Gay History -- How We Got Here

[michaelflanagansf]

Micheal, Micheal, Micheal--

My god you know so much!!!!!  Have you ever thought about writing The Gay History in your own words? It would be a great read!!! I have been enjoying readng your posts and comments too. Keep it going, but like some I can't keep up sometimes.

Tom

 

I have occasionally thought about writing about my life and my connections to gay history.

All of the material about Robert Duncan, Jess, etc. that I've just recently posted came from a period in my life when I was looking for people to model my life after - in the 70s.  I didn't feel like a typical activist (although I certainly wanted to see change) and didn't feel that I 'fit in' to the gay bar scene (the lives of people who were checking to see what labels other people were wearing was just too mundane to be believed to me).  So writers and poets became a real inspiration to me.

Thanks so much for your nice comments Tom!

[michaelflanagansf]

Okay...I promised that I'd slow down - but I forgot to mention two underground film makers from this period - Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger.  Most people know Anger because he also wrote 'Hollywood Babylon.'  But in the 50s and 60s he made some amazing films.  I first saw them in Michigan - and the first ever film showing I went to for the LGBT film festival in S.F. was at the Roxie Cinema where Anger was there in person.  He is an incredible, amazing and confusing person.

First Jack Smith:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Smith_(film_director)

http://www.hi-beam.net/mkr/js/js-bio.html

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/02/21/flaming.html

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/29/jacksmith.html

And Kenneth Anger:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Anger

http://www.subcin.com/anger.html

http://www.ratso.net/anger.html

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id171/pg1/index.html

http://www.phinnweb.org/links/cinema/underground/anger/

[brokebacktom]

I did see Anger's FIREWORKS. All I remember about it was that it was homoerotic and surreal. It was considered an experiement movie. It was quite artsy and bizzare. And quite daring for the '50.

[michaelflanagansf]

I did see Anger's FIREWORKS. All I remember about it was that it was homoerotic and surreal. It was considered an experiement movie. It was quite artsy and bizzare. And quite daring for the '50.

Yes...he was quite out there for the fifties.  I think it's interesting that many of these artists either grew up or moved to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles (and New Orleans).  The major exception I can think of is Black Mountain College in North Carolina where many of the artists, poets and musicians I was talking about worked.

It's also interesting that in the arts (high art) gay people seem to have been relatively safe - they didn't face the problems that people like Bayard Rustin and Johnny Ray did finding other gay people.  They didn't seem to be quite as vulnerable.

Later today I'm going to write a bit on the effect that Europe seemed to have on American gays in the 50s (and early 60s).

[michaelflanagansf]

Here's a site that's NOT WORK SAFE but has some very interesting memorabilia from the period we're talking about:

http://www.homobilia.com/

I also came across this site, which has some interesting (if wordy) pages:

http://www.queer-arts.org/

In particular check out their pages on Paul Cadmus:

http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/9809/cadmus/cadmus.html

And Jonathan Katz's piece on Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg is quite interesting too:

http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/show4/forum/katz/katz_set.html

[jack]

i can speak about an impression i had, that i doubt i was alone in back then.  from what i had read, paris seemed like the holy land for acceptance, and north africa the holy land for hot exotic sex.

[michaelflanagansf]

i can speak about an impression i had, that i doubt i was alone in back then.  from what i had read, paris seemed like the holy land for acceptance, and north africa the holy land for hot exotic sex.

Interesting comments Jack - if you think about people like James Baldwin, I'm sure that Paris was almost like heaven for him.  And Morocco was the place (to quote Annie) in the 50s - both Paul Bowles and William Burroughs spent a good deal of time there.

[jack]

michael, if you do a bit more of your infamous research, you can probably find them both a mecca far earlier than the generation you spoke of.  the british eccentrics and american expatriots of a queer bent all seemed to find their way there.  somerset maugham died there if a recall, and a famous photographer of boys. van gloeden (sp i think) captured many mocha skinned young men in pseudo-classical poses.  a rich rich literary and artistic (and gay) tradition in both, and even though i didn't have the words back then, i recognized kindred spirits as i scoured the artistic worlds.  my senior memory fails to bring forth many more names and i am in fact thrilled that i could conjure these...

[brokebacktom]

Here's a site that's NOT WORK SAFE but has some very interesting memorabilia from the period we're talking about:

http://www.homobilia.com/

I also came across this site, which has some interesting (if wordy) pages:

http://www.queer-arts.org/

In particular check out their pages on Paul Cadmus:

http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/9809/cadmus/cadmus.html

And Jonathan Katz's piece on Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg is quite interesting too:

http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/show4/forum/katz/katz_set.html

Paul Cadmus was very underrated. His drawings were/are beautiful, well crafted and erotic. His paintings were very humoristic and shocking for the times. My favoriate was his '7 Deadly Sins' series. They were very small but packed a punch. I hope will look into his art work its awesome.

[michaelflanagansf]

michael, if you do a bit more of your infamous research, you can probably find them both a mecca far earlier than the generation you spoke of.  the british eccentrics and american expatriots of a queer bent all seemed to find their way there.  somerset maugham died there if a recall, and a famous photographer of boys. van gloeden (sp i think) captured many mocha skinned young men in pseudo-classical poses.  a rich rich literary and artistic (and gay) tradition in both, and even though i didn't have the words back then, i recognized kindred spirits as i scoured the artistic worlds.  my senior memory fails to bring forth many more names and i am in fact thrilled that i could conjure these...

