the late 80's, during the height of the AIDS crisis.  Therefore, I've never experienced truly carefree, live-for-the-moment sex.  I did my fair share of cruising in Los Angeles in the 90's, but it was all rather tame. 

What was life like in the 70's?  Was sex easy to come by?  What was the cruising scene like?  I'd love to hear about your wild adventures!

[JKane]

Would also love to hear more about this.  And what about the institutionalization or castration threats, how long was that really happening, any experiences?  

[tassojunior]

All you need to know. Click on user name after TicToc to see the full length screen.

Edited September 8, 2020 by tassojunior

[donmuang1614502772]

I think quite..... hairy

[AdamSmith]

From the late ‘70s...

You picked up a guy you liked, or a girl you liked (or one of both that you both liked  ), went out eating & drinking, then went home & spent the next 24 hours in bed together.

[RodHagen]

This movie, appropriately titled Gay Sex in the '70s,  made me want to go back in time:

 

 

You can watch the full thing here:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gay-Sex-70s-Tom-Bianchi/dp/B00BHNCMKU

 

 

[BiBottomBoy]

well the thing is you could bareback all the time (yay).

The bad thing is that you didn't realize you were spreading HIV which was at that point just considered a type of cancer common to gay men.

[seanny]

Oh lots of things were spreading before HIV/AID was known they just weren't as deadly.  Now, that AIDS is not longer as big of a killer we have Hep C which is either curable or life-shortening.

[BiBottomBoy]

I thought you could get a vaccine for the hep?

[LivingnLA]

On 12/14/2020 at 11:33 AM, BiBottomBoy said:

I thought you could get a vaccine for the hep?

No. There are vaccines for Hep A & B but Hep C remains a challenge even after 30 years of research. But, they are getting closer, so maybe we'll have one in the next 5-10 years.

[msclelovr]

On 9/3/2020 at 3:17 AM, AlexThompson said:

What was life like in the 70's?

Hedonistic @AlexThompson I lived in central Amsterdam and central London in that decade. There were some gay bars and very few gay clubs (and they were small). But it’s also the decade when large gay dance clubs opened. There was street cruising, openly in certain locations.
 

The downside was that very few gay men were open at work or socially. Most men were discreet and didn’t talk about their romantic lives. 

[vinapu]

20 minutes ago, msclelovr said:

Most men were discreet and didn’t talk about their romantic lives. 

we can use some of that those days too 

[PeterRS]

I come from a part of the United Kingdom where the 1967 law decriminalising homosexuality in England did not apply. So that law continued in force. Partly as a result, very few people were prepared to be known as gay. I remember my parents talking in hushed disapproving tones about a middle-aged man who worked in the local pharmacy. "He attends THAT club", I recall them saying, only realising some years later that it was the one place where gays could meet. Membership only! There was also only one shop down a back street that sold 'risky' photo books (only of women) and where guys would surreptitiously try not to be noticed when they came in for a box of condoms.

Even at University there was virtually no gay culture. My first crush was with a late teen who stayed in one of the Halls of Residence. We got to know each other, started doing lots of activities together, even hiking at week-ends. But I was too scared of two things - rejection and being known as gay by someone who might not be gay. The gaydar signals that people threw off then were much less obvious. Eventually after many months, we realised our mutual attraction and started a short affair. It was wonderful!

I knew nothing about STDs in those days. We just did not talk about them. Having taken a holiday in New York in 1978, I thought I was in heaven. On the day I arrived, a friend took me to the Gaiety Burlesque off Times Square. I was gob-smacked. Absolutely loved it and returned a few times. On my next trip a couple of years later, I discovered one of the large bathhouses (the Everard perhaps?). By this time I had had a trip to Amsterdam and became fixated on the sauna scene. All I now remember were the Day and Night saunas. It was at the Night sauna that I met my first Asian, a young guy from Indonesia. And wow, could he perform! I virtually became hooked on Asians ever since. In Paris I discovered a huge sauna near the old opera house at the Palais Garnier. I think it was called Le Continental. Almost a third of the many customers seemed to be Vietnamese. As in Amsterdam I fell for one and we had an amazing two nights together in my hotel. Working in London, I preferred the El Sombrero club on Kensington High Street in favour of bar hopping. Sombrero for a time was the place to be. I loved it because many of the clientele were Asian. As another poster has pointed out, condoms were rarely in evidence then.

Soon I was to move to Hong Kong, little realising that it, too, had anti-gay laws on the statute books (they were only eliminated in 1990). My job meant annual visits to Head Office in New York. Since it was now the early 1980s, it was on one that I became aware of the new disease known initially as GRID. Soon this changed to AiDS with a death sentence attached. My European/American sauna going immediately ceased. Like many at that time, I was petrified that I might have become infected. For months I became monk-like, afraid both for myself and any partner I might unknowingly pass it on to. But I suppose the temptations of Asia were too great and I eventually came out of my shell of fear. The gogo-bars in Bangkok where the boys were often nude, the huge 690 Retiro Strip in Manila where the boys on the zig-zag catwalk were equally nude, two nights spent with one fantastic Chinese I met at Blue Boy Bar in Kuala Lumpur, the ease of picking up gorgeous guys on the street or in the malls of Singapore - I felt I was in seventh heaven. 

Then by the mid-80s, AIDS was becoming a much more serious threat to Asia. There was even talk that the bar owners in Thailand would ban customers from Hong Kong. But it never was put into effect. Not long after, Bangkok started what was to become a thriving sauna and massage scene.

Given the law in Hong Kong, I was bit more cautious. Since at least the '70s there had been two gay bars - Dateline on the Island and Waltzing Mathilda on Kowloon. But it was known the cops kept a close eye on them. One of the barmen in Wally Matt was even a police informant. So I stayed away. Cruising, though, was not that difficult. I met my first Chinese boy when leaning on a railing looking at Hong Kong's fantastic harbour. He was about 30 meters away. Soon he was inching closer to me and I to him. We started chatting and our mutual interest was obvious. But not knowing him at all, I decided first to invite him to dinner a few days later. Believing I then knew him much better, he came home. My first conquest! It was to be the first of many. But we are now well out of the 1970s and so I will end there.

[TMax]

Where I'm from it was quite discrete but was starting to come out into the open more later in the 70's. One regret was that I wasn't more curious back then so that I may have had the courage to have been able to enjoy m2m much earlier than I did. 

[vinapu]

7 hours ago, PeterRS said:

But we are now well out of the 1970s ...

shock for me !!!

[PeterRS]

1 minute ago, vinapu said:

shock for me !!!

Ha! Put it down to my English. I meant "now" in the sense at that point in the narrative when it was into the 1980s!