THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE - Men’s Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History

543 Pages·1998·38.37 MB·English

by  JOHN LOUGHERY

THE OTHER SIDE
JOHN LOUGHERY
$35.00
$49.00/Canada
In 1925, Harvard professor E 0. Matthiessen
wrote to his lover, the painter Russell Cheney,
about the "uncharted" land they inhabited as
homosexuals and their need "to create every-
thing" for themselves. The ongoing process by
which gay men define themselves while resist-
ing the laws of a largely hostile culture is at the
center of this groundbreaking history.
Based on hundreds of personal interviews
and archival sources, with close attention to
portrayals of gay life in literature, theater, and
film, the book begins with the entrapment of
gay sailors in Newport, Rhode Island, follow-
ing World War I. Loughery traces the impact
of homosexuality on the century's turbulent
times: Jazz Age America, the Great Depres-
sion, World War II, the McCarthy era, and the
present day, when many thousands of Ameri-
cans have turned the AIDS catastrophe into a
moral example of caring for others.
Though John Loughery's well-researched
and dramatic narrative bears witness to perse-
cution, it turns aside stereotypes about the iso-
lation and loneliness of victims to reveal gay
men as accomplished participants in some of
the century's most momentous dramas. Vivid
portraits abound: Alain Locke, godfather of the
Harlem Renaissance; Henry Gerber, founder
of ill-fated gay-rights groups in the 1920s;
Harry Hay, 1950s visionary; moral-majority foe
Bob Kunst; Harvey Milk; Perry Watkins; Larry
Kramer; Michael Callen; and many other little-
known activists.
The Other Side of Silence reveals a mosaic of
sharply different ideas about gay life-which
identities have outlived their time and which
might prove durable-perspectives on main-
stream values, and visions for the future.
ALso BY jOHN LouGHERY
John Sloan: Painter and Rebel
Alias S. S. Van Dine
(Ed.) First Sightings: Contemporary
Stories of American Youth
(Ed.) Into the Widening World:
International Coming of Age Stories
THE
OTHER SIDE
OF SILENCE
Men's Lives and Gay Identities:
A Twentieth-Century History
jOHN LOUGHER.Y
A jOHN MACRAE BOOK
Henry Holt and Company
New York
Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Publishers since 1866
115 West 18th Street
New York, New York 10011
Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of
Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Copyright© 1998 by John Loughery
All rights reserved.
Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd.,
195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Loughery, John.
The other side of silence : men's lives and gay identities :
a twentieth century history I John Loughery.-1st ed.
p. em.
"A John Macrae book."
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8050-3896-5 (HB :acid-free paper)
1. Gay men-United States-History-20th century. 2. Gay men-
United States-Social conditions. 3. Gays-United States-Identity. I. Title.
HQ76.2.USL68 1998
305.38'9664-dcll 97-42575
CIP
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First Edition 1998
Designed by Kelly Soong
Printed in the United States of America
All first editions are printed on acid-free paper.oo
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Dedicated, once again,
to Tom
and to a few of the many men
who shared their vivid memories
of gay life before the 1960s:
Harry Adler
Bob Basker
Stephen Blair
Peter Conway
George Flemister
David L. Leavitt
Stuart Loomis
jose Sarria
During the ride back Randall had his hand lying on mine, and a girl
across the aisle made an audible remark about it to her companions.
But Randall in his melodious voice said, "We should worry," and kept
his hand on mine. He said, "Be ·glad she noticed, so she won't be
shocked the next time she sees it."
-From feb and Dash:
A Diary of Gay Life, 1918-1945,
entry for 5 September 1920
Contents
Introduction ................................................................... xi
I. A NEW ORDER
1. Scandal in Newport ............................................. 3
2. Imagining the Twenties ...................................... 17
3. Defiance, Pageantry, Politics .............................. 36
II. SociETY IN Fwx
4. Days of the Code ............................................... 5?
5. A Literature of Sexuality: I ................................ 82
6. From Pansy to Public Menace ............................ 93
7. Freudian America ............................................ 113
III. AN EMERGENT MINORITY
8. On the Homefront ........................................... 135
9. The Postwar Scene ........................................... 158
10. A Literature of Sexuality: Il.. ........................... 183
11. "Purge of the Perverts" ................................... 199
12. Visionaries ....................................................... 218
13. Hunted ............................................................ 238