One of the weirder stories of this year’s slightly more muted Pride Month was the proud announcement that two “No U-Turn” signs in the posh, artsy, gentrified Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles had been taken down to fight historical homophobia.
> I thought [cruising] was when Mexican dudes in lowriders checked out la chicas on Saturday nights on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1980s.
In defense of Councilman Soto-Martinez, in New Jersey cruising does mean exactly this; it is a heterosexual activity that both sexes enjoy. Before apps, gay men would meet each other at highway rest stops, as New Jersey has three popular toll roads.
In California a couple of generations ago, it was a motorized adaptation of a Mexican custom. You can see it in "American Grafitti."
From a jewelry store's website on Mexican courtship customs:
Paseo
On a Sunday evening, the eligible youth of the village stroll in a circle around the central plaza. The boys walk in one direction, while the girls walk in the opposite direction. They begin by walking with their friends. However, when a young lady catches the eye of a young man, he may pause as they pass to offer her a flower. If she keeps the flower on the next pass, that means she accepts his attentions. The third time around, the young man will step away from his friends to walk and talk with her. Of course, all of this takes place under the watchful eye of her family and the rest of the village. If the young man wishes to court the young lady further, he must first approach her father for permission.
The men are the ones who are doing the literal cruising, while the women are the recipients of the attention. I still maintain both sexes enjoyed the custom.
Step 2: Said demographic's elites come to detest its plebs' behavior and puts some curbs on it.
Step 3: Elites die off; plebs take over.
Step 4: Plebs get rid of curbs and, believing their demographic to be sacred, they blame these curbs instead on designated villain demographic (i.e., white Christians, females now included!).
Step 5: Villain demographic gets more persecuted, looted, and demoralized, retreating from its previously orderly, clean, safe, pleasant, neighborhoods into either drug-addled homelessness or destitute flyover country.
Your little barb against the closeted hispanic councilman reminded me of my wife when she used to be a reporter, she did some story about some sexual health clinic in Santa Ana. Aside from learning about the existence of bug chasers, she found out that the "downlow" phenomenon is so common in the Latino population that the state of California commissioned a Spanish language telenovela explaining to the unfortunate female patients why they had suddenly come down with diseases like HIV that they knew only gay men get. I bring this up frequently whenever I'm having a beer with my Central American co-workers or their friends and they all always know exactly what I'm talking about. Funny shit.
In 2006 I reviewed a small movie about two gay white gentrifiers from Silver Lake seducing a macho teen cholo in now gentrifying Echo Park, "Quinceañera:"
"What exactly is this Gay Pride hoping to achieve anyway in metropolises where being able to call yourself gay is already a minor fashion statement? Why not quit while they are ahead, like a 500% overrepresentation in the creative and media industries and in the “opinion-forming” classes generally? Being a “gay couple” is absolutely your fast-track route to getting yourselves on any show on British TV. There are places in the hippest parts of London and New York where angst-filled teenagers bury their faces in their pillows crying, “Why couldn’t I have been gay, like all my friends are?” Okay, not that often." https://www.takimag.com/article/straight-talk/
There's a great Al Pacino film called Cruising where he's an undercover cop in NYC's gay leather scene to catch a serial killer. Gays hated it upon release because it was "homophobic" but apparently embrace it now? But yeah freaky demented culture
The no cruising signs probably aren't necessary any longer. If young gays are anything like their straight counterparts they don't get out much.
I remember the 80s and 90s as very different from today. On Capitol Hill (Seattle's gay neighborhood), it never let up, except perhaps on Sunday mornings when people were hung over.
Gay exuberance seems to be much diminished for some reason. If I were to take my teenagers back in time to see for themselves what it was like 30 years ago I think they'd be dumbfounded.
A very large number of gays died of AIDS before the first really effective treatment in 1995. Perhaps that changed the mood.
