2000-2009: The Last 10 Years of Gay Life in New York

A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN A DECADE, but the past ten years has been of particular importance to gay men in New York. A time of great social change but also of unimaginable violence, the 2000s saw a city united in the aftermath of tragedy just as a once-united gay community began to faction under the weight of its ever-increasing size and the changing face of the social network. Whether you call them the naughties, the aughts or the oh-ohs, join Next Magazine for a look back at the events that shaped the decade with the people who were there to watch it happen.

2000
”I'm scared of what's ahead..." —Brandon Teena, Boys Don’t Cry.
 
On the edge of the new millennium anything could happen and naturally we feared the worst. Y2K mania swept the country for months prior and at midnight in Times Square, with the world watching, we all held our breath—but nothing happened. That year gay men and women kicked off a decade of unprecedented media exposure starting with the highly influential new Showtime series Queer as Folk and an Academy-Award-win for Boys Don’t Cry. In November the contested election of George Bush would revive our feelings of millennial unease and set the tone for what would be an unpredictable decade marked by life-altering events no one could have seen coming. (Photo Courtesy of Countdown Entertainment, LLC2000)
 

2001
”It traumatized the whole city. On a certain level, I think the straight community suddenly faced the question gay men had been grappling with since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic: 'Why did I survive?'” —New York State Senator Thomas Duane.
 
There are few moments in our nation’s history where we can each remember the spot in which we stood. But on that sky-blue September 11 morning the country watched as New York experienced events violent and tragic, amplified by pointed television news cameras that broadcast the horror around the world as the buildings fell. While on the surface our country forgot about prejudice to unite in support and survival, underneath things began to disconnect as a new website called Manhunt kept us at homes searching for temporary and, at times, meaningless fulfillment.
 

2002
”New York is a city of transients. Many people are here without family and friends and a sports team is an easy place to find both.” —Scott Glaessgen, Gotham Knights founder
 
Recovery from national tragedy took many shapes, from makeshift memorials to security memorandums, and most notably our country’s engagement in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in gay New York, and specifically in its burgeoning athletic community, the creation of the Gotham Knights Rugby Football Club, a project of United 93 hero Mark Bingham and his friend Scott Glaessgen, served to honor his legacy and help give a city of disenfranchised gay men a new social outlet, and witnessed the later flood of gay sports leagues from football to dodgeball and even New York’s own gay sportsbar.
 

2003
”In the city it was totally wild—bonfires, drinking, howling. It showed how there is a thin line between new york and burning man.” —Mike Albo, writer and performer
 
Fear would become a theme for the decade, providing us with excuses to go to war, but also excuses to hate. However, when the lights went out over a hot New York August night, the riots and mayhem people predicted from the Northeast Blackout instead yielded camaraderie, friendship and a sense of calm. For a single night the city took a breath and enjoyed the coming together of neighbors.
 

2004
”[mcGreevey coming out] showed a gay person could be a governor, and it showed that America was ready to start talking about these things,” —Jon Barrett, Editor-in-Chief of Advocate.
 
The sexual orientations of figures in the public eye received a lot of debate in the 2000s. Is what someone likes to do behind closed doors personal or public information? From the proud announcements of Neil Patrick Harris and Lance Bass to the denials of Larry Craig, no coming out was more strange and controversial this decade than that of New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, whose public disgrace against the backdrop of the Republican National Convention in New York eventually yielded book deals and respect, as he helped pave the way—even if a rocky one—for politicians and celebrities facing sexual orientation in the public eye.
 

2005
”Logo is one of those rare cases where a maverick emerges triumphant leaving the naysayers in the dust.” —RuPaul, star of Logo reality show Rupaul’s Drag Race
 
In a city as accepting as New York, it’s hard to remember the lost and lonely gays not as fortunate in finding exposure to the world of the homosexual. But that all changed when MTV Networks, owned by New York-based cable baron Viacom, launched Logo, a 24/7 network dedicated to LGBT programming. Logo gave the gay community a new kind of voice, one with sound and color, where local drag queens, musicians and filmmakers became nationwide pop stars and a whole new generation of gay youth discovered they weren’t alone.
 

2006
”[Gays] drive social connecting because we are not normally trying to raise a family, so we are often more involved with the culture at large.” —Daniel Nardicio, co-creator of DList.com
 
A long way from GeoCities, social networking in the last decade went from geek speak to everyday vernacular. But while the Rupert Murdoch-ization of MySpace repulsed many gay men and Gay.com left some unfulfilled, New York based DList.com provided just the right amount of connection with a hearty helping of flirtation. And though Facebook eventually dominated the social networking empire, the influence of gay tastemakers on DList and elsewhere proved to be crucial in promoting all the decades’ biggest trends and inventions.
 

2007
”Roxy closed when it was supposed to. The end of Roxy was the end of a certain way of doing things.” —John Blair, promoter
 
If the ’90s represented a decade of prosperity, greed and excess, the death of an institution like the Roxy, gay New York’s ultimate party, was bound to happen. As Bloomberg frowned upon smoking and drugs, and smiled upon an unprecedented real estate boom, mega clubs and venues of New York’s nightlife heyday slowly succumbed to the mighty condo. So too, did this roller rink turned gay city legend that had housed the beginnings of everyone from Afrika Bambaataa to Madonna, with an early-March finale that signaled an end to Chelsea’s hold on the gay community.
 

2008
”I was hopeful we'd have someone in the White House who could help us—who could even say the words 'gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual.'" —Glennda testone, executive Director of the LGBT Center
 
The general election of 2008 saw the nation hold its breath for several reasons. Primarily the meteoric rise of African-American Senator Barack Obama, who inspired and exhilarated us in a way that hadn’t happened since FDR or JFK. But at the same time, growing support against marriage equality around the country, and especially in California with Proposition 8, threatened to permanently destroy any chance at full homosexual equality. While the crumbling of the country’s economic institutions helped boost Obama to a history-making victory, the bigots of the West helped pass Proposition 8 and kick-off an angry and invigorated gay-rights movement that led to historical strides the following year.
 

2009
”Gay media will always be vital. it’s essential to have lgbt topics addressed from the inside.” —Michael Musto, Village Voice columnist and author of Fork On The Left, Knife In The Back.
 
Hit with the worst recession since the 1930s, the last year of the decade was marred by high unemployment, home foreclosures and financial bailouts. Within the gay community this was nowhere more evident than in the closing of HX, gay New York’s original nightlife “fag rag.” Along with New York institutions from The New York Blade to Gourmet, the publishing industry suffered what seemed the worst tragedies of the economic crisis. The ironic upside? Bar and club life saw a surge in popularity as unemployed masses finally had time to party.