The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life Ameri sce World War II by Charl Kaiser | Goodreads

Contents:

• THE GAY METROPOLIS
• READ MORE OM THE GAY METROPOLIS AND CHARL KAISER:
• THE GAY METROPOLIS : 1940-1996
• THE GAY METROPOLIS: THE LANDMARK HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AMERI SCE WORLD WAR II
• 'THE GAY METROPOLIS'
• THE GAY METROPOLIS REVIEW: IF WE N SURVIVE AIDS, WE N SURVIVE TMP
• THE GAY METROPOLIS, 1940-1996

THE GAY METROPOLIS

A New York Tim Notable Book of the Year and wner of a Lambda Lerary Award, The Gay Metropolis is a saga of stggle and triumph that was stantly regnized as one of the most thorative work of s kd.

Now, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, Charl Kaiser brgs this -by- acunt of the rise and acceptance of gay life and inty sce 1940 to the twenty-first century. In a new fal chapter for this edn, “The Twenty-First Century, ” he draws a le om Queer as Folk to Moonlight, each wh new ntext as their succs is amed by a reuntg of Jtice Anthony Kennedy’s fal landmark gay rights cisns, Uned Stat v.

The article was the first lm, balanced, nuanced and human explanatn of what meant to be gay ever published The Tim, and Merle Miller was the first proment wrer ever to e out s pag.

READ MORE OM THE GAY METROPOLIS AND CHARL KAISER:

Dan Savage has wrten the forward to the new edn, and Charl Kaiser has wrten the afterword, explag how Miller's piece affected him when he first read , and how dramatilly gay life has changed over the last four s. Kaiser’s lecture subjects clu the The Fascist Threat of Donald Tmp, The French Ristance, How World War II shaped morn Europe, How the ’60s Saved Ameri, and The Gay Revolutn Sce 1970. At twelve Bigelow was already havg sex wh his classmat, but they didn’t thk their pastime had anythg to do wh beg “gay” or “homosexual, ” words that they had never heard spoken.

The nooks and shadows created by this shaft down the center of the avenue played a signifint role gay life New York before the war: they offered a multu of discreetly darkened meetg plac right the heart of the metropolis. The photographer was forty-two when Bigelow met him, and he kept himself f wh regular viss to the gym—a ctom that would bee almost universal among a certa class of gay men three s later. At twelve Bigelow was already havg sex wh his classmat, but they didn't thk their pastime had anythg to do wh beg "gay" or "homosexual, " words that they had never heard spoken.

The photographer was forty-two when Bigelow met him, and he kept himself f wh regular viss to the gym--a ctom that would bee almost universal among a certa class of gay men three s later. Even si gay bars, placloth policemen would practice entrapment, actually displayg erectns the bathroom to trick ctomers to proposng them--a practice that ntued New York.

THE GAY METROPOLIS : 1940-1996

The "rpectable" (and eply closeted) gay men whom Bigelow knew were hont about their homosexualy only among themselv; they were horrified by the brazen displays of the Tim Square crowd. to gay life Manhattan over the next uple of years nvced him that not everyone felt guilty about beg homosexual, although he himself remaed uncid about his ultimate orientatn.

The Natnal Associatn for the Advancement of Colored People was already well tablished, and some northern llege mp wnsed civil rights monstratns prottg the treatment of Ain Amerins, but gays remaed outsi any liberal's.

“Updated and featurg a new troductn, Charl Kaiser’s landmark book The Gay Metropolis, featurg the addnal subtle ‘50 Years After Stonewall, ’ is even more sential readg than ever. A New York Tim Notable Book of the Year and wner of a Lambda Lerary Award, The Gay Metropolis is a saga of stggle and triumph that was stantly regnized as one of the most thorative works of s kd. In a new fal chapter for this edn, “The Twenty-First Century, ” he draws a le om Queer as Folk to Moonlight, each wh new ntext as their succs is amed by a reuntg of Jtice Anthony Kennedy’s fal landmark gay rights cisns, Uned Stat v.

THE GAY METROPOLIS: THE LANDMARK HISTORY OF GAY LIFE AMERI SCE WORLD WAR II

“In the 1950s there were approximately three openly gay public figur Ameri: Jam Baldw, Allen Gsberg and sort of Gore Vidal — although he never scribed himself as gay, ” Kaiser says. In the early morng of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn Greenwich Village as part of systematic crackdown on the few tablishments terg to openly gay ctomers. The raid sparked a vlent backlash and monstratns that me to be lled the Stonewall rts, which marked the begng of the gay liberatn movement of the 1960s-’80s and the morn fight for LGBT rights the U.