Maybe not. Not an area I’m familiar with except from reading “And The Band Played On” and being stunned by the incredible promiscuity of gay men.
> I thought [cruising] was when Mexican dudes in lowriders checked out la chicas on Saturday nights on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1980s.
In defense of Councilman Soto-Martinez, in New Jersey cruising does mean exactly this; it is a heterosexual activity that both sexes enjoy. Before apps, gay men would meet each other at highway rest stops, as New Jersey has three popular toll roads.
In California a couple of generations ago, it was a motorized adaptation of a Mexican custom. You can see it in "American Grafitti."
From a jewelry store's website on Mexican courtship customs:
Paseo
On a Sunday evening, the eligible youth of the village stroll in a circle around the central plaza. The boys walk in one direction, while the girls walk in the opposite direction. They begin by walking with their friends. However, when a young lady catches the eye of a young man, he may pause as they pass to offer her a flower. If she keeps the flower on the next pass, that means she accepts his attentions. The third time around, the young man will step away from his friends to walk and talk with her. Of course, all of this takes place under the watchful eye of her family and the rest of the village. If the young man wishes to court the young lady further, he must first approach her father for permission.
The men are the ones who are doing the literal cruising, while the women are the recipients of the attention. I still maintain both sexes enjoyed the custom.
is there a "U-Turn" from this insanity?
Step 1: A demographic comes to dominate a locale.
Step 2: Said demographic's elites come to detest its plebs' behavior and puts some curbs on it.
Step 3: Elites die off; plebs take over.
Step 4: Plebs get rid of curbs and, believing their demographic to be sacred, they blame these curbs instead on designated villain demographic (i.e., white Christians, females now included!).
Step 5: Villain demographic gets more persecuted, looted, and demoralized, retreating from its previously orderly, clean, safe, pleasant, neighborhoods into either drug-addled homelessness or destitute flyover country.
Step 6: Go to step 1.
Your little barb against the closeted hispanic councilman reminded me of my wife when she used to be a reporter, she did some story about some sexual health clinic in Santa Ana. Aside from learning about the existence of bug chasers, she found out that the "downlow" phenomenon is so common in the Latino population that the state of California commissioned a Spanish language telenovela explaining to the unfortunate female patients why they had suddenly come down with diseases like HIV that they knew only gay men get. I bring this up frequently whenever I'm having a beer with my Central American co-workers or their friends and they all always know exactly what I'm talking about. Funny shit.
In 2006 I reviewed a small movie about two gay white gentrifiers from Silver Lake seducing a macho teen cholo in now gentrifying Echo Park, "Quinceañera:"
https://web.archive.org/web/20091015151338/http://www.isteve.com/Film_Quinceanera.htm
Is there a topic you haven’t covered?
"What exactly is this Gay Pride hoping to achieve anyway in metropolises where being able to call yourself gay is already a minor fashion statement? Why not quit while they are ahead, like a 500% overrepresentation in the creative and media industries and in the “opinion-forming” classes generally? Being a “gay couple” is absolutely your fast-track route to getting yourselves on any show on British TV. There are places in the hippest parts of London and New York where angst-filled teenagers bury their faces in their pillows crying, “Why couldn’t I have been gay, like all my friends are?” Okay, not that often." https://www.takimag.com/article/straight-talk/
There's a great Al Pacino film called Cruising where he's an undercover cop in NYC's gay leather scene to catch a serial killer. Gays hated it upon release because it was "homophobic" but apparently embrace it now? But yeah freaky demented culture
The no cruising signs probably aren't necessary any longer. If young gays are anything like their straight counterparts they don't get out much.
I remember the 80s and 90s as very different from today. On Capitol Hill (Seattle's gay neighborhood), it never let up, except perhaps on Sunday mornings when people were hung over.
Gay exuberance seems to be much diminished for some reason. If I were to take my teenagers back in time to see for themselves what it was like 30 years ago I think they'd be dumbfounded.