Having a Queer family on the block is not a 21st century custom. It's actually been going on all along. On my block when I was a kiddie there was a Queer couple that lived a few doors down. Everyone knew them. They were just folks.
Mind you it wasn't an open howdy sort of thing. However no one bothered them. Neither were the kids on the block warned away from them. They were just there. Like the rest of the characters that made up any 1950's city 'hood.
I recall they fit the bill as to what regular folks thought Queers were. One butch one fem. In fact the fem guy...I forget their names. Anyway he had tits,...not biggies, but they made the point. ...so to speak.
Hormones I guess.
In them days some Queers were still into the 19th century "Third Sex" thing. That or buying into that whole male female template. Some still are. As they should if this is works for them.
It was the attitude of the adults around me that may seem odd now.
It was the attitude of the adults around me that may seem odd now.
No overt hostility.
At least not in the way you'd think It was more like amusement. Akin to having circus actors in the 'hood. In the culture context of those times these folks were exotic to them.
Me I didn't think anything of it.
It was just more stuff from the world like all the other weird shit that was going on. I think one had to be in Nebraska for this to be a serious problem. That or Staten Island. Still to this day a reserve for white xenophobia.
When David Dinkins our first black mayor was elected a majority of Staten Island attempted to secede from the City. They have not changed since.
As for me being a Queer little kid. It helped that both of my parents had been in show business for a time. So they were used to all sorts of gleeful perverts Dykes Queers, and whatever's always around.
Especially my dad. Playing jazz piano, and all.
*Also the annual Harlem "Faggots Ball".
This was a big deal. Everyone went. It was When Drag folks from all over the East came together to flaunt their stuff. Even the cops let it alone. It being protected by the mob. Eh the bars, and all that stuff.
So there was a round about acceptance within limits of Fag-World. So having a few on the block wasn't a big deal. Though I'm sure my Queer neighbors got hell everyday in every way. Still nobody was busting their windows where I was.
Like Quentin Crisp said, "You'll know you're free when no one cares." "When you become boring you're free."
Well for a time in some places this was true.
Now it's in fewer places. As happened in pre-WW2 Germany. A short era of freedom followed by extinction.
In our current times even missionary positon conservative straight-gays must remember that they're in the presence of their enemies.
Those enemies want them all dead.
Watch ya backs comrades.
Watch ya sisters, and brothers backs as well.
*( A historical note. A you see Queers all used to dress in Tuxedos. I can tell you it was very inconvenient.)
*( A historical note. A you see Queers all used to dress in Tuxedos. I can tell you it was very inconvenient.)
7 comments:
I love these shots from old movies. They must come from before “movie code” censorship. They remind me of actors like Franklin Pangborn and Freddie Bartholomew.
Maybe some of us would have been better off before Stonewall. Or at least no worse off. Ironic, no?
Z
As I mentioned before, the way people in the USA today react to the mere mention of a certain sexual orientation - I mean people who appear liberal, and preach tolerance & diversity relentlessly at every opportunity til your eyes glaze over - is truly frightening for its savage intolerance. The uniformity of opinion among them is absolute, totally invariant; it’s like they’re zombies.
I don’t have the impression that this was the case in former times. Though there must have been a great deal of intolerance, I bet that if you sounded many people out you would have found considerable variety of opinion. Now that is absolutely not the case. It’s like a steamroller went over their minds, flattening them out into perfect uniformity.
Our countrymen terrify me.
Z
When I began my Small Queer Press. "Dragonfly" there was a wide variety of opinion on a host of orientations. Most at least tolerant. This is how I, and others managed to publish openly for a decade or so. It was not an serious issue. We were just part of the community.
Things changed in the early to mid-1980's. Small things at first. My local Gay bookstore which was run by a friend would no longer accept my work. Mind you I published poetry illustrated with Angels. Not illustrated versions of the Arabian Nights. Though for about a year he would keep it under the counter for those that knew to ask. ...thanks.
If you recall or maybe not you're too young.
There were flame wars in the gay press, and some of the Liberal press as to if BLs were really gay. Turns out we weren't. We were declared criminal, and remain so. The only exceptions then being the Gay Anarchists, and Gay Witches. Though in time they went mainstream, and forgot we were human as well.
So here we are in the Presence of our Enemies.
Perhaps in a century or more there may be a reconsideration of some things. No acceptance, but perhaps a slightly more rational exploration of the sexuality wars of the 20th, and 21st centuries. We may be seen as an unfortunate, but necessary sacrifice towards the general acceptance of the other orientations.
That's probably the best we may get till everything collapses. Then all that will matter is food, and water for many centuries to come.
What the next civilization does regards human nature, and how to deal rationally with it is open to conjecture.
I note as I'm sure you do as well that we now speak in a mild code. It may have to become more intricate in time. The use of two particular letters may have to be dispensed with. Perhaps replaced by "Dionysian".
The informers, and book burners will being culturally illiterate, not know what it means. Even if they eventually figured out to Google it they still wouldn't get it for some time.
Whereas once I blogged rather flamboyantly on the subject.
Change is not often for the better.
Though I have a memory of long lines to see "Death in Venice" at the NYU student union in 1979. They 'knew' what they were waiting to see. It was a very different time. Today their grand children would be there,...but to demonstrate against it.
I have read in the gay press condemnations of Thomas Mann for writing it. As well as pieces against Harry Haye, and Allen Ginsberg. One saying it's ashamed that great men can "make such terrible mistakes".
Publish on rag paper,...then hide it for a future time.
Somewhere on this side of 2000 I visited a website maintained by some law enforcement related group, which was intended to assist police and prosecutors in identifying material seized from bl's homes that could then be used in cases against them. Death in Venice was described there as "Composer grooms boy for molestation, dies before it can take place."
Yes that's about right.
As I mentioned I'm somewhat surprised they haven't moved on to the "Arabian Nights". They have now included more than a few paintings by Caravaggio even in one case some works by Michelangelo.
We live in fearful times for artists, and dreamers.
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