For a brief but wild time the twenti and thirti, an openly gay culture thrived Chigo—a perd historians ll the “Pansy Craze.” Nightclubs and barets drew crowds of homosexuals, lbians, and voyrs—among them, soclogists who dutifully rerd the proceedgs. Recently redisvered rellectns om that era have land the cy the foreont of the small but popular field of gay historil rearch.
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HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
* 1930s gay art *
In the last 50 years alone, Keh Harg’s drawgs have raised awarens for the AIDS crisis of the ’80s; Nan Gold’s hntg photographs of New York’s unrbelly has shed light on the queer muny; Robert Mapplethorpe shocked the public wh his graphic imag of gay sex acts, promptg a revaluatn of bety and propriety. Transparency note: This page was reformatted to match later posts, the name of the artist was add, the spellg of Qur’an was changed om ‘Koran’ keepg wh current practice, and the rource A Ltle Gay History was add by Baylee Woodley on March 11, 2022.
Durg the “Pansy Craze” om the 1920s until 1933, people the lbian, gay, bi, trans and queer (LGBTQ) muny were performg on stag ci around the world, and New York Cy’s Greenwich Village, Tim Square and Harlem held some of the most world-renowned drag performanc of the time. “They didn’t see a nflict between not beg openly gay at work and sort of only beg gay durg their leisure time, ” says Heap, addg that a person’s class was likely ditive of how you might participate gay and lbian culture at the time.
The historian Chad Heap has noted that the flowerg of gay life at that time vered much of the cy's ethnic landspe: "Ain Amerin drag entertaers performed for racially mixed dienc at some of the South Si's most famo ‘black and tan' [barets]. " The so-lled Bughoe Square ont of the Newberry Library was such a well-known pickup spot that the Chigo Gray Le Sightseeg Company clud on s Chigo-By-Night tour, advertisg the promise of "the unual, strange and different" "gay night life. In his celebrated book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, Profsor Chncey showed that until the 1930s, workg-class men engaged sex wh other men whout feelg that they were abnormal.
GAY ART VTAGE
Durg Prohibn, gay nightlife and culture reached new heights—at least temporarily. * 1930s gay art *
My own vtigatn to Chigo's gay history began a roundabout way, when I started rearchg a book on Allerton Garn, a botanil masterpiece on the Hawaiian island of Kai found by a Chigoan, Robert Allerton, and his lover, John Gregg Allerton. By the time the Pansy Craze was over, "most people began thkg of themselv as eher hetero- or homosexual, while a century ago people did not thk of themselv or anize their emotnal liv through those tegori, " says the historian Chad Heap.
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. ”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co.
Shop our gay art vtage selectn om top sellers and makers around the world. Global shippg available. * 1930s gay art *
” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror. At the same time, also may expla why untri wh a more nservative, relig culture, such as Ai or the Middle East, where men do engage homosexual acts, but still nsir homosexualy the “crime that nnot be spoken, ” remas mon for men to be affectnate wh one another and fortable wh thgs like holdg hands as they walk. Bee homosexualy, even if thought of as a practice rather than an inty, was not somethg publicly exprsed, the men were not knowgly outg themselv the shots; their pos were mon, and simply reflected the timacy and tensy of male iendships at the time — none of the photos would have ed their ntemporari to bat an the thor of Picturg Men, John Ibson, nducted a survey of morn day portra studs to ask if they had ever had two men e to have their photo taken, he found that the event was so rare that many of the photographers he spoke to had never seen happen durg their reer.
"Queer Art" beme a powerful polil and celebratory term to scribe the art and experience of gay, lbian+ people. * 1930s gay art *
The snapshots ually were veloped by someone else who would have gotten a look at all of them, so aga, the pictur were not likely purposeful exprsns of gay love, but rather ptured the very mon level of fort men felt wh one another durg the early 20th of the reasons male iendships were so tense durg the 19th and early 20th centuri, is that socializatn was largely separated by sex; men spent most their time wh other men, women wh other women. In the 50s, some psychologists theorized that genr-segregated socializatn spurred homosexualy, and as cultural mor changed general, snapshots of only men together were supplanted by those of ed all male environments, such as mg mps or navy ships, was mon for men to hold danc, wh half the men wearg a patch or some other marker to signate them as the “women” for the eveng. But the 50s, when homosexualy reached s peak of pathologizatn, eventually they too created more space between themselv, and while still affectnate began to teract wh ls ease and ’s not te that Amerin men are no longer affectnate wh each other at all.
Servg is such an unqutnably manly thg, that homophobia dissipat; soldiers re ls about one’s sexualy than whether the man n get the job man who served WWII and experienced tense mararie wh his battlefield brothers, often had trouble adjtg to life back home, which he got married, settled the suburbs, and felt cut off and isolated om other men and the kd of ep iendships he had enjoyed durg the BuddyLife is a book that we study Some of s leav brg a sigh There was wrten by a buddy That we mt part, you and INights are long sce you went away I thk about you all through the day My buddy, my buddy Nobody que so te Miss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youMiss your voice, the touch of your hand Jt long to know that you unrstand My buddy, my buddy Your buddy miss youYour buddy miss you, y I doWrten 1922 by Walter Donaldson, “My Buddy” was origally spired by the heartbreakg ath of Donaldson’s fiancee, but was adopted durg WWII by the troops as a way to exprs their ep attachment to each other. And may also be traced to the culture’s greater acceptance of homosexualy, although that has turn solidified beg gay as an inty, and seems unlikely that men will cease wantg to munite to others whether they are homosexual or heterosexual anytime soon.
It did not stop the great paters of the Renaissance, many of whom are today acknowledged as gay, om portrayg the sexual allure of famoly, the var versns of St Sebastian’s martyrdom, showg a spicly mcular torso punctured by arrows, achieved inic stat among homosexual admirers who rpond not only to his physil bety, but also to his plight as a tortured, yet steadfast, martyr.