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.
GAY ART VTAGE
Durg Prohibn, gay nightlife and culture reached new heights—at least temporarily. * 1930s gay art *
“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.
Shop our gay art vtage selectn om top sellers and makers around the world. Global shippg available. * 1930s gay art *
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.
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.
"Queer Art" beme a powerful polil and celebratory term to scribe the art and experience of gay, lbian+ people. * 1930s gay art *
”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.