The Fotten Secret Language of Gay Men - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• GAY
• 18TH CENTURY MOLLY HO – LONDON’S GAY SUBCULTURE
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• CHANGG MEANGS OF GAY

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

The character is not explicly wrten as gay, which would have been unthkable this perd, but is clearly lackg heterosexual mascule prows – one scene allus to his propensy to n away when approached by a pretty woman, while another he talks at length of the nuchs and dancg masters he llected around himself while on the Grand Tour of Europe. Siarly, the prt – which was signed by the ic pater William Hogarth 1746, and is tled Taste High Life – foc on the figure of a fashnable, effemate gentleman orr to make s pot; playg around wh the suggtn of homosexualy whout ever directly referencg .

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

As we’ve seen, the reprentatn of homosexualy popular culture was d rather than open, implied by behavurs such as the way one drsed, stood or spoke, bee the actual act of sodomy as fed law was nsired too taboo even to mentn by name. The term gay is equently ed as a synonym for homosexual; female homosexualy is often referred to as different tim and different cultur, homosexual behavur has been varly approved of, tolerated, punished, and banned.

Morn velopments Attus toward homosexualy are generally flux, partially as a rult of creased polil activism (see gay rights movement) and efforts by homosexuals to be seen not as aberrant personali but as differg om “normal” dividuals only their sexual orientatn. The nflictg views of homosexualy—as a variant but normal human sexual behavur on one hand, and as psychologilly viant behavur on the other—rema prent most societi the 21st century, but they have been largely rolved ( the profsnal sense) most veloped untri.

The Ksey report of 1948, for example, found that 30 percent of adult Amerin mal among Ksey’s subjects had engaged some homosexual activy and that 10 percent reported that their sexual practice had been exclively homosexual for a perd of at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55. After the 1969 Stonewall rts, which New York Cy policemen raid a gay bar and met wh staed ristance, many homosexuals were embolned to intify themselv as gay men or lbians to iends, to relativ, and even to the public at large. In rponse to their activism, many jurisdictns enacted laws banng discrimatn agast homosexuals, and an creasg number of employers Ameri and European untri agreed to offer “domtic partner” benefs siar to the health re, life surance and, some s, pensn benefs available to heterosexual married upl.

GAY

In one such stance, Albania repealed s sodomy statut 1995, and gay upl Amsterdam 2001 were legally married unr the same laws that ern heterosexual marriage (rather than unr laws that allowed them to “register” or form “domtic” partnerships). However, most shared wh gay men the sire to have a secure place the world muny at large, unchallenged by the fear of vlence, the stggle for equal treatment unr the law, the attempt to silence, and any other form of civil behavur that impos send-class article was most recently revised and updated by Alison Eldridge. In the late ‘60s, as gay liberatn groups were fightg for regnn and equaly, Polari h mastream Brish pop-culture the form of Julian and Sandy, two flamboyant, not-officially-but-pretty-obvly gay characters on a BBC rad show lled Round the Horne.

18TH CENTURY MOLLY HO – LONDON’S GAY SUBCULTURE

Image ptn, Claire Pickerg Wakefield library imag the diary wrer speakg a Yorkshire accentA diary wrten by a Yorkshire farmer more than 200 years ago is beg hailed as providg remarkable evince of tolerance towards homosexualy Bra much earlier than prevly imaged. Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

"In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships. Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural.

"It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker. O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed".

Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers. Though uld still fetly be ed to refer to a gay/bi man or a man spected of same-sex sexual activy, the late eighteenth century bugger was also often ed as a general term for any man that a person disliked, cludg a memorable piece of hatemail wrten to Thomas Jefferson. Though a gay or bi man (or a man perceived as such) would certaly have fallen unr the term, may also have been applied to someone assigned male at birth, who we would now regnize to be a transgenr woman, or to non-bary people, agenr people, or even genr-transgrsive cisgenr people.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

It has been suggted that when the soldiers lled Sampson/Shurtliff “molly” they were not tendg to e the term molly meang homosexual, but rather were nicknamg her after Molly Pcher, a famed Revolutnary War heroe, but this is most likely not te. Thurdsday”, The Diary of John Adams, to Thomas Jefferson, 13 June 1804, Fop”, Merriam-Webster, Exampl of “fop” meang effemate man: “Poor Richard Improved”, Benjam Frankl,, and “15 Monday”, The Diary of John Adams, Madison to William Bradford, 9 November 1772, Smh Adams to William Smh Shaw, 2 Febary 1799, “Rearchers Notebook: Queer Cas: The ‘He-She’ Ladi and Mother Clap’s Molly Hoe”, The Still Pot Journal, “Of the Molli Club”, Satyril Reflectns on Clubs, Edward Ward, via Rictor Norton, Ed., “The Molli Club, 1709-10”, Homosexualy Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook.

The late 17th century saw a rise not jt journal entri on the subject, but other mediums, such as entire plays voted to homosexualy, newspaper articl on the raids of male brothels, sculptur and drawgs showg same-sex affectn, letters between lovers or letters referencg gentlemen pubs, and more.

Intertgly, much of the documentatn we have on the gay culture of the 18th century om that group, for their sire to brg more awarens to sodome ss and showse their victori brought attentn to what many outsi of London and even those outsi of the subculture London did not know about, turng this (advertently) to a known and talked about topic. A homosexual is not synonymo wh a sodome (I'll leave that for you to unpack), nor a sodome synonymo wh a homosexual, as much as might seem at first glance, and th open homosexualy did not put one at jeopardy for beg tried for sodomy, and certaly not if one was a social or polil ele.

CHANGG MEANGS OF GAY

The were the s of the fops and maronis, an era of the most fashnable gents and the precsors to Be Bmmel (let's save Bmmel's sexual appete for another nvo) d'ye like me [A Maroni] by Cargton Bowl, 1772Let's be clear that not all persons who engaged risqué behavr wh a member of the same sex intified themselv as beg homosexual. Regnn and acceptance of this as an inty rather than a sexual act veloped the 18th century, as we've discsed, but there were variatns of this inty: suatnal homosexualy, bisexualy, homo-Platonic, heteroromantic, etc; for example, a person fdg romantic love wh someone of the same sex but sexual love wh the oppose or vice versa. For the purpos of both accuracy and societal reflectn, is most likely that a novel set the 18th century, namely om the mid-18th century (1750s) to the early-19th century (1810s), would have openly homosexual characters.

By the end of the Regency era, we're ls likely to meet an openly homosexual character, and once we reach the Victorian era, anyone not ftg wh the heteronormalcy dictate would be livg their private life behd closed doors, although would be entirely appropriate for a wrer to clu a Wil-spired character, jt be aware of the external nflicts herent dog so. Perhaps the most monly touted one is that the morn e of gay  om a clippg of gayt, a slang term among hobos and erants meang a boy or young man who acpani an olr, more experienced tramp, wh the implitn of sexual favors beg exchanged for protectn and stctn.