Men loving men in the 80's

[yvrpalms]

1880's that is... ever wonder what it was like to be gay in those days? Wonder where did guys go to meet other guys? Wonder if they ever lived together on some farm some place? What about being gay in the civil war era or in the old, old west.. wonder if being gay harder then or easier..

 

[dontlietome]

They probably didn't meet guys. They lived a straight life.

 

[RationalLunacy]

One thing's for sure -- I'd have had a lot of fun with my cowboy boot fetish!

 

[UrbanBOYS]

Hahaha ... well, it was probably very Brokeback-like ... they had to go off to their own mountain somewhere where the rest of the village wouldn't see !!!

 

[DarkNeko]

There were gay relationships in the past. E.M. Forster was gay and had relationships and Oscar Wilde too.

 

[tonyboy]

1880's: Lot's of large cities, London, New York, etc. had places for middle or upper class men to met younger men. Read the book 'The Secret Live of Oscar Wilde'. The book goes into some detail about these places. Sort of like a house of prostitution only for men. The boys were called renters.
The boys were really not underage, though they were often young and of a lower class than the clients; grooms, servants, they were generraly from the lower or poor class of society. Trying to make a buck so to speak, but since there were very strict moral laws about homosexual behavior it had to be kept totally underground.
That is one way that the upper classes of those times could fill their sexual urges with a man. As far as how the lower classes did, I'm sure they met in parks, bars, and such. Pretty much as it is done now.
It would have been very rare during those times for a guy to live with a guy. Not matter the class, moral laws were very strict, usually those convicted were sent to prison.

 

[Fastdavy]

Walt Witman was a nurse during the Cilvil War...Ican't imagine the percentage of gay men would be any different then today.
Tonyboy that sounds like a really good book

 

[khushibagh]

I think Tchaikovsky used to meet men in the bathhouses.

 

[luminum]

I imagine that some were able to live lives together happily though clandestinely and were gossiped about or left alone while others knew but never acted on anything.

I also imagine that others lived wild lifestyles in luxury and were never contradicted because of their social position.

And finally, yes, all the awful, heart-wrenching, injust things happened to others, too.

 

[slobone]

There was a famous male brothel in London that was raided by the police. Allegedly the Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria's grandson and second in line to the throne, was one of those nabbed, but it was hushed up. Wikipedia covers it here:

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

It's a myth, by the way, that society becomes less tolerant of homosexuality the further back you go in history. I read a book called Gay New York that covers the period before WWII. The author claims that the gay scene then was much more open than it would be after the war. Of course it still doesn't come close to what we're used to today.

 

[D-Base]

There should've been some hot encounters in the barn or so... You take that cowboy!

 

[khushibagh]

In the Arms of Krupp there was a paragraph about a gay villa that one of the Krupps maintained on Capri with hot lads to entertain visiting Prussian officers.

 

[Snickers52]

They probably didn't meet guys. They lived a straight life.

You are kidding, right? Gays have been "meeting men" throughout all millennia. There are documents and pictographs from ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman times depicting the level of homosexuality then, and it was much more accepted back then than most people would believe.

The sexual urge is the most forceful and primal urge in humankind. In the 1880's, men were just as sexual with each other as we are today. If there was a group of 10 or so men in the 1880's out on the wild frontier with no one else around, I can guarantee you eventually at least 2 of them had sex.