Photos of Gay Pride in the 1980's

What's sad is that it looks like it could be today. All pictures of beautiful boys with beautiful bodies. The gay community still won't recognize the average, the overweight or the ugly.

And it will always be that way R1 .

I want to know about Mud Sex Club. Is it like Fight Club? Tell me!

Love pics 6, 43 and 55.

Too many mustaches, ill pass.

But R5 think of all the free mustache rides!

All that joy and love soon to be swept away by the tidal wave of HIV. Thankfully I washed ashore.

What really struck me about he photos of 80s LA Pride was the lack of Asians and Latinos. Was LA really that white back then?

Love the bodies...and no tattoos

The permed mullet: may it rest in peace. But it's nice to see people having fun.

No hideous Andrew Christian underwear!

All the feathered hair and mullets are funny. People actually thought those hairstyles were attractive, for some bizarre reason.

And I also didn't see a single tattoo.

I'm a millennial so this was my first time seeing these. Going through the pics, I was relieved to see that at least half of the guys there were really fit! That was nice to see. Fuck all the fatties, skinnies and average idiots. Also, 1 big difference I saw is that in those pics, most of the guys appear to be NORMAL-looking and not dressed in freakish or embarrassing garb. I didn't see overly tatted guys, guys with millions of piercings or guys with way too much facial hair. I'm not into mustaches but I'd gladly take that over the bushy beard trend we're seeing now. When and why did gay culture devolve into freakish-looking gays? It's awful.

Also round of applause for the dearly departed former mayor of Chicago Harold Washington. It was great to see a black mayor in the 80s support gays.

R10. We called it The Poodle Perm!

I'm happy to say I thought it was ugly at the time. I had a roommate who got one. He was flipping it girlishly one time and it snagged in the latch of an enormous medicine cabinet-like spice rack in our apartment. The whole thing came off the wall, opened, spewing its contents everywhere while remaining attached to his giant hair. The weight of it yanked his head violently to one side and just hung there, door open and empty.

This was during the NBA Finals in about 1981 in Boston. I had about eight friends over to watch the game. We were pretty baked and weren't able to get ourselves under control from laughing at the sight of Mark with the worlds largest spice rack in her Poodle Perm.

Basically, if you don't have biceps and pecs, then fuck off and die. Some things never change.

We were the most beautiful generation of gay men and women ever visited upon this country. Amen to all of their souls.

I click the link and get "Page Not Found"... wtf?

R15, if you look hard enough, you'll see all sorts of average-shaped and out-of-shape people in those pics. Gay men and lesbians and their friends of all types went to those events and had good times. What's scary is wondering how many of those men were infected before such weekends were over. Not too many people who contracted HIV back then are still alive today.

Can't see ANYTHING. Just a "page not found". No pics.

Looking at those pics, you can't help wondering how many of those guys are dead.

[quote]We were the most beautiful generation of gay men and women ever visited upon this country.

Talk about subjective. Have you not seen the current crop of gays?

R21, you mean the ones with arms full of prison tats and waxed bodies? UGH!!

I think there may be a slight chance that the photographer was more interested in snapping the beauties than the slubs.

But maybe that's because it's what superficial me would do.

No tattoos, platforms and topiary facial hair. There was something so sunkissed and sexy about them, but I wasn't born til 88 so maybe I am romancing the 80sinto something they were not.

Gay Man Says Gay Pride Parade Gross Distasteful & Reinforces Stereotypes

Yeah, still no pics... just "Page not found".

r26 try another browser.

Great pics. We may laugh at the mullets and frosted tips, but I'm sure in 20 or 30 years, the Tin Tin haircuts and fauxhawks of the 2000-2010s will look equally silly.

I see a lot of average and untoned bodies in there, but nobody seriously overweight. The US obesity epidemic didn't really kick in until the late '90s.

Pic 17 showing off his huge sack!

Hairy hole @ pic 55.

Just a bunch of vapid narcissists. Next!

Majority of DL agrees with commentator at R25

[quote] What really struck me about he photos of 80s LA Pride was the lack of Asians and Latinos. Was LA really that white back then?

No, just selective photography.

In the background, LA is so ugly and "blah" looking compared to SF and Chicago.

This trio are proto DLers, just waiting for the internet to be invented so they can post 'once again it's gingers presenting their holes wearing only socks!!'

R28 is right, the skinny jeans and the bow ties and the nerd specs and the beards of today's genderqueers will look even more funny than a permed mullet and high waisted 'dad jeans'.

r35's pics are 80's porn stars.

And in the distance, the echo's of Last Dance richocheted off the flat, white, tombstones. The raspberry sun dipped and dimmed mournfully beneath its thin thread of life and everywhere did the Ravens scream: Water! Water! Water!

The body hair was much sexier then. Now, guys are looking more like shaved girls.

