21 Books Every Gay Man Needs To Read Right Now | Thought Catalog

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• 21 BOOKS EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO READ RIGHT NOW

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

Bisexualy has been viewed wh gay studi as distct om homosexualy, and bisexuals have found themselv exclud om gay events and anizatns although a great many “gay ins” om Socrat to Shakpeare to Osr Wil were married and fathered children. The word “homosexual” was, fact, created the late neteenth century as an English equivalent for German Homosexualtät, which first appeared prt 1869 a pamphlet argug agast the Pssian legal that prcribed punishments for men who engaged same-sex relatns.

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

FouultIn the troductn to the first volume of his Histoire la sexualé (1976; English translatn, History of Sexualy, 1978), Michel Fouult argu that homosexualy is an ventn of the late neteenth century. The neteenth-century homosexual beme a personage, a past, a se history, and a childhood, addn to beg a type of life, a life form, and a morphology, wh an discreet anatomy and possibly a myster physlogy. Adoptg his posn, crics have argued, for example, that Walt Whman and Osr Wil (1854–1900) were not, strictly speakg, homosexuals, at least the sense that medil and psychologil tablishments unrstood that “ndn” or “speci” the twentieth century.

Whether the dividual is born homosexual or his or her homosexual sir are socially nstcted, is clear that medi-scientific theori of homosexualy as a curable disease were an ventn of the late neteenth and early twentieth centuri. Homosexualy plays by Tennsee Williams is differently unrstood, for example, than is poems by Walt Whman, and the difference is largely rooted medi-scientific nsiratns rather than ethil or polil on. If the play were wrten now, one might expect Brick to abandon Maggie, but as wrten by Williams, who was homosexual, the oppose happens, and the play ends “happily” when Maggie announc that she is pregnant.

One rells thgs as var as Ernt Hemgway's dismissive attu toward homosexuals his books, the “pansi” played for lghs Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s, and Hart Crane's joyo announcement—havg, he believed, fallen love wh a woman—that he was not homosexual after all.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

Although Amerin lerature the first two-thirds of the twentieth century almost always impli the medi-scientific fn whenever homosexualy enters the text, Whman had his own succsors, om Bliss Carman (1861–1929) and Richard Hovey (1864–1900) to Marsn Hartley (1877–1943) to Langston Hugh (1902–1967) and Gerr Lansg (b. Hallock vtigat one pecially tense relatnship his bgraphy of Fz-Greene Halleck (1790–1867), The Amerin Byron (2000), whom he views as a homosexual drawn to the younger poet Joseph Rodman Drake (1795–1820).

21 BOOKS EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO READ RIGHT NOW

Graham's importance to popular beliefs about sexualy the neteenth century should warn agast general or facile observatns about siari between attus toward homosexualy our own day and Thore's.

Sedgwick se Jam as a homosexual who rarely alt openly wh male timacy but whose work foc on “homosocial” (her term) suatns that occur when, for example, two men stggle for the attentn of a woman; emotns are directed by each man more strongly toward his petor than toward their shared object of sire.

Billy Budd is a very different matter, for, Sedgwick wr, “every impulse of every person this book that uld at all be lled sire uld be lled homosexual sire, beg directed by men exclively toward men” (p. Although Sedgwick nsirs Billy Budd to be suffed wh homosexual sir, she pots out that there is only one homosexual the morn sense the story: Claggart, who has the self-loathg of those who have ternalized homophobia, and who is “praved bee he is, his sir, a pervert, ” or “homosexual” (Sedgwick, 1990, p.