Okay, I just smeared bi men. That was so wrong. Sorry guys. Bi men look like every kind of man. Period.

I keep thinking of late 70s/early 80s Bowie. He was so awesome and suave about being bisexual and just, generally, "Don't fence me in." I loved the fact that he was honest about being "an actor playing a rock star" (and that he did the job so brilliantly.) Okay...I guess I'm still just a hopeless fangirl...

I adore Mika. Happy Ending is one of my favourite songs ever.

I think it's super important to have noted people self identify their LGBT orientation. I have a special place in my heart for musicians who perform songs which have a deep meaning. Some of my favorites are:

The great Joséphine Baker singing "The Times They Are a-Changin' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db0VFBhwQTg&feature=related

My personal all time favorite singer in history a young Freddie Mercury singing The Great Pretender (I ADORE his cross dressing back up singers in this one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3L29U_8c9U

Janis Ian singing the anthem of all LGBT teens: At Seventeen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHOIT1ROk8&feature=related

I'll go now.

Happy CBD, peeps!

Thanks Max. Very enjoyable and informative.
There's a day?!? Where have I been. . . .

@Eva--no need to apologize. David Bowie is a creative genius, who's work has impacted music, drama, and art. If I could have embedded a whole ream of his videos on this post, I would have. Brilliant to the end.

"I never cared much for the lesbian folksinger music scene" there's a lesbian folksinger music scene? ;)

@Natalie--Happy Ending is fabulously melancholy.

Love to you too. I adore bell bottoms and I think I might have liked the 70's. Great post as always, Max.

Gee, after "Billy Brown," I can't really figure out why anybody had a question. :-)

I simply adore Mika.

@Safe--Janis Ian broke my heart with "At Seventeen." I felt like she had read my diary--didn't we all?

Great hit with Freddie's "Great Pretender" vid. Freddie gets into drag, too. And biker leather. And into a Queer Superhero cape. Truly a trip down fantasy lane. I include Freddie's last video for you in the update.

Thanks for the lead on Josephine Baker. I never knew she covered that song.

@Shannon--yes, girl, there is a day. Let's turn it into a whole month! Whee!

@jules--I'm talkin' old-style, 70s, Holly Near lesbian folk music. Why don't I add a little of that to the post? Holly is lesbian identified--but her affair with a man stirred up lots of controversy.

@Gwendolyn--bell bottoms look sexier on other people than they do on me. My ass is too fat to make them work.

@Verbal--I'm so behind the times. Thank goodness people like you bring me up to date. "Billly Brown" it is--just for you.

Thanks so much for the Bowie videos. I hadn't seen either one before. So cinematic. So balletic. So Jungian...

this was absolutely marvelous, dahling! happy 'whatever' day!

e's not out? I always assumed he was already. I love his floppy hair and skinny jeans. If I were a boy I would want to look like him. I tried to resist Mika initially, but upon listening to his cd (by force, at first) I was hooked. He's one of the only artists around today that I can even bare to compare to Freddie. He really has a beautiful voice and his cd (Life in Cartoon Motion) really does justice in showing off the full range of his voice. Plus it's fun as hell!

I can't bring myself to watch that Freddie video. I was listening to the cd the other day and just hearing that song brings me to tears. When he looks at the camera at the end and says "I still love you" is one of the most honest moments ever captured on camera.
The video for "I'm Going Slightly Mad" is also hard to watch. He's so thin and frail looking, but he never lost his showmanship.

Thank you for this post! Freddie, Bowie and Mika all in one post! It's like Christmas!

@John Lammi--with respect, it's not unusual at all in the LGBTQ community to take words and "queer" them . . . words like "gayby boom" or phrases like "lez be friends" play that old slang game of creating an "in" group that understands the dialect, while outsiders are left out in the cold.

I supposed sooner or later I was going to get a comment about using "queer." I was a member of Queer Nation in the 90s, and the word was reclaimed because "gay" and "lesbian" had become too safe and assimilationist. I loved it because it included me as a bisexual and transgender people. I also saw problems with an umbrella term making bi/pansexual/transgender people invisible.

