Peter Ackroyd: A secret history – 2,000 years of gay life London | History books | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI
• PETER ACKROYD: A SECRET HISTORY – 2,000 YEARS OF GAY LIFE LONDON
• THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• LONDON 1950S GAY STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
• FOR CENTURI, BLACKMAIL WAS A TOOL USED TO INTIMIDATE GAY MEN

GAY MEN LONDON, OM PERSECUTN TO PRI

But urt rerds tell that Rykener drsed as a woman and went by the name Eleanor, raisg the qutn of whether Rykener was a gay man or a transgenr woman. That changed after the nvictn of Osr Wil 1895 for “gross cency” and the public shamg of other homosexuals. 6 of 10Homosexualy remaed illegal England and Wal until 1967, but public opn had begun to change the 1950s.

”7 of 10While no longer unr legal threat, gay men still faced social ostracism the later 20th century. Between 1988 and 2003 England was illegal for a teacher to suggt that there was anythg posive about beg gay.

When I was a child the 1980s and 1990s, if gay men appeared at all on TV or films, they were eher a punchle or a tragic victim of AIDS. Gay people were forced to grow up wh ltle ia that people like them had always existed and were as valid as anybody else.

PETER ACKROYD: A SECRET HISTORY – 2,000 YEARS OF GAY LIFE LONDON

It is only fairly recently that gay pubs and clubs have been able to advertise and operate whout fear of raids by police. 1866 The Coleherne, gay om the 1950s?, closed 24 September 2008 (261 Earls Court Road, Earls Court).

(Monday and Saturday) and also Propaganda (Thursday) were n at 'Bbys Nightclub' (London) by gay club promoter and DJ Col Peters (Peter Dbeney), whose brother Jamie ntued as promoter for a perd followg the passg of Col. Perhaps is new book, a history of gay London entled Queer Cy, returns to faiar terrory, so much so that ’s surprisg Ackroyd hasn’t already wrten : fact, turns out that, after a manner of speakg, he has. More famoly, a 1983 novel is wrten as a fictnal diary by Osr Wil, a photograph of whom rat his study, sandwiched between Thomas More and the Elizabethan mag John the new work go far eper, travellg om the barely visible remas of Celtic London and the arrival of Christiany the AD300s to the great sex sndals of the 19th century – Wil clud – and on to recent fights for gay rights.

THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED

If the Celts strike as somewhat mp – Ackroyd suggts the word has s origs the mid-1800s and the gay slang Polari – then so might Chcer’s Pardoner The Canterbury Tal (the prototype of “a London queer”, Ackroyd suggts). The same go for the nizens of the “molly ho” of 18th-century London – clubs-cum-brothels where gay men uld mgle, drs up and have many chroniclers of gay culture, Ackroyd don’t neglect lbianism: we are gleefully taken on a tour of the dildo shops of the Geian cy – ’s said that one tablishment  Leicter Fields sold nothg else – and behd the closed doors of cigarillo smoke-filled Edwardian clubs such as the Cave of Harmony and the Orange 2017, 50 years after some forms of homosexualy were tentatively legalised, ’s hard to thk of anythg that has unrgone greater upheavals than gay culture.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

As a percentage of the populatn, there were as many gay bars 18th-century London as there are today.

LONDON 1950S GAY STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

Durg the 1950s Picdilly Circ beme the foc of queer mercial sociabily[2] after the neighbourg Leicter Square suffered a mise gay vised venu after the Met and the LCC clamped down on heterosexual vice, makg gay men's prence ls acceptable. From the 1960s toilets the unrground statn were equented by gay men and rent boys plied their tra the toilets and at the railgs nearby (known as the 'meat rack'). It generated prs, wh the Guardian nng a photo ptn "kiss of ath" and the Inpennt claimg that "unls homosexuals wish to alienate the public they should nduct themselv wh rtrat".

Equally well-known, at least Bra, is the fact that Turg was gay, a homosexual, to e the termology of the day, and that he reputedly mted suici 1954 at the age of 41 after receivg hormone therapy as a rult of a nvictn 1952 for gross cency. The film has also attracted cricism some quarters for unrplayg Turg’s homosexualy, and foregroundg a (non-sexual) relatnship wh fellow mathematician, Joan Clarke, played by Brish actrs Keira Knightley. But bis such personal tails, the film’s more general portrayal of homosexual life the 1940s and 1950s do stand up to cril scty.

Blackout durg wartime afford opportuni for homosexual liaisons that many wouldn’t have experienced before.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

However, homosexualy remaed illegal unr the hated “Labouchère” amendment to the Crimal Law Amendment Act 1885, which outlawed “gross cency” between men. The war years may have been relatively kd to homosexual men but prosecutns for sexual crim creased the perd immediately after the war, reachg a peak 1961.

The police pursu of Turg The Imatn Game provis an sight to the importance the police gave to prosecutg homosexual “crim”. A groundbreakg study by Michael Schofield, published 1960, revealed the diversy of homosexual liv the perd and the myriad ways they negotiated through the unniable difficulti they often faced.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

In his tobgraphy, London journalist Peter Wilblood, who was another high profile victim of homophobic laws and police tactics, claimed was necsary for him to watch every word he spoke, every gture that he ma. Turg’s sexual discreetns The Imatn Game is an accurate reprentatn of how most homosexual men had to behave.

There has been a growg appreciatn queer amia that there was often tolerance and acceptance of men leadg homosexual liv at a domtic level, not jt om immediate fai and lol muni, but also om landlords and landladi.

KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

But while there may have been a certa gree of tolerance toward homosexualy, pecially for those men who lived “rpectable” and quiet liv, crimal proceedgs remaed a real threat for many.

Patrick Higgs’s review of urt s Heterosexual Dictatorships (1996) shows that homosexual liv ntued to be led across the breadth of the untry throughout the 1950s, albe the shadow of the law, and volved men om all walks of life. For example, the urt rerds show a se om Rotherham, Yorkshire, where 17 unskilled and semi-skilled men plead guilty to 41 charg of homosexual acts.

Dpe, or rather bee of the ocsnal high-profile trial and the number of ls famo prosecutns, homosexualy was largely phed to the dark recs of society. Aga, the prumptn that Turg uld not possibly be gay across the film if only as a mor sub-plot, but strik a te chord. In the light of what we know about homosexual life at the time, The Imatn Game mostly gets right.

FOR CENTURI, BLACKMAIL WAS A TOOL USED TO INTIMIDATE GAY MEN

One such muny was Cherry Grove, which is the subject of an exhibn at the New-York Historil Society tled Safe/Haven: Gay Life 1950s Cherry Grove. As a trans woman, I fely felt like I was not prent Cherry Grove at that time, but gay men and women were there, rvg out space that I get to hab today.

Soon the “theater people” would start to formulate a strong muny where people were able to be openly gay; they uld cross-drs and play wh genr mak the photos so wonrful is that they are very rare. We have a lot of lost history that was thrown away, so the photos om the archiv add so much to our knowledge of what gay life was like.