The Changing World of Gay Men, 1950–2000
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RMIT Research Repository The changing world of gay men, 1950–2000. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Peter Barclay Robinson B.A. (hons) Dip.Ed. (Melb.) M.Litt. (Oxon.) School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning in the Portfolio of Design and Social Context, RMIT University. August 2006. Declaration I certify that, except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; and, any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. Signature: Name: Peter Barclay Robinson. Date: ii Acknowledgements This thesis began with the encouragement of a former colleague in (what was then known as) the School of Social Science and Planning, Patricia Moynihan. She helped me frame my initial research questions and then cajoled me into submitting an application in 2000 for a place in the School’s post-graduate program for the following year. Apart from my supervisors, about whom more later, two senior colleagues were invariably supportive. Chris Chamberlain and Pavla Miller were always willing to find time to discuss research difficulties. They listened and offered calming advice when I needed to test out hypotheses or resolve problems of theory or method. Other colleagues I would thank include Benno Engels, who asked me to speak to one of his classes on some of my very early data analysis, and Kim Humphery, who generously offered me post-graduate teaching and invited me to give lectures on my research, as did Bob Pease when he was a member of the School. Sara Charlesworth, David Mercer and Suellen Murray also found time from their own research to ask me how things were ‘coming along’, as did my post-graduate friends and colleagues Bronwyn Meyrick, Chloe Patton, Manu Peeters, and Ed Yates. Along the way, I found inspiration, solace, and distraction from the labours of my thesis, in teaching. In particular, I would like to thank the students I have had the pleasure to teach in the gender and sexuality classes that the School offers. To my great relief, I have often found articulate and politically aware young people in these classes who believe that the project of achieving gender and sexual equality is not yet complete. I have also been seriously impressed by the conviction and courage of students who are willing to live their lives openly and honestly as young gays and lesbians, as living exemplars of the gay liberationists’ credo to be ‘out and proud’. Together with my colleagues, my friends have been an enormous help as I worked on this project. In particular, I would thank Clive Fisher, Ian Gartlan, Neil Robertson, and Chris Wheat and Philip Siggins, who, despite my moans and groans, continued to show interest in what I was doing. So too did Claire Hedger, Kieran O’Loughlin, Tricia Tracey, Julie Warnock and Jane Yule, who also offered thoughtful tips on managing the emotional stress of a doctorate and life generally. Two interstate friends, Humphrey McQueen and Robert Dessaix, helped me recruit interviewees from places other than Melbourne and Victoria, encouraged me in the early stages of the project and then listened as I developed and ordered my thoughts. Susan Serry gave me ceaseless support, without which I would have found the going much tougher than it was. She kept me believing in the worth of what I was doing while I worked on it and as my natal family fell apart after the death of my father. iii How does one begin to thank two devoted and hard-working supervisors? I was very lucky when John Murphy and Judy Smart agreed to supervise my research. After Patricia Moynihan left the School, John took me on as one of the many post-graduate students he then had. He was my principal supervisor and has continued in this role, with patience and dedication, even though he left the School to take up a demanding senior position at another university. Judy was officially my second supervisor but adopted me as a friend and colleague, as she is wont to do with her students, and shepherded me through the more difficult editing stages of this project. She is renown for her editing accomplishments, as well as for her knowledge of sex and sexuality. My prose improved significantly under her tutelage. I cannot say that I will remember all that she taught me, such as being consistent when using numbers, but I felt myself truly fortunate that, along with John, she consented to work with me on this thesis. And, above all else, I was lucky because both of them believed in what I was doing, which can be rare and yet is so valuable. Of all the people I worked with on this project, I owe my greatest debt of thanks to the eighty men who agreed to let me interview them, for, without their stories, this thesis would not exist. All gave freely of their time and let me ‘blow in’ to their lives and then disappear, never to be seen again. In the space of an hour, sometimes more, we established a unique intimacy, the sort of intimacy that perhaps only gay men can establish with one another. They told me their life stories, which I recorded on cassette tapes, transcribed and then fashioned into the nine chapters that appear below. They came from diverse backgrounds, were of all ages and shared two things in common: a strong sense of their own self worth and their right to be heard. It is for these reasons that I dedicate my thesis to them. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my late father, Barclay Charles Robinson (1926–2002). Not only would I thank him for doing his best to be a good father but also because he was the only member of my immediate or extended family who showed any interest in my life as a gay man. Sadly, he is not alive to see the end of this project, which properly began in the year that he died. iv Contents Page Summary. 1 Introduction. 2 Chapter One Collecting and understanding life stories. 8 Chapter Two The coming-out stories of the old cohort. 21 Chapter Three The coming-out stories of the middle cohort. 41 Chapter Four The coming-out stories of the young cohort. 60 Chapter Five The gay ‘scene’. 78 Chapter Six Gay community life. 100 Chapter Seven Intimate life of gay men (i): couple relationships. 119 Chapter Eight Intimate life of gay men (ii): family and friends. 137 Chapter Nine Life as an old gay man. 154 Conclusion. 175 Appendix One. Interview schedule. 179 Appendix Two. The age cohorts and the interviewees. 181 Bibliography. 184 v Summary. The focus of this thesis is the lived experience of 80 Australian gay men. The oldest man in the sample was born in 1922 and the youngest in 1980. Their understanding of what it is to be gay is historically contingent, for their lives span the greater part of the twentieth century: from when homosexuality was invisible and illegal through the less repressive but no less problematic eras of gay liberation and the HIV- AIDS epidemic. Interviewees’ personal narratives include their experiences of the repression of the Cold War period, the exuberance, and, for some, personal confusion of gay liberation and the disco culture of the 1970s, to the trauma of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. Through the stories of their lives, the men in this sample illustrate the significant shifts in sexual attitudes and culture that Australia has experienced in the latter part of the twentieth century. Many histories of sexuality and homosexuality have been written. None has used as its primary material the life histories of its subjects. This thesis is innovative in that it shows how three different cohorts of gay men have understood their gayness and have lived their lives as gay men at different points in the last fifty years and under circumstances of varying social tolerance. Aspects of the lives examined include their experience of coming out and development of their sexual identity, their social and affective lives and their involvement in the gay ‘scene’ and community. This thesis began as an investigation of what ageing means to gay men in Australia and transformed into an examination of the biographies of 80 men and how they made sense of their lives as gay men. Qualitative in approach, it is based on oral history interviews. Interviewees were asked set questions about their social, affective and sexual lives. In one major capital city, young men in high status occupations and older retired men were consciously sought to fill gaps in the age range of the sample, otherwise interviewees were recruited randomly in capital cities and country towns of south-eastern Australia. In the end, the sample comprised an old cohort of 22 men, a middle cohort of 30 men and a young cohort of 28 men. The youngest man is 22 and the oldest 79. The majority of interviewees are of Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic decent. The exceptions are Aboriginal men, and the children of migrants to Australia from South-east Asia and Southern Europe. Introduction. ‘I feel so privileged to be able to watch Queer as Folk.1 This is the first time in my blooming life that I have been able to enjoy a soapie like somebody else.