Marisa , let me tell you, as far as the the Northern scene goes , that "all singing all dancing macho blokiness having fun together" that characterises the scene has much more to do to with the very straight music hall sing along tradition in the United Kingdom or should even just be likened to just a group of blokes having a healthy pub singalong, rather than any "gay" thing ... "not that there's anything wrong with that", as Seinfeld would say ...
Of course there's always been a gay element in the soul scene, as there always has been in any section or group of our society, but really at the end of the day it's always been a MINOR element .
Had an interesting discussion recently with some people about the origins of the Disco scene in the US and the way that it's been documented in various music history books. The gay element in the Disco scene has always been strongly emphasised, with its origins often claimed to emanate from the bath house culture and loft parties in New York in the late 60s early 70s. But really, that gay-centric, New York-centric perspective of the origins of Disco, is not really accurate at all and has been unduly over-emphasised, if anything.
The real driving and creative force behind the development of Disco in every aspect (ie music clothes culture clubs etc), was in fact black heterosexual teens . For evidence of that one only only needs to read the chapter on "Dances" in Robert Pruter's brilliant book "Chicago Soul". That and the emergence of the Soul Train program on US TV screens in 1971 proved to be crucial in the development of disco and dance music in the 70's. This slightly politically incorrect view may raise a whole new issue for debate here but your comments and posts are encouraged !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!