Historic photos of Ain-Amerin gay men unearthed - TheGr

Contents:

• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
• SEE PHOTOS OF GAY MEN LOVE DATG BACK TO THE 1850S
• 11 HISTORIL FIGUR YOU DIDN’T KNOW WERE GAY
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• HISTORIC PHOTOS OF AIN-AMERIN GAY MEN UNEARTHED

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

“Lovg” featur around 300 photos that offer an timate look at gay relatnships between the 1850s and 1950s. Gay Rights,. Chigo's olst gay bathhoe closed forever on New Year's Day 2018.

EtienneChigo lost a piece of gay history 2018, when Man's Country, the cy's olst bathhoe, closed s doors after 44 years. Author and historian Owen Keehnen said the loss of Man's Country was "a gay versn of seeg the hoe you grew up torn down. A place of sexual liberatn, social ease wh beg gay and muny buildg.

That’s so gay! ”The pos, facial exprsns, and body language of the men below will strike the morn viewer as very gay ed. But is ccial to unrstand that you nnot view the photographs through the prism of our morn culture and current nceptn of homosexualy.

SEE PHOTOS OF GAY MEN LOVE DATG BACK TO THE 1850S

The term “homosexualy” was fact not ed until 1869, and before that time, the strict dichotomy between “gay” and “straight” did not yet exist.

11 HISTORIL FIGUR YOU DIDN’T KNOW WERE GAY

It was a behavr — accepted by some cultur and nsired sful by at the turn of the 20th century, the ia of homosexualy shifted om a practice to a liftyle and an inty. You did not have temptatns towards a certa s, you were a homosexual person.

Thkg of men as eher “homosexual” or “heterosexual” beme mon.

As this new nceptn of homosexualy as a stigmatized and onero intifier took root Amerin culture, men began to be much more reful to not send msag to other men, and to women, that they were gay. At the same time, also may expla why untri wh a more nservative, relig culture, such as Ai or the Middle East, where men do engage homosexual acts, but still nsir homosexualy the “crime that nnot be spoken, ” remas mon for men to be affectnate wh one another and fortable wh thgs like holdg hands as they walk. Whether the men below were gay the way our current culture unrstands that ia, or the way that they themselv unrstood , is unknowable.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

The men’s very fortable and faiar pos and body language might make the men look like gay lovers to the morn eye — and they uld very well have been — but that was not the msage they were sendg at the time. Bee homosexualy, even if thought of as a practice rather than an inty, was not somethg publicly exprsed, the men were not knowgly outg themselv the shots; their pos were mon, and simply reflected the timacy and tensy of male iendships at the time — none of the photos would have ed their ntemporari to bat an the thor of Picturg Men, John Ibson, nducted a survey of morn day portra studs to ask if they had ever had two men e to have their photo taken, he found that the event was so rare that many of the photographers he spoke to had never seen happen durg their reer. The snapshots ually were veloped by someone else who would have gotten a look at all of them, so aga, the pictur were not likely purposeful exprsns of gay love, but rather ptured the very mon level of fort men felt wh one another durg the early 20th of the reasons male iendships were so tense durg the 19th and early 20th centuri, is that socializatn was largely separated by sex; men spent most their time wh other men, women wh other women.

In the 50s, some psychologists theorized that genr-segregated socializatn spurred homosexualy, and as cultural mor changed general, snapshots of only men together were supplanted by those of ed all male environments, such as mg mps or navy ships, was mon for men to hold danc, wh half the men wearg a patch or some other marker to signate them as the “women” for the eveng. But the 50s, when homosexualy reached s peak of pathologizatn, eventually they too created more space between themselv, and while still affectnate began to teract wh ls ease and ’s not te that Amerin men are no longer affectnate wh each other at all.

Servg is such an unqutnably manly thg, that homophobia dissipat; soldiers re ls about one’s sexualy than whether the man n get the job man who served WWII and experienced tense mararie wh his battlefield brothers, often had trouble adjtg to life back home, which he got married, settled the suburbs, and felt cut off and isolated om other men and the kd of ep iendships he had enjoyed durg the BuddyLife is a book that we study Some of s leav brg a sigh There was wrten by a buddy That we mt part, you and INights are long sce you went away I thk about you all through the day My buddy, my buddy Nobody que so te Miss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youMiss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youYour buddy miss you, y I doWrten 1922 by Walter Donaldson, “My Buddy” was origally spired by the heartbreakg ath of Donaldson’s fiancee, but was adopted durg WWII by the troops as a way to exprs their ep attachment to each other.

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF AIN-AMERIN GAY MEN UNEARTHED

And may also be traced to the culture’s greater acceptance of homosexualy, although that has turn solidified beg gay as an inty, and seems unlikely that men will cease wantg to munite to others whether they are homosexual or heterosexual anytime soon. " She had a way wh words and ed that talent to speak out agast racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Advertisement - Contue Readg Below2 Barbara GtgsShutterstockGtgs beme a csar for gay rights a before the Stonewall rebelln. In addn to lnchg the New York chapter of the lbian anizatn, Dghters of Bilis (which she ran form 1958 to 1963), she eded their natnal magaze and was known for standg ont and center picket l prottg anti-gay discrimatn.