The way we were: Remembering the gay seventies

By the time I started having sex with men, the 1970s were almost over. At first my experiences were infrequent and ill choreographed, but by the time I was a college sophomore, I was more fluent in the codes and conventions of gay sex. Some of that fluency came with experience, but my most crucial education came from books, beginning with Andrew Holleran’s 1978 novel, Dancer From the Dance. As I devoured that tale of urban sexual revolution, even in rural Massachusetts I began to appreciate the “gayness” of the music, sexual customs, and above all storytelling styles that were, by the late 1970s, becoming regular props in our dances, parties, and meetings.