GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER | The Journal of the Gild Age and Progrsive Era | Cambridge Core

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GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER - Volume 18 Issue 1

Contents:

GAY NEW YORK : GENR, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKGS OF THE GAY MALE WORLD, 1890-1940

* gay new york george chauncey *

Tle: Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. Gee Chncey unvers a prevly hidn "gay male world" New York Cy before World War II, a world that had been lost through the myths of "isolatn, visibily, and ternalizatn.

" Instead, the world Chncey scrib is a vibrant and surprisgly visible gay culture between 1890-1940.

In this world, the later homosexual/heterosexual bary was not yet force, and men were fed on the basis of their masculy or femy rather than the sex of their sexual partners. In this way, workg-class mascule men, particularly sailors and laborers, uld have sex wh effemate "fairi" yet not be nsired "gay" (provid they were the one dog the peratg). In Part II, Chncey scrib how gay men produced the space of an urban "gay world.

GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER

Gay New York by Gee Chncey, May, 1994, Basic Books edn, Hardver English * gay new york george chauncey *

Chncey not that, until the 1930s, thori would often take a hands-off approach unls gay men's prence moved beyond the tegory of harmls spectacle. He also not the tensn between private and public, where gay men were often forced out of the public sphere to engage activi and socializg public areas (although plac such as parks and streets were often dangero). Fally, he pots to the velopment of two gay neighborhood enclav: Greenwich Village the 1910s (part of a larger bohemian culture) and Harlem the 1920s and 1930s (which was much more visible and vibrant).

Chncey not that until the 1930s, the spac, particular Harlem, beme a space for highly visible spectacl of gay life - for example, massive drag queen balls which thoands attend and were vered by the prs.

HONORG GEE CHNCEY, A SCHOLAR OF GAY HISTORY

The unrme any notns of gay life beg eply the closet until the 1960s.

GAY NEW YORK

Chncey ends wh a discsn of the cle of this gay world. Wh s repeal the state had broar surveillance and regulatory powers which they ed to lim gay public space.

GAY NEW YORK SUMMARY

This occurs most vividly wh vlent crackdowns on any bars that allowed gay men visibily (leadg to the rise of exclively gay bars). Chncey's narrative ends wh the gay world beg driven largely unrground durg the 1930s.

- Gay world was que visible before 1930s, then went to the closet (anti-Whiggish view of history).

- For much of perd there was no hetero/homo bary, stead fed by masculy/femy, NOT sexual orientatn - straight men uld have sex wh "fairi" and "queers" (fed by their femy) and not be nsired gay.

GAY NEW YORK

- Gay men create a space for activy that bridg public and private (ex. - Decle of gay world (gets put to the closet) begng 1930s due middle class male anxieti and repeal of Prohibn (broar state surveillance). [365]-457) and xThis groundbreakg work shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed only the closet where gay men were isolated, visible, and self-hatg.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY NEW YORK GEORGE CHAUNCEY

Chncey, Gay New York .

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