Queering the word queer takes an oppressor's word and fires it back in the oppressor's face. Our oppression does give us a different perspective from straight people, many of whom do not notice our oppression because it's not their asses on the line. Our point of view helps to crack open hetero-patriarchal hegemony and bring it down. Queer says, "We are different, we don't want to be like you, your way sucks. We're glad to be ourselves and go against the grain."

These days, I used a collection of terms to try and refer to our community, so I'll use LGBTQ or queer or try to be specific with observations of a particular community. It's all intermixed in my lexicon.

@mistercomedy--happy "whatevah-whatevah" day to you.

@asianshoebox--for as much as I post about celebrities on this blog, you'd think I read "Variety" every day. I didn't even pay attention to MIKA until he came out. Then I researched the songs and realized, "Oh, that's who did 'Grace Kelly'." I'm celebrity-challenged. My gaydar is for shit, too.

I think Freddie was so courageous to perform for as long as he could. He knew before long he wouldn't be able to do it anymore. It is something that brings on tears--one last dance, one more goodbye.

Our lives have been blessed by brilliant artists.

Hmmm. I guess that I like labels. These "I-don't-want-to-be-labeled" types can make it quite confusing for those of us who are clear on our sexual preferences.

I'm all for bisexuality, as long as those who call themselves bisexual are actually bisexual -- and aren't actually gay but are too ashamed to admit it.

@Eva--I am constantly amazed at Bowie's ability to perform theatrically with his music. You get this whole dramatic package with layers upon layers of meaning, not just the song.

@Robert Crook--on the one hand, certain people may be avoiding labels because they don't want the stigma that goes along with the label. Gay men are stigmatized, but do they all realize that bisexual identity also carries a stigma with it? I'm presuming that we can both agree that avoiding a label just because you're afraid of the stigma it carries doesn't get you anywhere. Speak your mind, speak your truth, use a label when it fits. If the shoe fits, wear it, etc.

On the other hand, sexuality is more complex that gay/lesbian, straight, or bisexual/pansexual. If people feel that the labels are inadequate to honestly describe themselves, it's because, well, they really are. We live in a culture that is terrified of anything that isn't purely heterosexual. This culture isn't about to investigate the full range and nuance of something as complex as sexuality and gender without being dragged into it (no pun intended/maybe I did intend it) kicking and screaming.

Bottom line: language is a tool, labels are tools. They are not the be-all and end-all of liberation, but they can be useful. I use bisexual, pansexual, and queer interchangeably . There was once a time when I could have used a term like lesbian to describe myself, because the definition was once broad enough to include the sex I had with men. Language changes, it is never static. It often changes with social and political realities.

Some people think someday we won't need these labels, everyone will be equal and free in their thinking about sexuality and gender and we won't need them anymore. I kinda doubt it. I've spoken to too many people whose experience of their sexuality is definitely limited to one gender. Besides, if I'm going to fight for any kind of utopia, it would be one in which diversity is respected.

Not to mention that, right now, today, I don't live in utopia. This is my life right now; I have to live it today. I find some women, some men and some transgender people very attractive and I want to find out how they feel about me. I don't like doing this in a hostile environment. Bisexual and pansexual are my tools--my foot in the door to talk to people about fluid sexuality. And they are also useful tools toward finding people who are much like me--having a sexuality that isn't confined to one gender and trying to figure out how to be ourselves and make it in this world. And get some good lovin'.

I don't fuss if someone of fluid sexuality wants to go the "no-labels" way. If I have a question in my mind about whether they are afraid of the stigmatization of labeling themselves bisexual or pansexual, I usually ask, "So are you dating a guy or a girl right now?" "Are you out to your parents about your fluid sexuality?" "How are your straight/gay friends supporting you?" "Do you feel the need for a community to support you?" I'm more concerned with the level of fear and non-acceptance the person is feeling, not their label.