Well...it seems like there were a few meccas Jack...Von Gloeden was in Sicily

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Gloeden

Maugham died in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in Nice (his house on the Rivera had once been owned by Belgian king Leopold II [!!!]).  He did spend time in India, though, and he was with Gerald Haxton there, so who knows what went on....

[jack]

well, durn...

i do "remember" the casbah and nearby environs being central to some artistic lives  from around the turn of the last century, and paris figuring in the lives and careers of copeland, baldwin and vidal.

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

Michael...

I just found this thread, thanks to the "News Box"... I will be back to beginning reading up on all this later!!!

Looks like lots of info and history...

Thanks!

[jpq716]

A number of you are not going to like what I am about to say, but no history of gays in America could be correct without an intensive study of the homosexual monsters of depravity who have enslaved the American people since 1981 so that they can rape with impunity abducted prepubescent boys at the Republican male brothel on K Street in Washington, DC. The homosexual element in the rise of contemporary Amerikan fascism is simply too dangerous to touch at the present time. But it must be dealt with, someday, even if only in the interests of retributive justice...

Not all American gays are like Harvey Milk or Randy Shilts, not to mention Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Some are monsters of hideous depravity who, someday, will be seen to have the blood of millions of innocent people on their hands. And gay people must be in the forefront of their unmasking, for the integrity and safety of all gay --- and straight --- people everywhere...

[michaelflanagansf]

Not all American gays are like Harvey Milk or Randy Shilts, not to mention Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Some are monsters of hideous depravity who, someday, will be seen to have the blood of millions of innocent people on their hands. And gay people must be in the forefront of their unmasking, for the integrity and safety of all gay --- and straight --- people everywhere...

Hi JPQ - great to see you over here!

Certainly there are negative gay characters that we can talk about in terms of gay history - people like Roy Cohn:

http://www.planetout.com/news/history/archive/20000103.html

What we are talking about here generally, however, are people who are commonly known to be gay and who have contributed to a historical gay identity - and their lives and coping strategies.  The activities of individuals behind closed doors whether it be in a political cabal or an individual serial killer do not generally add to the common history of a people.  In the way Scott Peterson doesn't have a lot to do with golfers, Ted Bundy doesn't have a lot to do with people who work on suicide hot lines, Juan Corona doesn't reflect the lives of Mexican immigrants and John Wayne Gacy doesn't have a lot in common with most democratic precinct captains, the activities of people behind closed doors who do not publicly avow a gay life don't share much in common with the rest of us.

As you may have noted, I did refer to the Boise and Sioux City sex panic arrests, as well as the arrests of Bayard Rustin and Johnnie Ray.  I am not at all averse to discussing well documented events that have an impact on gay people in general (or have affected individual persons).

Currently we are discussing things that occured before 1969 in this thread.

 

[Cowboysnkisses]

I've just gotten a great link from Whiplash that I wanted to post here.  At the end of this study guide there is a gay history chronology (which I'll past below).  Here is the link:

http://www.guthrietheater.org/Portals/0/StudyGuide/thief.pdf

And here is the Chronology:

CULTURAL CONTEXT
Gay History in America: 1948 – 2001 A Selected Chronology


...

1967
Perhaps the most famous and widely read gay newspaper, The Advocate, begins publication in Los
Angeles. Craig Rodwell opens the world’s first gay bookstore, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, in New York City.

1968
Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band makes its off-Broadway debut. The play, which dissects several
stereotypes and challenges faced by the homosexual community, offers perhaps the most open display of the homosexual lifestyle in popular drama to date.

1969
Canada repeals its laws against sodomy. All fifty U.S. states uphold similar laws under continual
protests. New York City police raid a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. The street erupts into violent protest. The backlash and several nights of protest that follow—known as the Stonewall Riots—have since been credited with sparking the modern queer liberation movement throughout the world.

1970
Black Panther leader Huey Newton urges blacks to view the Gay Liberation Front as "friends and
potential allies," saying gays "might be the most oppressed people in our society."

The Teachers Advisory Council of Minneapolis approves a Guthrie Theater production about
homosexuality to be shown to more than 1,000 high school students.

Farm population: 9.7 million (estimated)
Farmers make up 4.6% of labor force
Number of farms: 2.8 million

1971 In a controversial letter published nationwide, Ann Landers advises a gay teenager to seek therapy rather than heterosexuality in order to find self-acceptance.

New York City holds its first Gay Pride Parade.

The Equal Rights Amendment, hailed as a keystone for gay rights, passes the U.S. Senate but fails in the House, and is never ratified.

A University of California study shows that prison sentences for sodomy are, on average, the same as those for manslaughter.

1973
The Minneapolis City Council unanimously passes a gay rights ordinance, one of the first of its kind.
The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric
disorders, where it had ranked among schizophrenia and other sociopathic disorders.

1974
Minneapolis state Senator Allan Spear publicly admits that he is gay. Spear is among the first openly
gay men to hold a congressional office, and wins re-election for another term.

1975
California passes a bill legalizing all consensual sex between adults, regardless of orientation. It is the first bill of its kind in the nation.


...

Here's an important addition.  Illinois was the first state to remove anti-sodomy laws from its statutes in 1961.  It did so when it revised its Criminal Code without the earlier prohibition.  Oddly enough, Idaho was the second.  But when it was revealed by a gay publication that it had done so (modernized its code and left out anti-sodomy regulations), the Idaho legislature, in an emergency meeting, repealed the revision.  Illinois, of course, did not.