Gay History Final Flashcards
terms for gay men (used among peutrorican and cuban communities )
feygele - little bird
parajo, pajarito, pato, mariposa
belting terms; too effeminate for a normal man, flightiness
cluster of bars called “bird circuit”
Mattachine society
founded in 1950, LA. Men and women but mostly men. Founded my Harry Hay, Largest organization
- To improve the rights of gay men
- organized with similar structure to the communist party
- goals to unify isolated homosexuals, educate homosexuals and heterosexuals towards ethical homosexual culture, lead the more socially conscious homosexual to provide leadership, assist gays who are victimized daily as a result of oppression
ONE
started 1953, LA. Magazine founded by a small group from the mattachine, most militant homosexual publication from the 1950s
Dorr Legg - first person employed by a gay mag
Daughter’s of Bilitis (D.O.B)
1955, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Women’s organization; name is a ref. to Sappho. building safe space for lesbians outside of bars
- providing social support for women who were afraid to come out for social repercussions
- educating to the public leading to the eventual breakdown of taboos and prejudices
The Ladder
1956 more conservative lesbian magazine
- primary method of communication for DOB
- supported by ONE and the mattachine society
- edited by Phyllis Lyon ( DOB cofounder)
- written goals and objectives of the DOB in a publication
precursors of the groups / publications in 1950 LA
Knights of the Clock LA, 1940
Veterans Benevolant Asos, NYC 1946
The League, NYC , 1952
Salons, Social clubs, discussion groups
Gay Berlin
1920s world’s most vibrant queer culture and Sexual scene
Magnus Hirshfeld (1869-1935)
founder of Scientific Humanitarian Committee (1897-1933)
Links sexological research and homosexual activism
first advocate for homosexual and transgender rights
changed the way germans thought about sexuality
targeted by nazi’s for being right-wing, jewish and gay
Adolf Brand (1874-1945)
Opposed Hirshfeld/ rejected his medical theories
Argues homosexuality is not a sign of femininity or intermediate sex, but masculinity.
Draws men together for the strength of a nation a la Greek love.
He was also an antisemite who embraced fascism
Nazi’s against gays
Shuttered most queer clubs in Berlin
Can arrest anyone they suspect of homosexuality per law 175
5-15,000 sent to concentration camps with pink triangle identification
saw homosexuals as degenerates
Nazi Newspapers denounced Hirshfeld, raided his home and burned his books.
European homophile groups
Der Kreis, Zurich 1932 (swiss gay magazine) plus lots of others
American activists take comfort in knowing they are part of a larger group
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
adopted by the UN in 1948. Recognized the rights of all persons.
People;s right to control the most intimate parts of their lives
establishes marriage as a right
Homophile organization
accused of dodging the sexual character of homosexuality, but one of the main ways psychologyy demeaned homosexuals was by dubbing them incapable of love. This combatted that.
Donald Webster Cory
wrote The Homosexual in America, modeled on WEB Dubois The Souls of Black Folk with personal refection and scholarly insight.
impulse to control people’s personal lives as fascist; used antifascist rhetoric to argue against the policing of gay rights.
- dismisses idea that homosexuality is unnatural and disagrees with the idea that homosexuals seduce people into gayness.
The Children’s House, 1961
Threat of excommunication
-fear that older lesbians will influence young children. anxiety about seduction.
Internalization
-churches played a role (sin against God)
- “unnatural love” , religious/christian view of sodomy
-articulated the antigay pressures of the 60s
-antigay therapists and clergy believe queer people are disgusted with themselves and don’t want to be queer.
Everyday survival strategies for queer people
- the “double life” - passing, being wise, open secret, the social contract, decline in feelings of solidarity among gay people
- gay codes (lingo, double entendre)
Bar Culture in Post-War years
distinct gay neighborhoods (times square, brooklyn heights, jackson hights)
racially segregated neighborhoods and bars
- harlem = only bars that accept black people
- greenwich village draws in a working class / bohemian crowd
Bars as important social centers
- important for people just coming out to have a sense of community
- almost the only all-gay publicspace, where people felt safe to be openly gay
- cruising, finding a sexual and/or romantic partner
- crucibles of a distinctive gay culture
Different ways of being queer (surrounding bar culture)
- butch/femme couples
- straight tourist destination to see male impersonators
- ki-ki = people who switched roles , derogatory-ish, did not perform consistent masculinity/femininity
- top/bottom dynamics
- third-sex framework still around
Camp as a quintessential gay male style of -50s, and camp icons
exaggerated performance of femininity
- Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Josephine Baker, La Lupe
- camp as verbal play , light ridicule
- gay cultural literacy, queer tastes in dress, decor, art, etc.
