But Were They Gay? The Mystery of Same-Sex Love the 19th Century

* gay cowboys in the 19th century *

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

"It's hard to image any morn poet wrg about lyg another man's arms and then llg homosexualy "damnable. ""The thg we don't know about any of the people, " says Peggy Wishart, "is the qutn most morn people have: Were they gay?

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" 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. But as Reynolds says, "It's absolutely wrong to impose today's versn of homosexualy on Whman or Jewett. Such adult men ed the pretext of a srcy of women to tablish enforced homosexual relatnships remote mps and ranch parable to the relatnships for which today's prisons are notor.

The high cince of perasty and homosexual rape is the great dirty secret of the Old Wt ontier--and yet this is not om any lack of ntemporary acunts which document or ht at , cludg the famed woodcuts of men dancg wh boys, scriptns of the practic of multiple men sleepg sgle beds (as if there wasn't room enough out Wt for everyone to throw down his own bedroll), jok about turns the barrel, and the lyrics of certa Old Wt songs which young men seem to be given women's nam.

Ask anyone who’s seen Brokeback Mounta (2005) to characterize the film three words, and you’re almost certa to hear some variatn of “gay wboy love-story.” While many have ld the film, directed by Ang Lee, for s nuanced portrayal of two men’s plited love for each other, the film was subject to sthg cricism at the time of s release. Detractors, largely spearhead by right-wg and relig groups, quickly and fervently emed the film’s pictn of a homosexual uple immoral, evince of an attempt to femize men, and even anti-Amerin. In many s, crics honed on the two leads ’ occupatns as wboys, challengg the existence of a “gay wboy” Amerin history.

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I n’t thk of a more effective way to alienate most movie-gog Amerins than to show two wboys ltg after each other and even smoochg.” Other crics acced filmmakers of phg an “agenda” onto Amerins, wh one wrg that “Hollywood screenwrers and producers thk that ’s their duty to teach Ameri that homosexual nduct and cross-drsg are normal behavrs that should be affirmed Amerin culture. The beliefs, though objectively bafflg, beg tertg qutns: Was homosexualy ever accepted Ameri’s past? Supported by sendary sourc, I will argue that this myth is rooted homoerotic relatnships, a reflectn of historil fact.

In light of this ntentn, I will explore the reali of homosexualy and homosocialy amongst wboys the Old Wt, argug that they were accepted and monplace.

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Lawrence scrib , the two characters have a relatnship “eper than the eps of sex .” While Cooper do not tail explic sex between the two, their relatnship is unmistakably homosocial. In this way, Cooper has embedd an acknowledgement of same-sex love the very heart of Amerin myth, directly ntrastg claims that homosexualy is an unnatural and/or morn ventn. Furthermore, the homosocialy scribed Cooper’s work is not purely imagative, but actually reflective of historil rerds ditg the prence of homoerotic relatnships among wboys the ontier wt, keepg wh Cooper’s assertn that the stori were spired by tal he had been told by actual wboys.

“Homoerotic iendships prerve privilege and ensure survival a hostile wilrns” (Packard 15). Homosexualy was an act , not an orientatn. This is also nsistent wh fdgs like those Aled Ksey’s notor 1948 study , Sexual Behavr the Human Male , which reported the hight equenci of homosexual timacy to be among men ral farmg muni; probably, Ksey nclud, much like their pneer forebearers the ontier wt.

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