The stronger a person feels inside about their sexuality and gender, the more open they will be about it and that will help to break down the barriers between binaries and spread understanding about fluid sexuality. If people choose to adopt a label to do that, great. If they don't, but they are still open about their sexuality, great. MIKA 's coming out has made a difference to people out there whose sexuality is open, but they are not satisfied with the labels. And he's made a difference for those of us who have labels, because he's brought up fluid sexuality in the media and helped to broaden the discussion of sexuality. It's a win-win situation.

@John Lammi--Did you know that "gay" was once a dirty word? It' true. Back in the 1950's, "homosexual" was the respectable word used to describe men who had sex with men and (like the "one-drop-of-black-blood-makes-you-black" stigma) just one homosexual experience made a man, or woman, a homosexual--no matter how much heterosexual experience or desire they had.

Then the Stonewall Riots happened and the Gay Liberation Movement sprang forth. It was a radical time, the 60's were cresting--the Civil Rights movement was becoming more Black Power oriented, the anti-war movement was in full gear, women within the anti-war movement were getting pissed about the sexist treatment they were getting from their male comrades and many had read The Feminine Mystique. Revolution was in the air.

So Gay Liberationists appropriated this dirty slang word, "gay," to shock the establishment and rebel against their oppression. Nowadays, the transgressive power of the term has faded and no one is shocked by it, save, maybe, the fundies. Queer Nation appropriated "queer" in order to get back that transgressive power.

Now, if you think that is the wrong approach, we may have to agree to disagree. I think the transgressive power of queer is useful in establishing that we aren't just here to "fit in" to society. This oppressive culture has to change, has to drop its adherence to hierarchies that devalue the erotic and the feminine and makes gender a prison to live in, rather than something creative to express yourself with.

Like I've said in response to Robert, language is a tool, labels are a tool. They are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to liberation. There may come a day when queer becomes so acceptable, like gay it will no longer have the transgressive power it once had.

We're going to have some disagreements here, John, and that's okay. I don't expect this post or any other to resolve them.

"I find that straight people are not moved to change their stereotypes when facing 'queer' acting gay people. I find that the shift in attitude in straight folks comes from people who just dare to be themself, normal."

If you will allow me to pick this apart, there is nothing wrong with "queer acting" gay people or "straight acting" gay people. Everyone has the right to express themselves in the way that they feel most comfortable, the way that they feel is their "self". As far as how straight people respond to that, their response should not be allowed to alter how LGBTQ people want to express themselves one iota.

I agree with you that straight people need to see the whole range of us, so that they get out of a narrow view about what gay means--or lesbian or bisexual or transgender. But I find myself troubled by your repeated insistence that you are "normal." What is normal? Is that what being LGBTQ is about now? Reinforcing normality?

Using the word queer can also be about getting over "our internalized sense of inferiority." It can be about carving out new ground. So a guy acts femme. What's wrong with that? Who says a man has to conform to some fucked up notion of masculinity that is hard and dominating? So a lesbian or bi woman is butch. Are you afraid of her power?

Above all, I want to be a part of shattering the notion that we, as LGBTQ people, have to conform to some unexamined, maybe even oppressive, notion of what is "normal" just to be accepted by straight people. You know, there are straight people who don't conform to gender norms--maybe they'd like a little support to be themselves.

As far as the usage of the word "gay" before Stonewall, I saw it in an article about Frank Kameney--veteran gay activist who coined the phrase "Gay is Good"--that I can't lay my hands on right now. But I know a contemporary of Kameney's brought up the fact that gay started out as a dirty word. I will try to find it for you.

@John--we may never agree, but that doesn't mean there needs to be any animosity between us.

I still haven't found that article, so I'm kicking myself. Here is a little something I found surfing "gay" etymology. I remember, vaguely, another article indicating that gay, as a slang term, derived from a French word meaning "male prostitute."

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gay
etymonline.com states:
"OED gives 1951 as earliest date for slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.), but this is certainly too late; gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang;" the term gey cat (gey is a Scot. variant of gay) was used as far back as 1893 in Amer.Eng. for "young hobo," one who is new on the road and usually in the company of an older tramp, with catamite connotations."

