Wearing their labels

Washington Blade - July 7, 2006
http://www.washblade.com/2006/7-7/arts/feature/labels.cfm

So even though gay youth may not feel as though they have to dress a certain way, sometimes they choose to simply announce themselves to the world as different

George Gutierrez lights up when he discusses the sartorial strategies of his contemporaries.

"We can take something from Ringling Brothers and make it work," Gutierrez, 18 and gay, says proudly. "We can take a pair of holey stockings and make it work. We can take a pair of underwear and make the whole outfit work around it. We can match it down to our eyes."

Gay teenager Antoine Edwards, 18, says he doesn't bother much with fashion, but agrees that the fashion of gay youth is distinct.

"They make their own clothes," he says. "They coordinate different styles into one outfit."

But as exuberant and outlandish (to older, more staid eyes) as their love of clothing may be, the fashion of gay youth is difficult to categorize, much like the youth themselves. As young people increasingly refuse to allow their sexual orientation to be labeled, so do they also decline to identify their fashion as little else but "different."

The result isn't a cookie-cutter look, like the "gay clone" phenomenon of the '70s, where many gay men wore their clothing, hair and beards in the same style so as to be recognizable to one another and as a show of solidarity with their gay brothers.

These days, those coming out of the closet at a young age aren't looking to conform to anything. They often use their clothes to show the world they are not just another Abercrombie kid straight from the mall.

Cornelius Robinson, 18, who is gay, says young gays are more likely to wear bright colors and "a tight shirt with some cut-up jeans with gay shoes." Robinson identifies brands such as Converse and Vans as having gay appeal.

The characteristics of what constitutes "gay fashion" vary, but many gay youth describe the style of their peers as eclectic and radical, with teenagers creating unusual looks by blending old with new, homemade with purchased and prints with patterns.

Raven, an 18-year-old who is gay and spoke on condition his last name not be used, says he often wears jewelry with his otherwise "sporty urban" look.

"I know I'm different," says Raven, who estimates he spends 45 minutes getting dressed each morning. "I want to express my personality - I don't want to look like I'm crappy."

THOSE WHO WORK with gay youth harbor no doubts that the young have created their own style.

"Clearly, I can tell my youth from other youth in their fashion sense," says Victor Price, youth services and activities manager at the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, a local non-profit that assists gay youth.

"I think it's radical," Price says about the general nature of the clothing worn by many gay youth. Price says that he often sees deliberately shredded or tattered clothing and T-shirts with provocative statements written on them.

SMYAL's youth are so interested in style that the group hosted a fashion show to express what they had learned about HIV and substance abuse prevention this past spring at Cada Vez, a nightlife venue on U Street, NW.

"They're growing up in a culture - particularly in a gay culture - where [designer] labels and the appearance of having more than they have access to is important to them as far as their status and self-worth, so a lot of times they go for things that are kind of flashy and extravagant looking," Price says. "They always have shirts with gold, silver or metallic on them."

Price also says SMYAL's youth favor "European cut," or tighter, clothing.

"Their heterosexual counterparts more and more are wearing baggy fitting jeans [and] loose shirts," Price says.

Edwards agrees with the notion, but categorizes the clothing differently.

"I don't look at it as a gay style, but it's more fitted than what straight people wear." Edwards says.

Robinson is also unwilling to label clothing or style as "gay" simply because gay people are more likely to wear it. Indeed, although both teens dismissed the notion of any particular "gay" style, each could identify distinctions in gay fashion.

The reluctance of gay youth to identify themselves or their styles as "gay" simply because gay people wear them is a trend, others say.

GAY AUTHOR RITCH Savin-Williams has studied gay youngsters for years and published a book last year, "The New Gay Teenager," on how gay youth identify themselves.

"A lot of kids are sort of saying, 'I know what my interactions are, I know what I'm interested in, but let's not to make a big deal of it,'" Savin-Williams says. "[A girl's clothing could say,] 'I have attraction to other girls, and yeah, I'd like to date her, but that doesn't mean you can have a label on me and put me in a box.'"

The current approach to sexual orientation that Savin-Williams has noticed is one of greater fluidity and fewer labels than in the past.

"It feels more integrated, their sexuality. It doesn't feel the defining part," Savin-Williams says. "The possibility now is that kids are integrating their sexuality as one part of their personal identity and it's not overwhelming their identity."

Savin Williams says he wonders if the view of sexual orientation as more of a spectrum might be a permanent generational perspective.

"I just think we ought to take those sentiments seriously and not dismiss them as part of the adolescent," he says.

AMANDA BERNAL, 19, who identifies as queer, says that she sees the divide between gay and straight fashion diminishing.

"Before the '70s, at least in lesbian culture, there was a distinction between butches and femmes and you were one or the other and there were certain rules you played by for each," Bernal says. "So if you had short hair and were more masculine and a female you were automatically identified as a butch lesbian. But I feel today, while there certainly still are stereotypes and people who feed into them, you can have short hair and be athletic and be a straight girl and no one really cares."

Among men, Bernal says, the role of sexual orientation in fashion is also becoming more flexible.

"In the age of the metrosexual ... it's popular to look, dress, groom like a gay man," she says. "So there's less of a distinction between gay and straight, which I think translates into more freedoms fashion-wise because we don't feel like we have to identify through clothes."

Bernal adds, however, that she does see gay fashion as more androgynous than straight fashion.

So even though gay youth may not feel as though they have to dress a certain way, sometimes they choose to simply announce themselves to the world as different.

"I think any population that doesn't feel accepted or visually represented ... uses fashion to express themselves ... to say, 'I'm here, I know that you see me,'" SMYAL's Price says. "This is just one expression to say, 'I'm confident and trying to find my way through this mess that's going on' that a lot of them may not understand."

A lot of the students that come to SMYAL are from areas of Washington, D.C., where it is difficult to be openly gay, Price says.

"They know people can tell that they're gay," Price says. "They deal with some pretty harsh treatment living in Southeast. In a lot of African-American communities in D.C., the reality is they're not being accepted for being openly gay, so they do push the envelope.

"'I'm gonna try to find the loudest, the brightest, the boldest statement because when I walk through here, I'm walking through here by myself.' And it takes a strong, confident person to walk through these areas. You already know they're not really in your corner. 'They already know [I'm gay], so I may as well push the envelope as far as I can.' It is a rebellion."

Dressing distinctively, Gutierrezz says, sends a clear message.

"It goes back to the whole, 'Yes, I may be different, but I look better than you,'" he says. "'What you can do, I can do better than you. I can take the dingiest thing and make a better outfit than you out of it.'"