A Peek Unr the Towel: Insi the 500-Year History of Gay Bathho | Hor, the Queer Social Network

Contents:

• A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO
• THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY ENTRAPMENT
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF THE WORLD TRA CENTER
• GAY RIGHTS

A PEEK UNR THE TOWEL: INSI THE 500-YEAR HISTORY OF GAY BATHHO

Dpe survivg 100 years of police harassment, though, the gay bathho of New York Cy uldn’t survive the homophobia of Mayor Ed Koch, who shut most of them down durg the HIV epimic.

The Fotten History of Gay EntrapmentRoute arrts were the lchp of a social system tend to huiate LGBTQ JonEdor’s Note: This article is part of a seri about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Payne, a mic stunt and aspirg performer om Trenton, New Jersey, got his big break near the end of 1947, when he was 23.

But the bure’s regulatns prohibed the employment of anyone who “was or pretend to be a homosexual, ” an expansive le signed to prevent queer-themed entertament, cludg the so-lled pansy acts that had been all the rage New York clubs near the end of Prohibn, as well as homosexual entertaers themselv. In January 1948, Payne’s applitn was rejected bee of “two arrts and nvictns for generacy, ” which the Cabaret Bure nsired prima facie evince that he was, fact, a homosexual. Between 1923, when the New York state legislature specifilly crimalized male homosexual cisg as a form of disorrly nduct (“generate disorrly nduct, ” or simply, police lgo, “generacy”), and 1966, when a loose aln of pre-Stonewall gay activists, civil libertarians, fé owners, and bohemian wrers persuad newly elected Mayor John Ldsay to end the police partment’s e of entrapment to arrt men on this charge, more than 50, 000 men were arrted for cisg bars, streets, parks, and subway washrooms New York Cy the e of entrapment was one of the signal victori of New York’s ant pre-Stonewall gay activists.

THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAY ENTRAPMENT

At the same time, the movement’s extraordary—if plete—succs changg Amerin society the 50 years sce Stonewall mak all too easy to fet the sle of anti-gay policg the movement faced. The tens of thoands of New Yorkers who were arrted for cisg the 45 years before Stonewall have been even more thoroughly fotten than the movement that fought on their the 1940s and 1950s, police surveillance was only the lchp of a broar social system that punished people who were disvered to be gay.

Above all, the men feared that their fai or their employers would learn they were gay if word of their arrt reached them, as sometim happened when the police or urt officials ntacted them or, more rarely, a newspaper published the man’s name. His failure to receive a baret rd railed the profsnal reer he had dreamed of before even all gay men and lbians suffered such a fate when their homosexualy was exposed. But employers were much more likely to dismiss men and women they disvered to be gay, and begng the 1920s and 1930s, state ernments New York and elsewhere ma queer life more and more 1927, the New York state legislature prohibed theaters om stagg plays wh queer characters, and the 1930s, the Hollywood studs adopted a censorship that prohibed the appearance of lbian or gay characters or even the “ference of sexual perversn” s films.

After the repeal of Prohibn 1933, New York’s newly tablished State Liquor Authory issued regulatns that prohibed bars om employg or servg gay people or even allowg them to gather on their premis. Durg the Send World War, the feral ernment followed su by prohibg homosexuals as a class om servg the ary, and after the war, extend that ban to civilian feral re prciple that erned such l was to exclu people who were openly gay om many workplac and the urban public sphere of bars and rtrants, and to prevent them om even beg reprented or discsed plays, films, and baret performanc. The pot was not jt to nmn, huiate, and disurage people who were queer, but also to renr homosexualy visible and therefore, the thori hoped, filmmakers, playwrights, and bar and baret owners who dissented om such heteronormative impuls were forced to ply.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

The police often sent attractive young placloth officers to clubs to entrap gay men by leadg them on and then arrtg them if they ma the mistake of vg them home. Absent such five evince intifyg patrons as gay, police reports routely ced ctomers’ mp w and other forms of genr nonnformy: women wh short hair stridg through a bar men’s cloth; makp-wearg men sashayg about and llg one another “Mary. The bartenr mt have realized he was homosexual, he ttified, bee he had an “effemate … high-pched” voice, but stead of throwg him out of the bar, he engaged iendly banter wh him.

”At a moment when the State Liquor Authory was unr prsure to crack down on gay meetg plac, this was enough evince for to revoke the club’s license and permanently close for “perm[tg] homosexuals to ngregate” and “perm[tg] a performance by a homosexual. ” Unr normal circumstanc, even exclively gay bars managed to survive for perds of time bee they were n by the mob, paid brib to the lol patrolman, and were otherwise enmhed the web of rptn that erned much of New York’s postwar nightlife. But durg a crackdown, every bar was vulnerable—even a place, like the Salle Champagne, that did not cultivate a gay would be another 16 years before the policg of gay bars and dividual gay people was substantially challenged.

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF THE WORLD TRA CENTER

Endg the police e of entrapment to arrt gay men was so fundamental a change that has now been almost entirely fotten, but had a more profound impact on the everyday liv of gay men than the burst of activism immediately followg the Stonewall rebelln. A month later, April, Mattache staged a well-publicized “sip-” at a gay bar the Village that drew public attentn to the unjt l prohibg bars om servg gay people.

A year later, New York’s hight urt led that the State Liquor Authory uld not close a bar bee allowed gay ctomers to dance, kiss, hold hands, or do anythg else straight ctomers were allowed to do.

GAY RIGHTS

But the pre-Stonewall mpaigns agast state harassment of gay bars New York, San Francis, Los Angel, and other ci had set that change of the movement’s later victori uld give Aaron Payne his life back aga. He also prov himself to be an extraordary rantr, willg to pull back the veil on the strategi for dissemblg—om wearg sunglass so the employers who thought he was “a dumb lored boy” uldn’t see how much he hated them to talkg “sweet ltle whe boys” to buyg him cloth at Saks—that had enabled him, as a poor, black, flamboyant gay man, to survive his post–Salle Champagne life as a maid, hoeboy, and film hts at the black and whe bohemian artistic circl which he found support: the black sgers, such as Carmen McRae, who helped him by givg him work, and the terracial and mixed gay and straight artistic circl which he socialized and partied New York. 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.

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.