GLBT Points of Interest

[TickTockMan]

I am wondering if anyone knows of any good GLBT trivia or points of interest.




I want to make up a small educational GLBT history for next year PRIDE and thought this could point me in the right direction to start me off.

 

[Horschallen]

Start with the Stonewall?

 

[hotdog1846]

I've read that the military, especially World War II, was crucial to the development of modern urban gay culture. The country was still mostly rural in 1941, and many young gay men had never met another gay person until they were drafted during the war. When the military found them out, they kicked them out, and often these young gay men were left high and dry in cities such as ... San Francisco.

After the war, having had a taste of life with other gay people, these young gay men didn't return back to the farm. They stayed in the urban centers on the coasts and formed a subculture.

Dunno how true all that is, but it's an interesting thought.

There's probably a number of interesting Wikipedia articles about GLBT history.

 

[SonOfSlobone]

^^^Yeah, that's what I've always heard. Another reason a lot of gay veterans ended up in SF is that's where they shipped out of on the way to the Pacific theater. Of course it was already a pretty gay place even before the war...

Thynight, there's an excellent book called Gay New York

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Gay-New-York-Culture-1890-1940/dp/0465026214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258175369&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (9780465026210): George Chauncey: Books[/ame]


which covers the period before WWII. A lot of what he says might apply to other cities as well. The surprising finding is that NYC was much more tolerant of the gay community before the war than they were afterwards. The Cold War made everybody freak out and start witch hunting gays. That's what led up to Stonewall...

 

[hotdog1846]

The surprising finding is that NYC was much more tolerant of the gay community before the war than they were afterwards. The Cold War made everybody freak out and start witch hunting gays. That's what led up to Stonewall...

I can believe that, what with the "pinko Commie fag" namecalling thing that was even still going around when I was a kid in the 70s. It's scary ... that kind of homophobia could come back at any time if it was triggered by the right kind of paranoia.

I hate to sound like Jasun, but there's an element of truth to staying vigilant. We're just too small and disliked of a minority to ever think we're home free.

 

[braex27]

I'd perhaps start even earlier... how about the Ancient Greeks?

Also, try and find this book:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Queer-Facts-Greatest-Lesbian-Trivia/dp/1860746969"]Amazon.com: Queer Facts: The Greatest Gay and Lesbian Trivia Book Ever (9781860746963): Michelle Baker, Stephen Tropiano: Books[/ame]

 

[TickTockMan]

I'd perhaps start even earlier... how about the Ancient Greeks?

I am going to go as far back as I can. There is a lot of things in interest before modern times.







Thanks for the posts so far.

 

[mega]

http://thecastro.net/

http://gayfortoday.blogspot.com/

http://www.gay-art-history.org/

http://www.glbthistory.org/

 

[kevbo]

Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum

Recorded history's first gay couple.

I've always found it fascinating

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I like these pages.

http://www.nycnotkansas.com/WhenMyWorldWas.htm

 

[Swellegant]

My favorite tidbit of local trivia is that the Twin Peaks bar, at the head of Castro Street, was the first gay bar in the US that had windows. That is such the epitome of the gay rights movement, to me: unashamed visibility. Of course nowadays it's made fun of because its patrons are usually older gents... so young people call it the Glass Coffin or A Tomb With A View.

Another tidbit, which I believe is from New York, is that gay men used to identify themselves by wearing matching ties and pocket squares; I think of that every time I see those tie-and-pocket-square sets sold for Father's Day.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Gay Sex In The Seventies - sounds like a great documentary.

 

[TickTockMan]

My favorite tidbit of local trivia is that the Twin Peaks bar, at the head of Castro Street, was the first gay bar in the US that had windows.

Do you have anything to prove this fact?


I would like to use this but I want to make sure it is true first.

 

[ViennaExpat83]

The best overall book on the subject is "Homosexuality and Civilization" by Louis Crompton. It will give you an excellent overview of gay history right from the ancient civilizations to fairly recent times, and it covers not only Western civilization but also Asia and so on.

What often gets lost is the fact that gay history did not only happen in America or even only in Western culture. In other cultures there have also been times when there was a fairly non-judgmental attitude towards homosexuality, particularly in Asia. It would be important to bring that greater context up, so people can see that gay being a non-issue or near non-issue is not something really daring or modern.

