The Agony Ass: no homophobia during 1980s?

“During 1980s we enjoyed more freedom because homophobia didn’t exist.” Agony Ass debunks one of the biggest lies shared on social media.

It’s nothing new

Let’s be clear right away: we are not talking about some secret because it’s been debunked several times on the Internet, we rather want to share our perspective as we lived HIV and AIDS fear while we were kids and teens, our most vulnerable age.

Gisella’s opinion

We try our best to translate a message frequently shared in Facebook pages dedicated mostly to 1970s and 1980s memories.

YOU’RE THE ONES WHO STARTED PUTTING UP FENCES:

Our generation was tolerant. And we didn’t even know it.

You invented gender fluid and, as a result, homophobia.

I’m from the generation that listened to and loved David Bowie and Lou Reed, and we never questioned their sexual preferences. We didn’t care; in fact, good for them, and in some cases, bless them. Elton John, Freddie Mercury, George Michael.

We’re also the generation that loved Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Neil Young, the Eagles… Without questioning lyrics that would be considered sexist today.

When Boy George came along, we didn’t wonder if he liked guys, girls, or both. We simply enjoyed his music. And when Jimmy Somerville shared his story about a small town boy, we were moved and sang along with him. There were no laws forcing us to be supportive or even involved.

There were no threatening committees or watchful guardians to censor us if we slipped up with a joke.

There was Alyson Moyet, who was definitely plus-sized back then, but she was beautiful and incredibly talented, and no one thought she was worth less than a Claudia Schiffer… in fact, quite the opposite.

I’d like to understand what happened in the meantime, because all these censors end up causing exactly what they’re trying to censor.

In my opinion, we were so much more progressive without all the rules, because rules, as we know, often have the opposite effect.

Different versions of this post exist, quoting other artists as well, but stereotypes are the same: “our generation was better than yours.”

Now, aside from the whole “who the fuck is Gisella?” question, what really grinds our gears is the sheer arrogance of anyone who would spread such a message around the world. It’s like they’re saying, “Your asking for respect is annoying, so just shut up and deal with it. If we’ve become homophobic, it’s totally your fault.” It’s the same as saying, “You deserved that violence, you were asking for it with that outfit!”

The Agony Ass: homophobia didn’t exist

In 1984 Queen’s iconic music video for “I Want to Break Free” was censored in the United States because the band members were dressed in drag. Despite being a playful nod to a British soap opera, the video was deemed inappropriate by conservative American audiences, leading Queen to avoid further events in the country.

The so-called 1980s “great tolerance” has been evident when the first cases of AIDS, initially labeled the “gay plague” or “gay cancer,” emerged in New York and Los Angeles. At a 1982 White House press conference, a reporter brought up the AIDS crisis, questioning President Reagan’s silence about a potential global health crisis. All participants erupted in laughter, although six hundred people had already lost their lives.

U.S. media and government chose to ignore the AIDS crisis, likely because it primarily affected a marginalized group they were comfortable neglecting. However, according to the self-proclaimed expert Gisella, the 1980s generation was incredibly tolerant.

Aaron James McKinney and Russell Henderson, two self-proclaimed “decent people,” were raised in this same generation. In 1998 they have brutally attacked 21-years-old Matthew Shepard who was left to his destiny, tied to a fence and bleeding to death. These so-called “model males” were only brought to justice when police caught them after another assault and found Shepard’s belongings in their vehicle.

Matthew became a victim, a symbol against homophobia. But the American media, who pride themselves on being tolerant, tore him apart because he was HIV positive. This story reminds us how LGBT+ people were treated in 1980s, 1990s and earlier, being bullied and assaulted was ordinary life.

Points of view

To better understand the thinking behind certain messages, let’s try to see things from the writer’s perspective. Starting in 1968, we saw sexual liberation and feminist movements but then drugs and AIDS came along and messed everything up.

Our parents were just teenagers or young adults when they fought for a world without sexual taboos. It’s hard for us to imagine how they felt raising us while so many young people were dying by AIDS or heroin overdose. It simply didn’t make sense at all.

Just as awareness towards women and the LGBTQ+ community was growing, deaths from overdoses and AIDS provided a good chance for those politicians and reporters who had always opposed progress. It’s no wonder that some people might have thought, “I was wrong. We’d better give up sexual freedom. Homosexuals are trouble.”

Them being vulnerable as parents, us being vulnerable as kids, we all were perfect targets for panic-based campaigns.

Survivor bias

“Survivor bias” is when, given a particular circumstance, statistics are based on success but do not count fail.

Let’s give an example. “HIV? It’s not that bad after all, just one pill a day and frequent blood tests, then it’s all set.” Or when talking about covid “forget it, just a mild flu”. Or “I rode a motorcycle without helmet, I drove a car without seat belts, and nothing happened.” Lucky people who can talk about it, because the most unlucky definitely can’t.

“When I was younger homophobia didn’t exist” is also part of this logical fallacy: if you are used to defining homosexuality with rude words, those terms will be ordinary for you and you hardly understand why people are now required to be more polite.

“Gays didn’t feel offended, now what has changed?” Trivially, “in your good old days” if you were homosexual you had to keep it secret because you could at the least lose your job.

“Whe didn’t care at all,” the message says; ”we listened to their music and we all sang along.”

Let’s quote a friend’s blog discussing the same topic:

An “ambiguous” outfit was a sort of code for Boy George, David Bowie or other iconic artists but no one apparently complained because it was part of the show, they were characters, exceptions to the rule.

Someone even created this joke: “if you have money you are called gay, but if you’re poor they call you miserable faggot.”

Well, if you were among miserable faggots your life wasn’t as good as Elton John’s: you were bullied, persecuted, marginalized and mistreated.

How do I know it? I have lived those years, I witnessed all this and did nothing BECAUSE IT WAS CONSIDERED ORDINARY.

Hearing our parents and their peers defending homophobia is very painful for us after having experienced discrimination directly, but thankfully we have realized that those behaviours are not “normal” at all and we do our best to improve ourselves and educate people around us.

Good old days?

We are not despising our past youth, we simply feel uneasy learning that commercial social networks, Facebook in particular, give high priority to nonsense rather than political contents and activism.

The story about homophobia-free 1980s is yet another manipulation enacted by marketing and politics: Facebook suggests that we enter our birthday during account creation in order to get “better experience which is appropriate to your age”, and this is the first lie.

Once they’ve collected your personal info, the algorithm will push posts that are most likely to attract you based on your age. Fake news? Who cares about the truth! The goal is to get you addicted and keep you scrolling, which means more money for them.

This way they ensure you’re totally involved in the “old memories” topics. Comforted, distracted, you won’t notice what happens in front of you and your sense of criticism turns off.

The concept of sharing our memories with others is not harmful, but getting influenced by survivor bias definitely harms: “I drove my motorbike without helmet, I had sex without condoms, I caught measles and I overcame it quickly…”

We are currently living a paradox: people who once struggled to give us human rights and feedom, are now the ones who would like to take our rights away, thanks to their narration “we were better when no one wrote a law to protect environment and minorities.”

Our emotions and childhood memories are precious assets for all of us, so why are we selling them off to social media billionaires? Why are we consenting to be exploited like this?