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 SECRET GAY HISTORY OF THE WORLD TRA CENTER
• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• GAY HISTORY – JULY 20: THE MATTACHE SOCIETY’S “MISSN AND PURPOS”, CISG PARIS, GERRY STUDDS, AND THE MURR OF JOHN O’CONNELL
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

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

It was a ld Febary morng, 118 years ago this month, when New York Cy police nducted their first rerd raid on a gay bathhoe. This marked the first rerd time that police raid a gay bathhoe Ameri, but certaly wasn’t the last. The tradn of gay male bathg spac dat back to the 15th century — and more genr-ntral bathg is rerd as early as 6 BC.

In the late 1400s, police Florence, Italy, monored homosexual activy and “spect boys” at bathho. As stutns, bathho gaed populary the last century, part due to growg gay populatns lackg plac where they uld publicly gather. The risks of police raids terred some men om steppg to a gay bathhoe, but ultimately the need for timate pannship outweighed the danger posed by police.

RELATED | 10 Thgs I Learned From Workg a Gay Bathhoe.

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF THE WORLD TRA CENTER

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. Followg World War II, a more robt unrground gay culture began to emerge, spurred part by the pannship that queer soldiers found the ary. Gay bathho weren’t jt plac to have sex.

RELATED | Tour Chigo’s Olst Gay Bathhoe, Which Closed Its Doors After 44 Years (Vio). Today, gay bathho face huge challeng stayg open. What did you thk of our quick lson gay bathhoe history?

Courty of SXSWBaran’s new short film “Tra Center, ” which premiers at SXSW today, brought the filmmaker back to explore the buildg’s unrground history as a spot for gay and queer men to cise.

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

“Stop number one on a sex tour of the World Tra Center would be the men’s room on the lower level near the entrance to the PATH tras, ” Miller reunts the film, chroniclg his arrival to New York the 1970s, shortly after the morn gay liberatn movement kicked off. Bis an openg sequence, which his iend and narrator Billy Miller—the edor of the gay ze Straight to Hell—discs the malleabily of public and private sexual spac agast a few sends of perd footage (“back the 1970s, every public rtroom, seclud park, roadsi stop, was a potential or actual y room, ” Miller rellects), the film tak place the still new One World Tra Center, juxtaposg voiceover rellectns of the stori of men and their libido and glorly filthy adventur agast the sanized, heavily surveilled, mall-like atmosphere of the new buildg’s terrs.

GAY HISTORY – JULY 20: THE MATTACHE SOCIETY’S “MISSN AND PURPOS”, CISG PARIS, GERRY STUDDS, AND THE MURR OF JOHN O’CONNELL

Now, the floors of One World Tra Center have men uniform statned across s immaculate cleang up of gayns, gay spac, and gay culture is faiar to lots of queer people, Baran clud: “We know the earlit queer movements our untry, om the queer liberatn movement to the pre-liberatn movement, that there’s this ongog tensn always between the forc of who are rpectable and want to say ‘if we jt show society that we’re good and that we n be good cizens, they will let ’, ” Baran began. ’ And the gay movement om the ‘60s on, that was kd of the spl.

One voice the film discs Rudy Giuliani’s role crackg down on public cisg spac the early 1990s “at the height of the AIDS crisis”, sayg that “he systematilly raid and shut down gay bars wh back rooms, dirty movie theaters, and several bathho. The film bumps up agast the var perds of time nearly surreal form, simultaneoly observg a time whencisg was a kd of gay norm and the current realy which public sex is both more difficult to engage and also to some gree nsired antiquated and spac of sire and performance, as “Tra Center” tells , were feral, steamy, gross, excg, and sensual their modifitn of public utily to a private stage for fantasy and momentary closens.

Baran end our nversatn wh a lgh: “Horny gay people will not be stopped; horny queer people will not be stopped. 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.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Stonewall (1969) is often nsired the begng of forward progrs the gay rights movement. 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.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

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. Gay Life the Jazz AgeAs the Uned Stat entered an era of unprecented enomic growth and prospery the years after World War I, cultural mor loosened and a new spir of sexual eedom reigned. Though New York Cy may have been the epicenter of the so-lled "Pansy Craze, " gay, lbian and transgenr performers graced the stag of nightspots ci all over the untry.