As far as Western culture is concerned, a lot of gay history accounts make it seem like gay rights started with Stonewall. Well, that is just a very US-centered view.
First of all, the French decriminalized homosexuality shortly after their revolution in the late 18th century, in connection with their new enlightenment ideals of universal human rights. These enlightenment ideals were anti-organized religion and therefore proposed that you could not legislate on moral issues, but solely based on reason. So, if gay people were doing what they like to do of their own will and not bothering anyone then there was no reason they should be considered criminals.

A second interesting point is the gay rights movement that developed in the late 19th and early 20th century in Germany, particularly centered in Berlin. Berlin became a big metropolis of over 4 million people with the unification of Germany and lots of gay people converged there. Gay establishments opened and soon gay rights organizations and institutions also developed. The most important was perhaps the organization for the study of sexology operated by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. This group actually started campaigning for the decriminalization of homosexuality and started producing leaflets and even movies to promote the idea that gay people just had a different sexual orientation that could not change and that they could be good for society, and therefore they should have equal rights. This was revolutionary, for gay people to band together and try to convince others that they deserved equal rights. This was way before Stonewall. Unfortunately, this movement and the strong gay culture of Berlin were erased by Hitler in the 1930s.
Here is a link to the first movie with an explicit and sympathetic portrayal of gay characters. It was made with the collaboration of Dr. Hirschfeld and it was a fairly big hit when it came out in 1919!! It tries to show gay people in a good light and make the general public sympathetic to their problems, particularly the fact that they faced blackmail due to the still then standing legal statutes:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWiw3mASc5c[/ame]

Hope this helps!

 

[Swellegant]

Do you have anything to prove this fact?
I would like to use this but I want to make sure it is true first.

Well, "proof" is such a strong word. It's a widely known "fact" but not something anyone has ever challenged and so nobody has ever researched it. The various references I found when I searched for them ("twin peaks tavern san francisco") all say more-or-less the same thing, but not with any kind of legitimate historical citations.

One site was delightfully cagey: "it is said to be the first gay bar with windows in the US"... I think you can use something like that if you're uncomfortable with a technically anecdotal assertion.

 

[hotdog1846]

A second interesting point is the gay rights movement that developed in the late 19th and early 20th century in Germany, particularly centered in Berlin. Berlin became a big metropolis of over 4 million people with the unification of Germany and lots of gay people converged there. Gay establishments opened and soon gay rights organizations and institutions also developed. The most important was perhaps the organization for the study of sexology operated by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. This group actually started campaigning for the decriminalization of homosexuality and started producing leaflets and even movies to promote the idea that gay people just had a different sexual orientation that could not change and that they could be good for society, and therefore they should have equal rights. This was revolutionary, for gay people to band together and try to convince others that they deserved equal rights. This was way before Stonewall. Unfortunately, this movement and the strong gay culture of Berlin were erased by Hitler in the 1930s.

Hope this helps!

That's fascinating. It goes to show that advances in civil rights can be taken away so easily. Even if we ever get full equality, we have to stay vigilant. We're just too small and disliked a minority to ever afford to be complacent!

 

[TickTockMan]

Well, "proof" is such a strong word. It's a widely known "fact" but not something anyone has ever challenged and so nobody has ever researched it. The various references I found when I searched for them ("twin peaks tavern san francisco") all say more-or-less the same thing, but not with any kind of legitimate historical citations.

One site was delightfully cagey: "it is said to be the first gay bar with windows in the US"... I think you can use something like that if you're uncomfortable with a technically anecdotal assertion.

Thanks for the info. I am going to use it if for no other reason than I find it interesting.


I doubt many will even bother reading what I am putting together, but I hope at least one will find something interesting to remember for a while. I have already learned more than I thought I would.

 

[mega]

^I also heard that story about The Twin Peaks bar. I was living in DC in 78-79 when a bar chain called Mr.Henry's opened their first gay bar (the other bars were straight) and it got written up in the Post because they did not block out the windows!! It was on Wisconsin Ave in George Town. Quite the scandal!