[ih] 40 years ago net.motss was newgroup'd

[Michael Thomas]

On 8/8/23 5:33 PM, Steffen Nurpmeso via Internet-history wrote:
> Michael Thomas via Internet-history wrote in
>   <2b956796-e606-c2ba-e934-deaf29c24a1c at gmail.com>:
>   |On 8/8/23 1:43 PM, John Levine wrote:
>   |> It appears that Michael Thomas via Internet-history <enervatron at gmail.co\
>   |> m> said:
>   |>> into soc.motss was the internet's first gay newsgroup. It was created by
>   |>> Steve Dyer late of BBN. It was a purposefully cryptic name to fly under
>   |>> the radar.
>   |> In the 1980s I lived in Harvard Square around the corner from Steve
>   |> and his partner whose name I don't remember but who was, if such a
>   |> thing is possible, even nicer than he was. Everyone knew they were
>   |> gay which, fortunately in that part of Cambridge, was not a big deal.
>   |>
>   |I was never quite clear what Steve did at BBN. Maybe somebody here
>   |remembers?
>   |
>   |FWIW: my domain name is a result of Steve's spdcc.com. I needed to
>   |create LLC in a hurry and this is what popped into my mind.
>   |
>   |But one other point is that it's funny how gay politics intersected the
>   |nascent internet. I don't have proof of it, but my suspicion is that a
>   |lot of changes especially in Silicon Valley but elsewhere as well with
>   |companies and HR policies were very facilitated by the internet. It's
>   |not like you would set up phone trees to get people to lobby HR, after
>   |all. The net really facilitated that and probably in a big way.
>
> I do have _no_ idea, but from my German-centred point of view,
> i see (now letting aside the Bible with Moses and his personal
> opinion of "it is an atrocity", but the law that there may be no
> "male temple prostitutes" (iirc), and, 3500 years later, people
> like Benjamin Britten, etc etc ETC) a clear path from Rosa von
> Praunheim's "Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die
> Situation, in der er lebt" from 1971 ([1]), over the coming out of
> Freddy Mercury and his famour parties in Munich, Germany, as well
> as, of course, Rock Hudson's death (hm), now i skipped the big big
> Bronski Beat "Age of Consent" as well as, of course, "My Beautiful
> Laundrette", and, to end this, "Silverlake Life" [2].
> Whoever saw the latter (here it could be seen around midnight in
> german TV of public law; and i must say, in my memories they shone
> even brighter, i was a bit distressed to see the film again over
> twenty years later), you know.  Madonnas "SEX" was present in
> Germany through Udo Kier (censored in Japan i read now ;), and now
> i lost track.  So let's Divine, and "Shake it up".
> All of those had nothing to do with the internet, however, so i am
> off-topic.  But were omnipresent in Germany.

Freddie Mercury didn't really come out in the classic sense of the word. 
He did what I call "coming out by not coming out" which is to say that 
he just lived his life and maintained a bit of plausible deniability. 
Growing up Hollywood adjacent, that was very common. Like everybody knew 
about Rock, for example. Oddly enough, I never had much to do with 
Silverlake because there was an entire and huge gay community in Orange 
County where I grew up.

I do wonder what the buzz was on motss at the time. I vividly remember 
seeing Rock on Dynasty and thinking "OMG HE HAS IT!". The internet could 
have done so much to get the word out had it been more available at the 
time. By the time the internet really started gathering a head of steam, 
anti-retrovirals were finally on the horizon but even to this day 
pig-ignorance and bigotry are still far too common.

But yeah, Berlin. What could have been had the Nazis not snuffed it out. 
Sigh.

Mike, who still rues that he didn't come up to ISI in the late 80's for 
an IETF meeting to see if there was interest in printing transport protocols