- opera, theater, fashion, queer tastes in music
- bars became hot houses for the development of queer tastes and style
gay sensibility
distinctive queer tastes and styles cultivated and reproduced in bars
How gay bars survived (or tried to)
- challenged loss of their liquor license in court (from 1930s on)
- state courts in Ny and CA in 1950s began to rule that people couldnt be excluded bc they were gay, but still thought of gender conformity as “disorder”
- entrapment of gay men by cops pretending to be gay men
- hiring gay staff (Sam Lawes aka Sophia/D.A.B, popular singing waiter/bartender at Lucky’s in Harlem)
- Payed off and mob connections, bars forced to respond to the criminalization by engaging in criminal behavior. associated gay bars with underground scene, accused of corrupting the police
- exclude obvious queers and regulating customers’ behavior
Alternative spaces for queers
-private parties, often free, unregulated spaces that were rarely raided
house particles most important for women of color
-open houses every night of the week in latino communities
- for white people = supplement to bars, for black + latinx = replacement for bars
-cruising central parl / central park west (Donald Vikings)
Softball before Title IX (1972)
- masc. attributes connected to athletic skill like aggression and competing
- womens collegiate sports leagues underwent pressure during postwar period and began stressing “training in beauty” to promote straightness
George Jorgenson Jr -> Christine Jorgenson
- ex GI travels abroad to transition
- story picked up by papers across the country, the idea of changing one’s gender intrigues people
- Christine avoids campy persona in favor of typical femininity
SRS : sex reassignment surgery, 1964
1964: Gender Identity clinic established at John Hopskins FTM transsexual ( testosterone) MTF transsexual (estrogen) , more of MTF in the 1950s, but now equal rates of both
Trans identities in postwar years
has enormous ramifications for the kinds of identities people take on
- Holly Woodlawn, “walk on the wild side” , feminizes bodily appearance, becomes one of Warhol’s superstars
- growing number of queens take hormones but a smaller number undergo surgery
- gender normative homosexuals reject transsexuality because it reinforces distinctions
- some transvestites say they are more normal bc they are heterosexual
lesbian pulps : seduction and community
popularity of paperbacks “pocketbooks” , cheap to produce
- lesbian cultural universe takes shape
1950, women’s barracks, written by a straight woman
-erotic passion between women depicted as a fact of life, women consumed by passion, “kinky” , embraced women bc the men in their lives were so awful
Gay Male Physique mag
- physical culture movement, Eugene Sandlot, 1st body builder, Strength and Health physique mag.
- athletic model guild, AMG ads in physique mags, including descriptions of models with coded gay language
- 1955 Grecian Guild Pictorial , invoking Greece to naturalize the male body and homoerotic attraction
- consumers were arrested , e.g. Newton Arvin, smith professor arrested and fired in 91960 for possessing physique mags , university students an profs punished for possessing these materials
legal changes in CA and NY
- right to privacy for heterosexual intimacy
- censorship curtailed
- gay bars decriminalized in CA and NY
Civil rights influence in Gay rights movement
- bar raids
- entrapment
- antigay ideology
- employment discrimination
- july 4 pickets and poltics of resectaility
Supreme court cases developing right to privacy
griswold v connecticut (1965) : married couples have right to use contraceptives
Eisenstadt v baird (1972): extends this right to unmarried couples
roe v wade (1973): women have a right to terminate pregnancy
Lawrence v texas (2003): gay people also have a right to intimate sexuality
roth vs US (1957): defined obscenity as “material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest”
supreme court steadily limited the censorship of erotic materials in the 1960s
State Govt. influence
growing willingness to accept gay and lesbian bars (received sharp resistance from the police and alcohol authorities) the states are not
monolithic agencies
state govt. treat gays as rights bearing minorities
New Gay World (lesbian)
New, con-commercial gay institutions such as womens bookstores and gay activist alliance community center (1971)
transform the consciousness of gay people
discard old ways of “being gay”
Structural change for gays
- making society more egalitarian and democratic
- stop cops raiding gay bars
- efficent and effective means, developping organizations that could make quick decisions and organize people rapidly
- direct action to change the system or pre-figurative politics (creating a new , alternative culture)
Cultural Politics - more internal efforts to create a new community and consciousness
- commitment to community building
- gay newspapers, bookstores, radio shows, communes, etc.
- urged people to come out wherever they are, organize gay groups on campuses and in communities, outburst of organizational creativity, more organized and dense gay community - Politicization of everyday life
- discrimination women faced in every politics, naturalized by mass media
- few women elected to political office .
- “the personal is political”, core of lesbian feminist politicizing everyday life
- inequalities produced and reproduced on an everyday basis
- saw nuclear family as institution structured by inequality and reproduced inequality promoting this inequality in children
development of lesbian communities
- large feminist movement where women were free of male domination
- 1970s, richer institutional life and political theory developed , New Haven at end of 70s home to complex lesbian culture and female feminist community.
Lesbian Writers (and literature in general)
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)
Women publishing own journals and lesbian publications (DYKE, AZALEA)
low budget publishing companies allowing them to publish booked that high budget pc’s wouldn’t
Lesbian Musicians
- Progressive Folk music
- Holly Near and Meg Christian
- Lavender Jane loves women
- Olivia records collective founded 1973
- Concerts brought singers together, Michigan women’s music festival founded 1976, no men allowed, women exploring their identity outside of men
Lesbian Separatism
Radical lesbian commune in upstate NY in 1970
Barbra Hammer, Dyketatics (1974)
Women’s health centers
-Boston, NY, SF, La
Our Bodies, Ourselves ,Boston women’s health book collective , reflected the importance of democratization and the pwr of women to control their own lives
Conference against violence against women, WAVAW founded in 1976