Movg Through New York’s Early 20th-Century Gay Spac ‹ Lerary Hub

Contents:

• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• 1920S GAY CULTURE
• MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

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. 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.

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.

”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.

NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE

” The sale of liquor was legal aga, but newly enforced laws and regulatns prohibed rtrants and bars om hirg gay employe or even servg gay patrons. In the mid- to late ‘30s, Heap pots out, a wave of sensatnalized sex crim “provoked hysteria about sex crimals, who were often— the md of the public and the md of thori—equated wh gay men. ” This not only disuraged gay men om participatg public life, but also “ma homosexualy seem more dangero to the average Amerin.

” 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. 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.

All of this activy existed durg cultural time that, as historian Gee Chncey wr his book Gay New York, many people believe “is not supposed to have existed. Sudnly, when everyone was on the search for newly illegal alhol, black and whe gay and lbian life me to ntact wh one another and domant society. While the Haton Lodge Ball may have begun the 1860s or ‘70s, probably didn’t ga a predomantly gay and lbian prence until the 1920s.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

By the mid-30s, was the largt annual ball held New York, attractg spectators who were gay, lbian, straight, black and whe all at once. In the ‘20s and early ‘30s, g out had to do wh makg a but to the gay and lbian world, and was rived om when wealthy women would “e out” formally to high society.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

“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 were moments when workg class gay men and women uld more eely explore their sexualy, sir, and terts cross drsg, but probably no doctor or lawyer is gog to drs up drag at the events, out of risk of beg exposed.

1920S GAY CULTURE

” Most middle and upper class gay men and lbians sat the upper booths at drag events among straight people, g the populary as a ver. Prohibn was repealed, and the New York State Liquor laws were updated to serve alhol only plac that were “orrly”, which didn’t apparently clu gay and lbian nightclubs. ” In the mid ‘30s, productn s were put to effect that rtricted and prevented performanc of openly gay characters film or theater, and the followg s, thoands of LGBTQ people were arrted post WWII for equentg their own clubs.

But is ccial to unrstand that you nnot view the photographs through the prism of our morn culture and current nceptn of homosexualy. The term “homosexualy” was fact not ed until 1869, and before that time, the strict dichotomy between “gay” and “straight” did not yet exist. It was a behavr — accepted by some cultur and nsired sful by at the turn of the 20th century, the ia of homosexualy shifted om a practice to a liftyle and an inty.

MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC

As this new nceptn of homosexualy as a stigmatized and onero intifier took root Amerin culture, men began to be much more reful to not send msag to other men, and to women, that they were gay.

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.

Whether the men below were gay the way our current culture unrstands that ia, or the way that they themselv unrstood , is unknowable. The men’s very fortable and faiar pos and body language might make the men look like gay lovers to the morn eye — and they uld very well have been — but that was not the msage they were sendg at the time.