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Contents:

• ‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS
• THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN
• GAY SNA EXPERIENC
• THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?
• ‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS

‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS

The newly surfaced, unseen imag are rerds of a polil climate which homosexualy was prosecuted and illic sex between men a risky thrill. as parks, partment stor, tube and railway statns, where gay men were. Homosexualy.

had been partly crimalised by the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967, but anti-gay. gay men remaed closeted.

In the s after 1967, as many as 15, 000 gay men are timated to have been nvicted of such term ‘ttagg’ refers to cisg or engagg. wh gay men. He realised how easy police were fdg to ‘nick’ and prosecute men for homosexual activy, often by employg ‘pretty police’ pla cloth to set up gay men, or by g dub pnage tactics.

THE FOTTEN SECRET LANGUAGE OF GAY MEN

to hi out the ceilg (right) to ‘nick’ men for homosexual activy. In the early 1980s, Polglaze was dog four or five ‘bog jobs’ a week, an ditn of que how much police activy was directed towards tchg gay men and a reflectn of the polil climate.

In a September 2005 terview wh the Gay Tim — the only place which some of the photographs were ever published — he said: “My job as a photographer was to asss the stcture of the place and tablish sightl. stggle for gay rights gaed ground the 1990s, changg the culture and. toilets as popular spots for secret enunters among gay men; a social history.

Vada (“look at”), dolly eek (a pretty face), and chicken (a young guy) are all words om the lexin of Polari, a secret language ed by gay men Bra at a time when homosexualy was illegal. In the 1930s was spoken among the theater typ of the Wt End, om which crossed over to the cy’s gay pubs, gag s stat as the secret language of gay men. In England, homosexualy was officially nsired a crime until 1967, when the Sexual Offenc Act legalized private “homosexual acts” between nsentg adults over 21.

GAY SNA EXPERIENC

) The Act me a after the ernment’s Wolfenn Report, which igned bate by remendg the partial crimalizatn of homosexual acts. Durg the terim years, when beg openly non-straight brought the risks of social isolatn and crimal prosecutn, Polari provid gay men wh a subtle way to fd one another for pannship and sex.

Among nfirmed gay men, however, there was nothg subtle about Polari nversatns. The Hidn History of Gay Life at Sea, Pl Baker and Jo Stanley wre that Polari played a role “allowg gay men to nstct a humoroly performative inty for themselv.

In the late ‘60s, as gay liberatn groups were fightg for regnn and equaly, Polari h mastream Brish pop-culture the form of Julian and Sandy, two flamboyant, not-officially-but-pretty-obvly gay characters on a BBC rad show lled Round the Horne. But the ‘60s, they were the extent of gay men’s media reprentatn Bra. Julian and Sandy prented a nundm: as lovable gay characters on a very popular show, they enared themselv to Brish dienc an era of homophobia.

THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?

But some gay liberatn groups me to rent the image that they—and Polari—perpetuated. By the early ‘70s, as LGBT groups fought for rights beyond those granted by the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act, the image of the mp gay man had bee the target of ire.

Many who were lobbyg for sexual equaly, says Dolan, “felt was about gay people prentg themselv as jt ordary folks. “Gay men unr 40 barely know of at all. When Ecclton and Fairbairn posted the film onle, they were surprised by the enthiastic rponse—and the level of fascatn wh Polari, this myster, cipherable “gay language.

‘BOG JOBS’: PUBLIC TOILETS AND GAY ENUNTERS

“The kds of nts still exist where opprsn is still entrenched, ” says Ecclton, cg Swardspeak, a language based on English and Tagalog that is ed among gay men the Philipp.

Given s associatns wh stereotypil reprentatns of gay men, Polari may not seem to have a place the 21st century. But the backlash agast mp has mellowed—’s not the way to be gay, but ’s one way among many. Dolan brgs up the pot that gay men shouldn’t have to be “straight-actg” orr to be accepted: “Might not be more fun to embrace a b more mp and actually have fun wh ourselv and wh each other?

For other , see Cottage (disambiguatn) Cottagg is a gay slang term for havg sex a public lavatory (a ttage) or for cisg for sex or pickg-up sexual partners public lavatori wh the tentn of havg sex elsewhere. Cottagg is more mon among gay and bisexual men than among lbians or heterosexuals, the latter se bee mixed-genr lavatori are unmon, but the term n apply to the actns of people of all sex and sexual term ttagg is rarely ed outsi gay muni however, and age and awarens of the term may be cle, as attus to homosexualy bee more tolerant and fewer dividuals fd themselv limed to such vert and illic ways of meetg others.