Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Question of Time: What Was Life Like in 1963?
Sheriff Roland:
the caption ta the photo reads:
"A San Francisco bar run for and by homosexuals is crowded with patrons who wear leather jackets, make a show of masculinity, and scorn effeminate members of their world. Mural shows men in leather"
Sheriff Roland:
The ‘Gay ’ World takes to the City Streets by Paul Welsh --> from LIFE magazine circa 1965 (part 1 of 5)
In New York City, swarms of young college-age homosexuals wearing tight pants, baggy sweaters & sneakers cluster in a ragged phalanx along Greenwich Avenue in the Village. By their numbers and by their casual attitude they are saying that the street – and the hour – is theirs. Farther uptown in the block west of Time Square, on 42nd Street, their tough-looking counterparts, dressed in dirty jackets and denims, loiter in front of the cheap movie theatres and sleazy bookstores. Few of the passers-by recognize them as male hustlers.
*By Chicago’s Bughouse Square, a small park near the city’s fashionable Gold Coast on the North Side, a suburban husband drives his car slowly down the street searching for a ‘contact’ with one of the homosexuals who drifts around the square. A sergeant on Chicago’s vice squad explains: “these guys tell their wives they’re just going to the corner for the evening paper. Why, they even come down her in their slippers!”
*In Hollywood, after the bars close for the night, Selma Avenue, which parallels Hollywood Boulevard, becomes a dark promenade for the homosexuals. Two men approach one another tentatively, stop for a brief exchange of words, then walk away together in the shadows that reach out beyond the street lights. The vignette is repeated again and again until the last homosexual gives up for the night and goes home.
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Homosexuality – and the problem it poses – exists all over the U.S. but is most evident in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and Miami. These large cities offer established homosexual societies to join, plenty of opportunities to meet other homosexuals on the streets, in bars or at parties in private homes, and, for those who seek it, complete anonymity. Here, tolerance, even acceptance by the ’straight’ world is more prevalent than in smaller communities. Where the gay world flourishes and presents so many social compensations, even the persistent pressure of antihomosexual (sic) police operations can be endured. Also, in the big cities those professions favored by homosexuals – interior decorating, fashion design, hair styling, the dance and theatre – provide the most numerous job opportunities.
Homosexuals can find some or all of these advantages in many parts of the U.S. but, because of its reputation for easy hospitality, California has a special appeal for them. In the city of San Francisco, which rates as the ‘gay capital’, there are more than 30 bars that cater exclusively to a gay clientele. The number of these bars changes from week to week as periodic police drives close them down (their life expectancy is about 18 months). Some bars, like the Jumpin’ Frog, are ‘cruising’ (pick-up) bars, filled with coatless young men in tight khaki pants. They spend the evening standing around (there are few seats in ‘cruising’ bars) drinking inexpensive beer and waiting. As each new customer walks into the dimly lit room he will lock eyes with a half dozen young men before reaching his place at the bar. Throughout the evening there is a constant turnover of customers as contacts are made and two men slip out together, or individuals move on to other bars in search of better luck, As closing time – 2 am – approaches, the atmosphere grows perceptively more tense. It is the ‘frantic hour,’ the now-or-never time for making contact.
In contrast to the ‘cruising’ bars are the gay cocktail lounges, some of them just off the lobbies of the cities better hotels. They are frequented by local businessmen and out-of-town visitors plus occasional innocent heterosexual travelers.
A step or two from the cocktail lounges are the ‘gay’ bars where a single personality draws the customers. Until it closed recently, the Backstage was one of the town’s most popular because of José Sarria who entertained regularly on Sunday afternoons. Sarria winds up his routine – an interpretation of Salome – standing in full ‘drag’ (dressed and made up like a woman) and shouting to the audience: “All right you nellie queens, on your feet! United we stand, divided they’ll catch us one by one!”As San Francisco self-styled ‘dowager queen,’ José has achieved a certain notoriety – in 1961 he openly ran for city-county supervisor and polled almost 6,000 votes.
In San Francisco’s Tenderloin off Market Street, are the bottom-of-the-barrel bars where outcasts and misfits of all kinds hang out. Their bedraggled clientele include dope pushers and users, male and female hustlers. Most of the customers have been ‘busted’ (arrested) at least once. Here one finds the stereotypes of effeminate males – the ‘queens’ with orange coiffures, plucked eyebrows, silver nail polish and lipstick. There may be a man or two in ‘drag,’ a few Lesbians, some ‘gay’ prostitutes, drunks and cheap con men.
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Sorry folks - it's a long article - will try and write more tamarow - gotta hit the hay!
injest:
Roland...you are really giving us a unique view into the 1960s mindset. That line...Homosexuality - and the problem it poses - kinda sums up the attitude of so many people ...
just amazing. We HAVE come a long way...even if we have a ways still to go.
Thank you for taking the time and putting out the effort to share with us.
Jeff Wrangler:
Howdy, Sheriff!