Like every gay man or lbian my age, and everyone else on the wing ntuum of the sexual other, I was given an extraordary gift: I am alive at the bt time to be gay sce Aristotle. “What has been most remarkable about the twenty-first century is how fast thgs have sped up, both cultural and polilly, for the gay movement — much faster than we thought would possibly happen. “Gay life New York Cy, as was the rt of the Uned Stat and ed the rt of the wtern world, was visible to everyone except those participatg … Generally speakg, if you were a gay person you did everythg your pacy to keep a secret om your iends, om your fay and om anyone else who wasn’t gay.

'THE GAY METROPOLIS'

“Forty-ne years ago, on the first anniversary of the rts outsi the Stonewall Inn, thoands of ‘young men and women homosexuals’ om all over the north-east marched om Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow Central Park.

There are pictur, cludg one of Otis, an actor and stage manager (the touchston of bety were different then, and the standards much kr) history lgbtq 964 reviews39 followersJune 30, 2011Kaiser has wrten a history of gay life Ameri om WW 2 to 1996 that is sure to grip the rear.

Different eras emphasize different aspects of the gay experience: WW 2 we have gays battle (amazgly well tolerated for the time- so much for gays breakg down ary hivens); different eras ’s the lerary set, the theater (the groundbreakg premier of ‘The Boys the Band’, for stance), Stonewall, the bars and bathho, the begng of the AIDS epimic and the horrifyg number of aths that followed. Favor first-edn gay Author 142 books227 followersReadNovember 13, 2011It’s almost funny to read how Otis Bigelow (famo to be the most handsome man of the ’40s New York Cy, and veted by lnair and artists) reported as beg gay “was an upsle thg to be”, but at the same time the thor reports as jt “across town om Park Avenue swells who entertaed him so lavishly their duplex apartments, a pletely different kd of gay life was thrivg Tim Square”.

THE GAY METROPOLIS REVIEW: IF WE N SURVIVE AIDS, WE N SURVIVE TMP

Otis Bigelow was not wrong as they were not wrong the obv fairi of Tim Square, they were simply navigatg different “hidn pla sight” approach was apparently pretty mon the ’40s, and so we learn om the memory of a fund boy om New England who wants to rema anonymo as he went to school wh John Fzgerald Kenney, and between the two, the outst was Kennedy; but there is also the si news of how JFK’s roommate, Lemoyne Billgs, was gay and how he remaed fay iend even after the print om the words of many gay men who was there and lived that ’40s atmosphere the general opn is that, you uld be gay sce you simply didn’t flnt . That is basilly what Otis Bigelow and those other anonymo voic implied, you were ee to be gay as far as you were gay si “private” maybe that is the reason why, a perd when civil rights were startg to be a mon agenda of many policians, was not the same when those rights regard LGBT people.

You were ee si your private home, btw if you were wealthy enough to have that safe home, but you were also ptive of your own goln is a long ssn voted to the gays the ary durg the WWII.

THE GAY METROPOLIS, 1940-1996

Forster, and how Cadm was aware of Forster’s novel Mrice, a novel the thor refed to publish until after his ath to not damage his policeman “iend” (who was married) ’50s is a perd of phoria but apparently also started the perd when beg gay was dangero, and so should be hidn; if the ’40 you uld be gay si private walls, the ’50s even that eedom was a danger, and the walls of a room beme the more nfed space of a closet. Maybe for this reason, late the ’50s the ma tenncy was to “blend” and you see gays people gettg married, wh or whout the knowledge of the ’60s see a surge of nscienc, all the level of society, and so also among gays and lbians.

Homosexualy exed om the closet and arrived televisn, wh a ground-breakg documentary, The bridge between the ’60 and the ’70 is Stonewall, and so om that moment on there will be always a pre and post-Stonewall gay and lbian movement and culture: “although lns would rema the closet, wh a year after Stonewall, thoands of men and women would fd the urage to clare themselv for the first time”. Not only, beg gay, or at least bisexual, was almost “fashnable”, and many media, televisn, cema, publishg, the gay characters not only started to make their appearance, they were also, sometime, posively accepted by the mastream public. Gay subculture as began to acquire a sense of muny New York Cy and other large ci after World War 2, and then, the 60s, to move out of the closet and claim polil rights.

I pecially liked the chapter on "The Forti" -- I hadn't realized how the mass mobilizatn of World War 2 brought together gay guys (and to some extent lbians) and allowed them to form their own ltle sub-groups wh their uns. Great stori about Otis Bigelow, Harry Hay, Frank Kameny, Arthur Lrents, Philip Johnson, Lln Kirste, Leonard Bernste, Judy Garland, Larry Kramer, Walter Clemons, Howard Rosenman, Merle Miller, Ethan Geto, Tom Stoddard, Steve Rubell, Xax, and untls history new-york59 reviews3 followersJuly 1, 2012This book offers a fascatg history of the gay "experience" om the 40s to the 90s.