It also states: "The word gay in the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back to 1637."

For people-in-the-know during the 1920s and 30s, jazz songs that had the word "gay" in them could be interpreted as having to do with men having sex with men or something more generally immoral. Bi the way, jazz, starting with ragtime, was a musical form that first developed in brothels and then spread to clubs and more respectable venues. The term "jazz" is slang for "sex." When Mae West was arrested for her play "Sex" on Broadway in 1926, the headlines regarding her scandalous show read, "Are We Jazzing Our Way to Hell?" Bi the way, Mae West wrote another play entitle, "The Drag and Pleasure Man," about a woman's troubles with her down-low gigolo boyfriend. The 1920s were an "anything goes" kind of era.

In the late 60s, early 70s, when feminists started protest marches called "Take Bake the Night" to increase safety for women on the streets after dark, one gay activist said [paraphrasing], "We (gays) don't have to take back the night; the night is already ours. We need to take back the day."

And it's true that "gay" was politicized by gay activists to distinguish themselves from the earlier "homophile movement" of the 1950s. They were being more revolutionary to fit the revolutionary times of the late 60s and they were distancing themselves from the medicalization of same-sex desire/behavior.

I understand your pursuit for having queer desire/behavior (I know you hate that term, but I'm not using it against you) to become recognized throughout the culture as just another legitimate difference, like differences in religion or politics. What queer theorists and queer activists ask is "Why are our differences constructed as illegitimate within this culture? Who's served by that construction? Who benefits and who is disenfranchised?"

You've described yourself as a gay man with feminine attributes and you have said that you've been attacked for those attributes. You're very right in saying that there is nothing defective about you.

However, since homophobia is a weapon of heteropatriarchy, you are attacked because you are the thing that this culture fears--a person who, as part of your natural expression of yourself, breaks down heteropatriarhy's oppressive binaries between masculine and feminine, men and women. Heteropatriarchy depends on those binaries to prop it up and you come along, just being yourself, throw a monkey wrench into the works. A queer theorist would say that you are queer, not because you are defective, but because your honest, open self-expression tears down or calls into question the supports for oppressive heteropatriarchy.

But I agree with you that no one should force you to identify as queer. By that same token, you can't force others who find queer identification to be liberating to stop identifying as queer. We may be at an impasse with this argument, John. I think that if we can't agree, we may have to go our separate ways. But we are not enemies--maybe we're "frenemies," I've always liked that word. We are, essentially, fighting for the same thing. We just have a difference of opinion about how to do it.

For my part, I enjoyed and benefited greatly from my participation in Queer Nation all those years ago. I like the word queer--also, I like dyke, bi-dyke, fag, homo, pansy, butch, bulldagger, tranny, switchhitter, and AC/DC. I will very likely continue to use these words, along with gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, homoflexible, heteroflexible, genderqueer, and transgender--and that good old stand-in, LGBTQ. I never use these words in any derogatory sense. I'm proud of them. And I love the street-toughness of slang.

If you are too offended, if just hearing these words hurts you too much--even when I don't mean them hurtfully, then perhaps this is not the blog for you. There are plenty of other fine LGBTQ writers here at OS. I don't think that you will go wanting.

Correction: Mae West also wrote "The Pleasure Man," about the down-low gigolo and "The Drag," about men dressing up in gowns and competing in "drag balls", which were the toast of the town in the city of New York during this era, into the 1930s.

I used to sing The Great Pretender with my mother. We had the Platters album with that song. Seeing it this way reminds me of wonderful dance parties I attended in my early 30's. It was such a mixed crowd, so full of joy and sweat and freedom.

Thanks for the memories of old friends and the fun we had.

I am happy to find these lyrics:
Are you gonna hold my hand?
Are you gonna hold it back now?
Are you gonna take a stand?
Are you gonna reattack now?
Is it just the toys you want?
Never seen it wind up quickly.
Is it just the clouds that never seem to turn you like me.
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