A whole generation of creative geniuses was lost in such a short period; an invisible war that took so many young men. It was the end of bohemian culture in San Francisco, as the gay contribution, in retrospect, was a keystone of a creative, alternative edifice. It was also the end of the Left as a vital political force, as the next generation of gay men were no longer such outsiders after the concerted agitation to cure AIDS, and queer culture was absorbed into the mainstream. There are of course pockets of queer Left resistance to Capitalism’s excesses, but it wasn’t until they were decimated that it became clear (to me anyway) the importance of ‘outsiderness’ to critical political thinking and alternative movements.
It’s not much discussed but from the vantage point of a native San Franciscan, the tone of the city’s underground, and its omnipresence here as a recognized character of the city, nearly evaporated with AIDS.
A whole generation of creative geniuses was lost in such a short period; an invisible war that took so many young men. It was the end of bohemian culture in San Francisco, as the gay contribution, in retrospect, was a keystone of a creative, alternative edifice. It was also the end of the Left as a vital political force, as the next generation of gay men were no longer such outsiders after the concerted agitation to cure AIDS, and queer culture was absorbed into the mainstream. There are of course pockets of queer Left resistance to Capitalism’s excesses, but it wasn’t until they were decimated that it became clear (to me anyway) the importance of ‘outsiderness’ to critical political thinking and alternative movements.
It’s not much discussed but from the vantage point of a native San Franciscan, the tone of the city’s underground, and its omnipresence here as a recognized character of the city, nearly evaporated with AIDS.