Gay Writes

What It Meant to Have "Gay" in the Title

I own at least 35 gay adult novels whose titles feature the actual word “gay.” Written between 1965 and 1983, they represent the extreme ends of my collection. As I’ve said in other essays, this timeframe is, to me, the golden age of gay adult novels, the period during which they were both boldly explicit and committed to solid narratives — after which the emphasis shifted from story to simply extended sex scenes strung along a perfunctory narrative.

If we're counting, and I am, that’s 35 “gay” versus 12 “queer” titles, nine “queens,” five “fags” — including the marvelous Under Five Fags, a cheeky and, to be honest, insensitive play on the title Under Five Flags, an autobiographical account of its author’s life as a serially displaced person — and a mere three “homos,” though one of them is the flat-out marvelous Chamber of Homos (1970).

Words matter, and words in titles matter more than most.