I get to the Advocate site, but that site says "page not found". How the fuck are you guys seeing anything? THE LINK IS BAD.

The guys look really hot, in comparison to the trashy tattoo look now.

[quote]And in the distance, the echo's of Last Dance richocheted off the flat, white, tombstones. The raspberry sun dipped and dimmed mournfully beneath its thin thread of life and everywhere did the Ravens scream: Water! Water! Water!

That's poetic and awful at the same time.

I liked pic 113. I don't know how dudes carried around huge and heavy boomboxes on their shoulders all day. However they dd have portable cassette players back in 87 and cd players were starting to emerge. I still have my cassette and cd player collections and never threw them out.

people were thinner back then because they didn't stay at home at night glued to their entertainment centers, laptops, etc. They physically moved and bicycles were considered too nerdy to use so they walked. Additionally the foods back then were not infested with GMO's and other hidden chemicals, like trans fats, to induce obesity.

Those 80s fashions may look dated today, but I think they look better and "cleaner," so to speak, than the hipster shit a lot of gay guys wear now. And don't even get me started on the beards, tats and piercings. None of the guys in the '87 pics look like they could be homeless or junkies like so many hipster guys.

And no, I'm not an elder. I was 9 years old back in '87.

OP's link doesn't work in Chrome or IE...

It works for me in Chrome

[quote]Additionally the foods back then were not infested with GMO's and other hidden chemicals...

That is a scientifically illiterate, and fact-free screed. You sound like a flouride-fighting anti-vaxxer!

The biggest "chemical" in food is salt, and "GMOs" are no different than any other produce. You simply don't have facts or reason on your side, but you do have SHRIEKING!

I'm using Chrome and it works just fine.

Uhhhh, but it was LA so they no doubt spent a lot of time sitting on their asses in a car.

Much hotter guys, barring the goofy hairstyles. Love the chest hair and neatly groomed facial hair! Nice to see fewer to no tats or piercings. I'm 24 and hate the homeless junkie tin-tin look.

"All that joy and love soon to be swept away by the tidal wave of HIV"

Approx. 50,000 new seroconversions per year, according to the CDC. Not much has changed (except the drugs).

The AIDS crisis was already in full swing by 1987. Rather than crying, I see a bunch of brave people still gathering to show the world that gays weren't going to run back into the closet.

OK R42. So they screamed, "Nevermore!". You happy now?

This definitely has the feel of 70-80's gay.

Body hair was appreciated back then.

My gosh, 80s fashions were so awful. The big poofy hair. The big poofy socks coming out of the high tops. The big loose bright-colored t shirts tucked into tight faded jeans. UGH! So ugly.

At least I figured out why the link isn't working. The URL is truncated at the first hyphen, just like messages are being.

I'm guessing that nobody on the Legacy site can get the link to work, but it might be working on the 'new' site.

Way hotter and self-respecting than what we see today.

The lack of tattoos is heavenly.

R59:

[quote]Way hotter and self

That is the entire contents of your post as I see it... completely truncated at the first hyphen.

The fashion was very trailer park-esque. It goes to show that the media can convince us to wear just about anything.

80s sucked, and not in the good way.

They were really out into the streets celebrating the demise of the previous decade's hideous apparel!

[quote]Those 80s fashions may look dated today, but I think they look better and "cleaner," so to speak, than the hipster shit a lot of gay guys wear now. And don't even get me started on the beards, tats and piercings. None of the guys in the '87 pics look like they could be homeless or junkies like so many hipster guys.

Agree with your comments, nowadays the tattoo fad is just awful looking in every which way.

My era. All my friends were young and gorgeous like this. Everybody was a runner and/or weight lifter. I knew a bunch of female body builders. We all thought we looked amazing!

An old friend recently showed me photos of a gay event in 1985 and we resembled these photos rather closely! I knew virtually every person pictured and about 80% of them are now dead; most died before 1995. About 35 of my closest friends died of AIDS and I was acquainted with maybe one hundred others who perished. Sadly, beauty doesn't mean invulnerability.

I don't even remember thinking about gay marriage thirty years ago but so much has changed for the better for gay men. I'll never forget that brief era when we were muscular and bronzed and wore feathered hair and short shorts!

Who's the fucking anti-tattoo troll? Where are you that you're seeing millions and millions of tattoos on young men nowadays? I've bedded tons - none with tattoos.

r14 I can't stop laughing picturing that. Great story and well told!

[quote]Who's the fucking anti-tattoo troll?

There are lots of people on this board who find tattoos trashy and evidence of poor decision-making abilities. I can't say I disagree. There are plenty of otherwise hot guys who have some really unfortunate tattoos randomly placed on their bodies. Even the little tiny ones take a 10 down to a 6.

Huge tattoos, especially sleeve and neck, are a deal breaker with me. Sorry, can't do it. Will be your friend though, as I understand wanting to express yourself and be counter-culture, rock and roll, and all that.

