Murder, Perversion, and Moral Panic: The 1954 Media Campaign against Miami's Homosexual the Discourse of Civic Betterment, Fred Fejes. Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 474-491 University of Texas Press.ĭisclosure and Secrecy among Gay Men in the United States and Canada: A Shift in Views, Roy Cain. 78-116 University of Texas Press.Īlfred Kinsey and Homosexuality in the '50s, Terence Kissack. Journal of The History of Sexuality, Vol.
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A number of American pyschiatrists believed a "cure" could be found through psychoanalytic treatment. During the '40s and '50s this "disturbance" was thought of as hard to treat.
#Famous gay men 1930s manual
"Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness." -Sigmund FreudĪccording to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-I, homosexuality could be described as a "sociopathic personality disturbance". As a result, in Chicago for example, encounters occurred at apartments and closeted social groups rather than bars.
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Again subtlety was often necessary for bars to remain available, as Steward notes that if you were too open, "you were handed a small card by the bartender saying that your presence was not appreciated.Kindly leave and not come back." Bars that catered to a less secretive scene were often forced to pay heavy tolls to police departments.
#Famous gay men 1930s free
Chapters of the Mattachine Society in the eastern United States were free to return to their more radical roots and pave the way to necessary reform.Īccording to Samuel Morris Steward, oft a collaborator with Alfred Kinsey, while there was a bar scene during the 1950s, it was a tricky business. Accommodating for a heterosexual and largely homophobic (public?) would result in a drastic decline in membership. This shift would later be a source of regret for prominent founding member Harry Hay (born April 7th, 1912 in Worthing, England-October 24, 2002). This was likely in part due to the fact that many gay activists still believed that homosexuality was a disease and being secretive wasn't a political liability. In 1953 there was a split amongst founding members and the new Mattachine Society took on a more conservative stance, advocating that homosexuals adjust to and adopt heterosexual social and cultural mores. Its original incarnation held views similar to that of groups of the 1960s and '70s, consisting of a militant stance driving for drastic reform. The Mattachine Society's founding in 1951 marked the nation's "first" gay rights organization prior to the Stonewall Riots of 1969. 5 Significant Gays and Lesbians of the 1950s.4.1 Fun Rumors and Facts about the Kinsey Report.