Going, going, sold; an iconic glimpse of history which revealed a Fire Island gay wedding was sold this year on eBay.
The reels show incredible shots of two men, one in a wedding dress and one shirtless, undergoing a marriage with a rowdy group bearing witness.
Though the film doesn’t contain any sexually explicit acts, as clarified by the eBay listing, it does include a lot of shirtless men.
“While you do see some women and children the bulk of the 3in 8mm home movie features gay men at the beach…There is no nudity no sexual acts this is a HOME MOVIE,” the listing read.
The footage also features some steamy imagery of men in speedos wrestling, relaxing by the water, and engaging in, presumably, some good old fashioned bondage play.
Though more common in the mainstream, bondage in the ’60s was groundbreaking, a testament to the safe haven that Fire Island, an iconic LGBTQ+ heritage site, has been for the queer community.
As stated by the American National Park Service: “from Oscar Wilde’s visit to the island in 1882, to the steady development of Cherry Grove as ‘America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town,’ Fire Island has long been a home and haven to LGBTQ visitors and residents alike.”
This video was filmed long before the Stonewall Riots set the movement for Gay Liberation into faster motion, and the isolated Fire Island existed as an important haven when almost everything about living as a queer person was illegal in the United States.
Given the danger in filming queer people living openly at this time, the historical value of the footage is expectedly, very high. A testament to this was the purchasing bid of $980.
Mysteriously, the footage was found in an old cardboard box. The video’s owners and its origin remain unknown.
Though we are bummed not to be the owners of the magnificent shots ourselves, this Fire Island gay wedding is a piece of history we are thankful was uncovered. Let’s just hope the owner decides to bless us by digitising the video and releasing it.
Another important lesson we can all take away from this is, for those of us who enjoy making home videos, to preserve them because they may just make some big money in the future…
© 2021 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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