Thanks so much for excavating that piece of our past. Even though we may have a long way to go, we've also come a long way.
I get a big kick out of that phrase, "practicing homosexuals." Sorta reminds me of the old joke about how you get to Carnegie Hall. Anyway, I'm gonna keep practicing till I get it right. ... ;D
Sheriff Roland:
thanks Jess and Jeff. the article continues as follows:
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disclaimer: this is part of an article published in 1965 in LIFE magazine, a very popular magazine of it's time. It is not a recent article!
The ‘Gay ’ World takes to the City Streets by Paul Welsh (part 2 of 5)
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On another far-out fringe of the ‘gay’ world are the so-called S & M bars (‘S’ for sadism and ‘M’ for masochism). One of the most dramatic examples is in the warehouse district of San Francisco. Outside the entrance stand a few polished motorcycles, including an occasional lavender model. Inside the bar, the accent is on leather and sadistic symbolism. The walls are covered with murals of masculine-looking men in black leather jackets. A metal collage of motorcycle parts hands on one wall. A cluster of tennis shoes – favorite footwear of many homosexuals with feminine traits – dangles from the ceiling. Behind it a derisive sign reads: ”Down with sneakers!”
“This is the antifeminine (sic) side of homosexuality” says Bill Ruquy, part owner of the bar. “We throw out anybody who is too swishy. If one is going to be homosexual, why have anything to do with women of either sex? We don’t go for the giddy kids.”
Metal is much in evidence in the room chains on the wall, the collage and bunches of keys hanging from their customers’ leather belts. “That’s part of the sadism business,” Ruquy explains. “We use to wear chains on our shoulders. Now the keys are in.”
The effort of these homosexuals to appear manly is obsessive – in the rakish angle of the caps, in the thumbs boldly hooked in belts. Ryquy says, “This is a place for men, a place without all those screaming faggots, fuzzy sweaters and sneakers. Those guys, the ones you see in other bars, are afraid of us. They’re afraid to come here because everything looks tough. But we’re probably the most genteel bar in town. ”
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The hostility of the minority leather crowd towards the rest of the ‘gay’ world is exceeded by the bitterness of the individual homosexuals towards the ‘straight’ public. One junior advertising executive, who has been under a psychiatrist’s care spills out his rancor.
“I have to make believe all day long. If we go out for lunch, I go through the same complimenting and flirting routine with girls that you ‘straight’ fellows do. I have to be constantly on my guard not to do or say something that will make them suspect I’m ‘gay.’
“At night I have to get out and forget it. I don’t like to go to ‘gay’ bars night after night, but I’ll tell you what I do like to do. I like to go to ‘straight’ bars, find some guy with a good-looking girl and take her away from him. I couldn't be less interested in the girl, but it’s a way to get even.”
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There are many homosexuals better adjusted than this young executive, who behave like solid members of the community. They hold good jobs in business, the professions or the arts. Many of them have apparently strong heterosexual relationships, get married and have children. They go to church, engage in civic activity, see their psychiatrists. They are there in unmeasured numbers, involved in some degree in homosexuality. The only difference between them and the ‘straight’ world is the fear of exposure and their troubled consciences.
There are also the ‘respectable’ homosexuals who pair off and establish a ‘marriage,’ often transitory but sometimes lasting for years. Unburdened by children and with two incomes, they frequently enjoy a standard of living they otherwise would not be able to attain. Recently such a ‘couple’ entertained at Sunday brunch in a New York suburb. Their country home – they also rent an apartment in the city, where both work – is a contemporary ranch house, with swimming pool. The hosts were a self-made businessman and the manager of a fabric salon. Their guests included a stockbroker, a TV actor, a couple of New York advertising men and a leading fashion designer.
In contrast to the homosexuals who avoid all public identification with other homosexuals are those who join ‘homophile’ organizations. A recent phenomenon in American society, the homophile groups actively conduct programs to increase public understanding of homosexuality in the hope of getting more sympathetic treatment, particularly from law enforcement agencies.
One of the earliest and most active homophile club, the Mattachine Society was started in 1950 as a secret organization by a group of Los Angeles lawyers, ministers and doctors, not all of whom were homosexuals. But by 1954 it had become incorporated as a nonprofit, educational group and branches had spread to other cities. Mattachine branches are now located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. and are independent of each other. Their common aim is to promote the acceptance of homosexuality by society.
In San Francisco, for example, The Mattachine Society operates much as a social agency: it helps homosexuals find jobs in the city, gives them legal advice when they get in trouble with the law and serves as a liaison with police and health departments. The Washington D.C. Mattachine Society however, functions much as a lobbying group. It has challenged what it considers to be discriminatory practices against homosexuals in Civil Servant jobs and in the armed forces. It has enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union in specific cases involving homosexuals and government agencies including the first such case to reach the Supreme Court.
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Will probly be back with another installment before the end a the day
Sheriff Roland
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