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
• GAY RIGHTS
• 10 UNR-THE-RADAR GAY HISTORY S NYC
• 5 SPOTS TO CELEBRATE GAY HISTORY NEW YORK

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

Our groundbreakg work documents historic plac nnected to lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people New York Cy and tells the often untold story of their fluence on Amerin history and culture. New York Cy—and Greenwich Village, particular—are associated worldwi wh gay rights and gay history bee of the Stonewall uprisg of June 1969 and the newly visible gay world that flowered the Village as a rult of . Sadly, the AIDS epimic, too, was centred New York, at least as far as the Eastern US was and other events st New York a pivotal role world gay history the late 1960s, 70s and 80s, but many people are unaware that the cy was an important gay centre long relatns of some kd have taken place every culture and time, no matter what the cultural norms were, and there’s evince of same-sex love 1640s Dutch New Amsterdam, for stance, where a young barber-surgeon lled Harmen Meynrtz van n Bogaert was acced of sodomy wh his slave Tobias and sadly died, fallg through the ice as he tried to pe across the ozen the 1850s, people that we would today ll gay began to play an important role New York—at least the cultural life that was beg a signifint feature of the cy.

GAY RIGHTS

Gay or gay-iendly social groups were startg up key New York wrers of the time referenced same-sex sire their work: novelist Herman Melville did so subtly, while poet Walt Whman did so explicly. Whman read his most clearly homo-erotic works, the ‘Calam’ poems, aloud to the circle of his iends who gathered at Pfaff’s beer cellar, at Broadway and Bleecker Street, which suggts that they were at least what today we ll ‘alli’ is ls evince of gay life New York the s after the 1850s, perhaps bee the Civil War retard the velopment of alternative liftyl the US. As Gee Chncey explas his masterly book Gay New York, at that time people tend to divi men not to gay and straight, but to ‘normal men’ and ‘fairi’ and was nsired possible for ‘normal men’ to have sex wh ‘fairi’ whout brgg their normaly to qutn, so long as they retaed the sertive role sex.

10 UNR-THE-RADAR GAY HISTORY S NYC

The bt-known was lled the Sli, on Bleecker Street, forced to close by a prs mpaign the 1890s, New York’s velopg gay world was already a paradoxil suatn and that remaed typil of the cy until the 1970s. There are even bars, such as Juli’ on Wt 10th Street—important gay history bee of the Sip-, a key gay-rights prott that took place there three years before the Stonewall—that have prospered through the whole time have also been cultural movements, groups and stutns that were fluenced by the gay muny, such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat poets, off-off-Broadway and Andy Warhol’s Factory.

5 SPOTS TO CELEBRATE GAY HISTORY NEW YORK

And many gay-rights anisatns have been found New York, om the Gay Liberatn Front the early 1970s to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Act Up and Queer of this history took place Greenwich Village and the East Village. By around 1910 the area between Hoton Street and 14th Street had bee the pre-ement bohemian neighbourhood of New York Cy and remaed that until gentrifitn the 1980s drove out anyone but the rich and those wh rent-ntrolled, the Stonewall Inn is one of the most famo plac the Village, but there are others nearby that are also important to gay history, cludg still-vibrant stutns such as Juli’ and the Cherry Lane Theatre. Andrew Lear is a former profsor of classics and history, and the founr of Osr Wil Tours, the first and only pany to offer tours foced on gay history New York and around the world.

1973THE STRUGGLE GAINS SPEEDJune 23, 1973Homosexualy Not a Mental Illns One of the first major succs of the movement me when the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed Homosexualy om the DSM-ll, where had been listed as a mental illns alongsi pedophilia and zoophilia. 1979THE COUNTRY IS LISTENINGOctober 13, 1979The First Natnal MarchFollowg the 10-year anniversary of Stonewall and the assassatn of Harvey Milk, thoands took to the streets for the first Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights.

June 4, 1981The AIDS Epimic Ravag Gay and Bisexual MenJune 5, 1981, saw the first reports of a rare pnmonia that was killg gay men, and soon other diseas began to attack their weakened immune systems, a ndn that would be known as "GRID" (gay related immune ficiency) until eventually beg known as AIDS (acquired immune ficiency syndrome) when beme clear that everyone was vulnerable to HIV, the vis intified 1984. Internatnally, Herage of Pri hosted the 16th annual Internatnal Associatn of Lbian and Gay Pri Coordators nference, the first to have substantial participatn om ternatnal pri mte.