However, it is such a huge turn-off that I immediately disengage from you. Maybe that's a good thing--maybe you need to weed out the more traditional types from your life.

Either way, it's a win-win because your tattoos let me know, immediately, where I stand with you and we do not have to waste time on a dinner date.

It looks like a casting call for a Bijou Video porn!

We didn't need tatoos then! We had FACES!

I have no desire to look at those pics. Too painful. I was in my 20's in the 80's. Yes, we looked preppy and clean and muscular and beautiful. We WERE a better looking generation than the current crop of idiots but, then again, doesn't every generation think that they were the best? But the 80's were terrifying, painful and sad, too. Mostly that. AIDS killed a generation of talent. The world would be a more beautiful place if AIDS had not decimated so many artists, designers, talented people of all walks of life. A large chunk of a generation of gay men was wiped from the planet. Those pics would just make me sad sad sad.

[quote]Who's the fucking anti-tattoo troll? Where are you that you're seeing millions and millions of tattoos on young men nowadays?

There's no 'single' troll, anti-tattoo numb nuts.

[quote]I've bedded tons - none with tattoos

what happened 40 years ago doesn't count

[quote]We didn't need tatoos then! We had FACES!

We didn't need tattoos then, we had MULLETS!

It's bizarre reading all of these posts about how amazing looking these very average looking guys are. Water seeks its own level I guess.

Back in the day LA had smog, but it was still a happening place.

But it was a big deal in LA compared to this teeny tiny little parade in Toronto in 1985. Talk about a place which has changed radically since then.... Even the gay activists in this clip referred to gays as "them"!

I remember how the news would always focus on the off the beaten path people in the parades, like the nuns in chains.

Odd, I grew up then, in L.A. no less, and those photos do not make me the least bit nostalgic. I swear, it looks like a war zone that some of us survived. Sorry to be a downer, that's just my major impression (and I had a great time in the 80s, no less, got laid a lot, fell in love... but I don't remember ever really liking big clusterfuck celebratoins, even in my youth).

Yes - I don't see what the big deal is about these completely average looking '80s Joes. You can find better (and scruffier) looking guys in any LA bar nowadays.

I've never seen so many striped shorts in all my life.

This picture is just dying for a caption. There's a resentful putto on the left, Wolverine on the right, and I'm not quite sure what to make of the center.

[quote]I'm guessing that nobody on the Legacy site can get the link to work, but it might be working on the 'new' site.

I'm on legacy and see the photos just fine.

Some other older photos of gay marches etc

Anyone remember a gay themed film from the late 70s that had scenes from NY pride? One of the marchers was being interviewed and he said, "We march for the people that can't."

At the end of the story the couple breaks up because one refuses to be monogamous and the other guy moves to California where he meets a like minded guy.

Notice some of the people in the Toronto parade are trying to hide their faces from the camera. One of the early things antigays used to do was take photos of the marchers, threatening to tell their employers. So it was a reflexive response to hide face from an unknown camera person even while expressing pride by marching in the street. Those were the times.

Love the shot of Mary Wilson supporting the gays in the LA parade. Good for her. You wouldn't have seen Diana Ross do such a thing in that era.

R14, that is one of the funniest stories I've ever read on here.

In pic 35 the sign says "Bring back Tammie!"

Was that an 80s meme?

I was at one of those prides, but not in a photo.

I wish we could go back to when Pride was real and not a corporate, branded, government-sanctioned event.

I notice there were many shirtless guys, and one or two in speedos, but it didn't appear to be nearly as sexual as today.

I'm assuming the overwhelming majority of the guys in the photos are not alive today.

And basically any guy who sported that Poodle Perm then and who is still around with us today, by some help by science or their hairdresser will inexplicably still be wearing it in 2020 too.

I lived in ATL back then and mercifully almost all my friends emerged unscathed or got the bug but did not succumb and are still alive. I never understood the severity or sustainability difference with which it attacked. Some just got lucky. Most didn't.

My one, out and proud, relative was in ATL at that time, too. Sadly, he succumbed. I never really got to know him. It would have been nice to have had him to talk to, when I hit puberty. Anytime I can find photos showing gay Atlanta from the 1980s and 90s, I search to try and find him.

Ahhh,... so many ATL stories, so many names to protect.

R96 LOL, I hope my cousin was one of them.

I was at that Pride Parade in 1987. AIDS was starting to get more press traction as a mystery gay disease, but the death toll was underway.

Putting that plague aside, for most people these were very happy and optimistic times. No cell phones and no social media. People talked to each other back then. Politics wasn’t considered a normal topic of conversation. You could afford a house or apartment in L.A. on an average income and the economy was good.

Would love to go back to those years, if I knew what I know now.

Formerly The Blue Parrot?