GAY NEW YORK | Kirk Reviews

Contents:

• GAY NEW YORK : GENR, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKGS OF THE GAY MALE WORLD, 1890-1940
• GEORGE CHAUNCEY'S GAY NEW YORK: A VIEW FROM 25 YEARS LATER
• HONORG GEE CHNCEY, A SCHOLAR OF GAY HISTORY
• GAY NEW YORK
• GAY NEW YORK SUMMARY
• GAY NEW YORK

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

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.

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

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. 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).

HONORG GEE CHNCEY, A SCHOLAR OF GAY HISTORY

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

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

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).

GAY NEW YORK SUMMARY

- 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 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).

GAY NEW YORK

[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. Based on years of rearch and accs to a rich trove of public and private documents, this is a look at a gay world that was not supposed to have existed. Focg on New York Cy, the gay pal of the natn for nearly a century, Chncey recreat the saloons, speakeasi, and feterias where gay men gathered, the timate parti and immense drag balls where they celebrated, and the highly visible rintial enclav they built Greenwich Village, Harlem, and Tim Square.