Movg Through New York’s Early 20th-Century Gay Spac ‹ Lerary Hub

Contents:

• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
• DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST
• MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC
• 1920S GAY CULTURE
• PHOTOGRAPHS REVEAL EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAY UPL THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
• THE PANSY CRAZE: WHEN GAY NIGHTLIFE LOS ANGEL REALLY KICKED OFF
• GAY RIGHTS

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village. Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn.

Gay Life the Jazz AgeAs the Uned Stat entered an era of unprecented enomic growth and prospery the years after World War I, cultural mor loosened and a new spir of sexual eedom reigned. ”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

In the mid- to late ‘30s, Heap pots out, a wave of sensatnalized sex crim “provoked hysteria about sex crimals, who were often— the md of the public and the md of thori—equated wh gay men.

” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror.

DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST

Durg the “Pansy Craze” om the 1920s until 1933, people the lbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) muny were performg on stag ci around the world, and New York Cy’s Greenwich Village, Tim Square and Harlem held some of the most world-renowned drag performanc of the time.

“They didn’t see a nflict between not beg openly gay at work and sort of only beg gay durg their leisure time, ” says Heap, addg that a person’s class was likely ditive of how you might participate gay and lbian culture at the time. “The were moments when workg class gay men and women uld more eely explore their sexualy, sir, and terts cross drsg, but probably no doctor or lawyer is gog to drs up drag at the events, out of risk of beg exposed.

MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC

” In the mid ‘30s, productn s were put to effect that rtricted and prevented performanc of openly gay characters film or theater, and the followg s, thoands of LGBTQ people were arrted post WWII for equentg their own clubs.

1920S GAY CULTURE

Thomas Barrow (Rob Jam-Collier)—former footman, would-be blackmailer, and early morn homosexual everyman—is now head butler on staff, givg him ample opportuny to teract wh the visg stars, and particular, wh the bonair Guy Dexter (Domic Wt).

While everyone else the show be, Barrow already qutn for queer Downton Abbey fans, then, is this: Is Thomas an accurate unveilg of historil homosexualy, hidn but fully formed, jt wag for to notice his existence? Like Thomas Barrow, Alec Scudr seems preternaturally gay, fully aware of his sexual sir, that they are exclively for men, and that they mark him, irrevobly, as a different sort of person.

In the post-Edwardian perd, upper class men were more likely to already unrstand the world terms of heterosexuals and homosexuals, wh a bright and absolute le dividg the two. As s passed, the neat fictn of bary sexualy beme broadly acknowledged “tth, ” leavg ls and ls space for middle-dwellg, workg-class men like Buckgham and an earlier and earlier age, people would be tght— streets as much as schools—that homosexuals existed, that they were unlike other men, and that any apparent “middle ground” was actually a slippery slope head straight to hell. She appeared at the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club, but she was also often seen cked out a whe tuxedo sgg rnchy songs at gay speakeasi like Harry Hansberry’s Clam Hoe, backed up by drag performers.

PHOTOGRAPHS REVEAL EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAY UPL THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

One of the few openly gay Black wrers of the perd, Richard Bce Nugent, published the short story “Smoke, Lili and Ja, ” nsired a semal work of gay Harlem for pictg bisexualy and a 19-year-old male artist sexually volved wh another man. Read more: You’ve Probably Heard of the Red Sre, but the Lser-Known, Anti-Gay ‘Lavenr Sre’ Is Rarely Tght Schools The richns of that culture still remaed, wag to be redisvered—a procs that began after the 1960s and ‘70s gay rights movement was followed by the loss of life durg the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, which raised awarens of the need to prerve gay history. An elrly uple had occupied for years, and, sce the walls were rather th, the iend had never stopped worryg that they heard him late at night wh gay iends and had grown spic of the pany he kept.

The buildg’s narrow railroad flats, if not luxur, were aquate and cheap; the lotn, near the gay bar circu on Third Avenue the East 50s, was nvenient; and most important, the other habants were iendly and supportive. In his movement om one dwellg to the next, Willy traced a path followed by many gay men the first half of the century as they built a gay world the cy’s hotels, roomg ho, and apartment buildgs, and s feterias, rtrants, and speakeasi. Although livg wh one’s fay, even a crowd tenement, did not prevent a man om participatg the gay world that was takg shape the cy’s streets, many gay men, like Willy, sought to secure hog that would maximize their eedom om supervisn.

THE PANSY CRAZE: WHEN GAY NIGHTLIFE LOS ANGEL REALLY KICKED OFF

Some landladi doubtls tolerated known homosexual lodgers for the same enomic reasons they tolerated lodgers who engaged heterosexual affairs, and others simply did not re about their tenants’ homosexual affairs. In general, though, the same lack of supervisn the roomg ho that so ncerned moral reformers ma the ho particularly attractive to gay men, who were able to e their landladi’ and fellow tenants’ prumptn that they were straight orr to disguise their liaisons wh men.

In March 1920, for stance, at least three rints of the two Mills Ho were arrted on homosexual charg (not on the premis): a 43-year-old Irish laborer, a 42-year-old Italian barber, and a 38-year-old French ok.

GAY RIGHTS

The rintial hotels built by the Young Men’s Christian Associatn provi the most strikg example of hog signed to reform men’s behavr that gay men managed to appropriate for their own purpos. Sailors at Newport, Rho Island, reported that “everyone” knew the Y was “the headquarters” for gay men, and the sailor’s le Irvg Berl’s World War I show, Yip, Yip, Yaphank, about havg lots of iends at the YMCA is said to have drawn a knowg lgh.

Such observatns beme a part of gay folklore the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, when the extent of sexual activy at the Ys—particularly the “never endg sex” the showers—beme legendary wh the gay world. But on his first night at the Y as he gazed glumly om his room to the wdows of other men’s rooms he sudnly realized that many of the men he saw sharg rooms were upl; wh a week he had met many of them and begun to build a work of gay iends. Legislatn has long centered on gay men, maly avoidg mentng female LGBTQIA 1919 Frankl D Roosevelt, as Assistant Secretary, had begun an operatn to terme if men spected of beg homosexual through ercn to m physil acts by way of vtigators planted wh the navy.