The Last Days of Gay Disco

Yet the '90s also needs to celebrate the '70s, the last sexually free decade of the 20th century. Since this moment cannot be relived--not even in the current gay circuit scene, which ironically has more in common with arena rock than with the louche and thoughtless abandon of the '70s--disco can only be processed through the filter of nostalgia so that it comes out as a kitschy aesthetic with accompanying soundtrack. What's lost is what made disco so alluring and threatening at the time: its heedless, unrepentant approach to pleasure. Since that philosophy was epitomized by gay men, they must be removed from the picture, lest we all be reminded of what we cannot possess, but refuse to forget.