I want you to imagine what being LGBTQ+ would be like in the 1920s or 30’s.
How about the 1860s?
If you’re like many today, you likely imagine the concept of the closet and assume society
forced LGBTQ+ people to conform to the sexual mores of the day.
They were repressed; forbidden from expressing themselves and living the lives they want.
Now, what if I told you the closet is actually pretty new?
What if I told you LGBTQ+ culture in the 20s thrived in a little bubble where in bars,
speakeasies, and dance halls they met, loved, and expressed themselves in a way much more
free than just decades later?
Let’s take a look at this bubble and focus in on New York City.
I’m Tristan Johnson and this is Step Back History.
Our story begins in Harlem in 1869.
In the Hamilton Lodge was the first drag ball in new york.
It was a drag show, where people crossdress and have a lot of fun.
LGBTQ+ historians trace this drag ball to the beginning of a craze in the Big Apple.
The drag balls were fashion shows consisting of white men.
There were some black performers, but they were expected to lighten their faces when
they participated.
Mainstream society didn’t approve of their lifestyles but loved their parties.
These shows would pick up in popularity over the decades peaking in the roaring 20’s.
Drag performers did shows to audiences as large as 7,000 people.
People came from out of town, to see these shows in some of the most famous venues in
New York.
“Coming out” was the term used for an LGBTQ+ person’s first night out in this
community.
They borrowed the phrase from the genteel parties held by the upper class in this period
to introduce young rich women to high society.
This happened alongside an explosion of black organization and culture in New York referred
to as the Harlem Renaissance.
(another subject I want to make a video about).
In the 20s racial barriers began to come down a little, and these balls turned into a mixing
bowl of race, class and gender.
The rich people would sit in the upper booths and just say they were going to a popular
show, and these were popular shows.
In these days dressing outside of your designated gender wasn’t just frowned upon, it was
a crime.
This nightlife often occurred in New York neighbourhoods such as the Bowery, Greenwich
village, and Times Square.
Neighbourhoods known for bohemian, artistic types.
A gay man could signal his membership in the LGBTQ+ community with signals such as bleached
hair, a bright red tie, and maybe a bit of makeup in Times Square and not draw much attention.
The law is also a strange thing.
It only works to the extent you feel like enforcing it.
Laws against crossdressing or homosexuality might be on the books, but the laws were rather
irregularly enforced.
I mean really irregular.
Variety magazine was writing about clubs with drag performers, and effeminate gay men as
the main draw.
They were so popular, the police probably couldn’t shut them down if they tried.
This was also when a few bucks could make a police officer look the other way.
Well, I guess it was the 20’s so not so much a couple bucks but maybe a nickel and
a charleston chew or something.
Still, many LGBTQ+ people lived double lives.
Often they hid their identities from their co-workers under threat of losing their job,
and they entered into legal marriages called “lavender marriages” as a form of cover.
However, they didn’t see this as something problematic.
Back then, heterosexuality and homosexuality were verbs rather than adjectives.
Nobody identified themselves as gay or straight, but by what gender they preferred to have
sex with and to what extent they conformed to their assigned gender roles.
The categories were much less defined, and people seemed to pay more attention to the
gender thing, than the sex thing.
There was homosexuality, but no homosexuals.
That social construct would be built in the 30s.
Those who lived in the open weren’t just victims.
Trust me, LGBTQ+ people weren’t the only group the police harassed.
These people sued for their rights, organized against oppression and gave each other a support
network to skirt the law.
They had a fighting spirit, and they thrived.
LGBTQ+ life wasn’t just limited to these parties.
They would meet on street corners, in cabarets, or even in church.
Even in a hostile society, they built a culture with its own styles, language, and social
structure.
There were even open LGBTQ+ celebrities such as Gladys Bently, Rae Bourbon, Gene Malin,
and Bruz Fletcher.
They had raunchy, openly queer song, dance, and comedy acts that drew massive crowds.
So… what happened?
How did society go from this explosion of LGBTQ+ culture to the repression of the Stonewall
Riots?
A violent confrontation in 1969 between LGBTQ+ people, and the police attempting to violently
shut down a prominent gay bar in Greenwich Village.
Well, to begin there was always opposition.
A group of party animals called the Committee of Fourteen declared themselves moral reformers,
and demanded investigations in the 19 teens.
They visited these clubs and balls so they could write more than a hundred reports about
how wrong and perverted it all was.
This party scene also thrived due to the underground culture surrounding prohibition, a period
in American history when alcohol was illegal.
During prohibition, the drag shows and the LGBTQ+ nightlife were well under the purview
of the mafia.
A high-profile mobster shooting in 1931 increased police presence at these clubs; police who
would enforce those laws against crossdressing.
After the US repealed prohibition, they only gave liquor licences to “orderly establishments”
and that very much did not include drag balls.
There was also a minor stock market whoopsie doodle in 1929 that put people out of the
mood for a fun nightlife.
There was also a moral panic in the 30s, 40s, and 50s against homosexual behaviour.
The government banned openly LGBTQ+ characters from film and theatre.
The police began to enforce sodomy laws with gusto.
Gay men and lesbians suddenly became a threat to society.
LGBTQ+ people were no longer safe in public and had to hide their identities.
As historian George Chauncey wrote, the state built the closet and forced LGBTQ+ people
into it.
Our belief today is that LGBTQ+ rights are on a progressive machine beginning with the
Stonewall riots (yet another subject I want to make a video about) and ends with full
LGBTQ+ equality with a supreme court decision.
However, when you compare the 50s and 60s with the prohibition era, there was quite
a backslide.
It’s almost as if… the story we tell ourself about progress is a myth.
This story is also similar to many marginalised communities in this period.
Often, even under state oppression, these groups can carve out pockets of autonomy,
and have cultures where they resist, organize, but also create, thrive and love.
We find these pockets all over the place from slave quarters to LGBTQ+ nightclubs, and they’re
quite amazing discoveries when we find them.
When we study the history of marginalized groups, it's important to study what structures
in society oppressed them, but it's also important to find the places they exercised agency.
The areas where they could be… them.
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Until next time, I’m Tristan Johnson and come back soon for more Step Back.