Pansy Craze: the wild 1930s drag parti that kickstarted gay nightlife | Mic | The Guardian

Contents:

• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• WHAT WAS LIKE TO BE GAY 1944 -- AND OTHER HISTORIC LSONS A USC ARCHIVE
• PANSY CRAZE: THE WILD 1930S DRAG PARTI THAT KICKSTARTED GAY NIGHTLIFE
• GAY USA
• 5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED
• THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Prohibn era, they were attractg as many as 7, 000 people of var rac and social class—gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and straight alike. Stonewall (1969) is often nsired the begng of forward progrs the gay rights movement. 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.

WHAT WAS LIKE TO BE GAY 1944 -- AND OTHER HISTORIC LSONS A USC ARCHIVE

Though New York Cy may have been the epicenter of the so-lled "Pansy Craze, " gay, lbian and transgenr performers graced the stag of nightspots ci all over the untry.

”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.

PANSY CRAZE: THE WILD 1930S DRAG PARTI THAT KICKSTARTED GAY NIGHTLIFE

” The sale of liquor was legal aga, but newly enforced laws and regulatns prohibed rtrants and bars om hirg gay employe or even servg gay patrons. 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.

” This not only disuraged gay men om participatg public life, but also “ma homosexualy seem more dangero to the average Amerin. ” 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. It’s jt a were not activists or celebri, jt women love at a time before beg openly gay, let alone marriage equaly, had achieved broad public acceptance.

And that’s exactly why their ndid, timate rrponnce is so important, say archivists at the ONE Natnal Gay and Lbian Archiv at the USC Librari, where their letters are now stored. “For a long time the library systems around the world, if they had any books about homosexualy, was the abnormal psychology sectn. ”The ONE archive is believed to be the world’s largt llectn of LGBT artifacts, cludg personal ems om photo albums and letters to the LGBT rights movement has ma tremendo stris recent years, gay history is ltle known bee was kept out of the history books for so long, said Joseph Hawks, director of the archivists are workg wh the Los Angel Unified School District and the Los Angel LGBT Center to velop LGBT-clive history lsons that will be rporated to the curriculum the g months to ply wh the FAIR Edutn Act, a state law passed law, the first of s kd the natn, requir public schools to teach about the historic ntributns of LGBT people.

GAY USA

”::Savg the stori of the past, archivist say, is often a race agast time as olr gays and lbians age.

5 HISTORIC SAN FRANCIS GAY BARS WE WISH STILL EXISTED

But wasn’t the first time he had heard the ath of Don Slater, a foundg edor of ONE magaze — a 1950s “magaze for homosexuals” that fought obsceny laws and FBI surveillance and went to the U. Hawks dug them the years, numero personal ems, such as gay-themed magaz, have been brought to the archive as quiet donatns after people’s loved on died, Hawks said. ”::Among the archive’s more than 2 ln ems hoed a former USC aterny hoe are matchbooks om gay bars, polil buttons, erotic patgs and discreetly labeled “addrs books” listg gay-iendly ’s a talog for an at-home electroshock therapy k ed to “rerce sex preference” by shockg the wearer if he or she reacted posively to imag of members of the same sex.

RFD, a magaze for ral gay men, ran articl the 1970s about how to build your own b and letters om rears who loved the untry life but were terribly of the archiv’ newt llectns ntas the personal wrgs and letters of Lisa Ben (a psdonym for “lbian”), who 1947 created Vice Versa: Ameri’s Gayt Magaze for lbians. 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.

THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

Simply havg photos veloped that reflected homosexualy uld get you arrted. 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. The people are iendly, and we have always been on the ont of LGBTQ+ rights and fightg for eedom to be out and the 1950s, there was no nng water and no electricy, but gay men and women were happy to be roughg bee they were ee to be themselv.

If you were gay the cy, you went to the dark and dgy bars, which were n by the Mafia, and at any time uld be raid by the police and you uld be Cherry Grove, the police would leave on the last ferry to the maland at midnight, allowg same-sex dancg and open exprsns of affectn to occur the lol bars and rtrants. Each year, thoands of people e together to drs up and celebrate Inpennce Day the gayt way possible … wh hundreds of drag queens on a ferry returng to the P to keep the tradn gog. When muny members Cherry Grove would pass away, their straight fay members would clean out their ho to sell bee they did not want to live a “gay town.

The fay members often threw out any evince of their gay uncl or s.