Newly Published Portras Document a Century of Gay Men's Relatnships | Smart News | Smhsonian Magaze

Contents:

• BUT WERE THEY GAY? THE MYSTERY OF SAME-SEX LOVE THE 19TH CENTURY
• 10 HISTORIL GAY COUPL YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT
• PHOTOGRAPHS REVEAL EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAY UPL THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
• GAY RIGHTS
• THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• WOMEN GOT ‘MARRIED’ LONG BEFORE GAY MARRIAGE

BUT WERE THEY GAY? THE MYSTERY OF SAME-SEX LOVE THE 19TH CENTURY

"Walt Whman and Gay Liberatn are nearly synonymo for me, " wrote cultural historian Rictor Norton a 1999 say.

""The thg we don't know about any of the people, " says Peggy Wishart, "is the qutn most morn people have: Were they gay?

10 HISTORIL GAY COUPL YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT

" By 1911, there was enough awarens of homosexualy that when Fields pulled together a posthumo volume of Jewett's letters, edor Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe urged her to censor out the pet nam.

Tchaikovsky, unlike his brother Most who was openly gay, was hidg his sexual orientatn, his love letters to. Portras of pri: Touchg photographs reveal everyday life of gay upl the early 20th Century - before the closet door opened French screenwrer Sébastien Lifshz spent 20 years llectg photos om flea markets and garage salThey proudly portray alternative sexualy the U.

And Europe at a time when many had to hi their te feelgs'The need to keep a memory of their love was stronger than the disapproval of neighbourhood photo lab', he said Published: 12:46 BST, 29 June 2014 | Updated: 14:47 BST, 30 June 2014 Advertisement It seems ordary enough - a photo album of upl exchangg everyday affectn their garns, their kchens, bed and the what mak the imag so touchg is that the upl were almost certaly gay, at a time when to be so was illegal many parts of the wtern screenwrer Sébastien Lifshz took more than 20 years to amass his llectn om flea markets and garage sal, where he beme fascated wh the reee happs of people who were often outsts society.

PHOTOGRAPHS REVEAL EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAY UPL THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Careee: French screenwrer Sébastien Lifshz spent more than 20 years llectg hundreds of photos om flea markets and garage sal which portrayed gay upl their everyday liv - at a time when what they did behd closed doors was illegal. Mr Lifshz said he was fascated by their wealth of love and affectn Ambiguo: Bee he never knew the upl himself, Mr Lifshz uld not be sure if they were gay, bisexual or transgenr, or simply revellg sexual eedom Bee he never knew the upl himself, he uld not be sure if they were gay, bisexual or transgenr, or simply revellg sexual ambiguy and eedom.

'What astonished me was that their middle-class appearance didn’t match the act: the act of producg an image of homosexual love at a time when discretn was the norm, ' he said. When Douglas's father grew spic about their relatnship, he lnched a mpaign agast Wil that eventually led to his arrt on grounds of gross cency ( for beg gay) and was sentenced to two years Wil was released, the two tried to rekdle their love, only to be forced apart by their fai, who threatened to whhold funds. Durg the 19th century the silence England was broken, and police began actively fightg the "problem" of homosexualy.

However, the laws were selectively applied and th were not a great threat to gay men, as long as they were discreet and avoid sndal.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

Gay men were monly seen by society as perverts who had chosen their sexualy, or as diseased dividuals whose sexualy was ed by their upbrgg and blogy, and not somethg they were born wh.

Doctors and psychologists, believg that homosexualy uld be cured, tried methods such as hypnosis and aversn therapy. The fact that homosexualy was prent the earlit settlements of the loni is evint om the creatn of laws outlawg and the rerds of the urts punishg those who vlated them. Durg the Amerin Revolutn, a man known for homosexual behavr was France seekg a posn wh the Amerin Army while simultaneoly facg prosecutn for sodomy unr one of the German stat’ dranian laws.

GAY RIGHTS

The Early Gay Rights Movement In 1924, Henry Gerber, a German immigrant, found Chigo the Society for Human Rights, the first documented gay rights anizatn the Uned Stat.

Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels.

THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP

And durg World War II, the Nazis held homosexual men ncentratn mps, brandg them wh the famo pk triangle badge, which was also given to sexual predators.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group. The Los Angel anizatn ed the term “homophile, ” which was nsired ls clil and foced on sexual activy than “homosexual.

”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze.

WOMEN GOT ‘MARRIED’ LONG BEFORE GAY MARRIAGE

Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review. That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D.

Eisenhower signed an executive orr that banned gay people—or, more specifilly, people guilty of “sexual perversn”—om feral jobs.