Today’s right-wg mpaign agast “groomers” is Ameri’s latt moral panic. Gog back to the early 20th century, gays were often at the center of nspiracy theori to unrme the ernment.
Contents:
- THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
- THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY
- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S SECRET GAY CABAL
- ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.
- THE GAY CHURCH
THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
* gay cabal *
But there was a time Amerin history when there was a real fear that a gay mafia—known llectively as “homterns”—existed, wieldg ntrol across Hollywood and throughout the arts and entertament dtri.
In his new book Homtern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Morn World, English amic Gregory Woods chronicl the rise of the “homtern, ” explorg how the longstandg fear of homosexual men spurred a century-long paranoia about an alleged gay mafia ntrollg areas of ernment, the arts and amia.
THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY
A new book reveals the fluential -- and targeted -- gay men who served prints om Roosevelt to Clton. * gay cabal *
In the mid-19th century the pair rrpond about the threat of “perasts”—an antiquated term referrg to men who had sex wh younger men, sce “homosexual” did not yet exist as a label—to their goal of tablishg non-sexual raship between other men. ” This sire to study and fe sexual behavr further phed rearchers to “un-closet” the homosexual, all an effort to mystify a sexual inty that had long been ostracized and stigmatized but never really pned down through scientific quiry.
Des later, “homtern” entered Cold War disurse, beg reappropriated by nspiracy theorists that exploed s munist associatn and claimed referred to a longstandg “ternatnal homosexual nspiracy” across the untry, whose one goal was to perate posns the Amerin ernment and urp tradnal Amerin valu of fay and heterosexualy.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S SECRET GAY CABAL
Wh Amerins fearful of the tonatn of an atomic bomb and a enzy about polics beg overtaken by munist fectors, the elive figure of the homosexual—known but never seen public; closeted but apparently everywhere—was ripe to explo to spire fear.
ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.
Woods says that the anxieti around homosexuals Cold War Ameri take some of their orig the social “cleansg” mpaigns enacted Nazi Germany and Soviet Rsia, mpaigns lnched to eradite homosexual men (and other “unwanted” dividuals) om society.
The backlash agast homosexuals was only pound by the growg visibily of gay men public life, pecially the arts and entertament dtri, which only pound the ia of an unrground nspiracy of a “gay mafia.
THE GAY CHURCH
” In 1966, one New York Tim cric mentned the wispread perceptn that bee the men were homosexuals their plays “prent[ed] a badly distorted picture of Amerin women, marriage and society. Although the men were not “out, ” mors of their sexualy circulated wily Hollywood and galvanized an image of Hollywood beg overn by gay men, many who allegedly wield power and tonomy.
All the same, the homtern’s awakeng of fear public life 1950s Ameri monstrat an important narrative, remdg there was a time when the ia of a “gay mafia” lg Hollywood was a legimate ncern.