The Making of the Mattachine
ON AUGUST 10, 1948, Harry Hay wrote a prospectus that anticipated the goals, forms, and institutions of today’s international lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement to an extent that…More
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The Case for Kameny’s Place
Through the Mattachine Society of Washington, Frank Kameny charted a whole new direction for homophile organizations based on “civil liberties and social action.”
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1967: Protest at the Black Cat
IT’S THE FINAL HOUR of the year 1966. In L.A.’s Silverlake district, things are hopping at the Black Cat bar. Colored balloons cover the ceiling. Boys dance with boys,…More
What Made Stonewall Different
IN THE YEARS since the Stonewall Rebellion, an event that achieved legendary status almost before it was over, its power as a symbol has continued to rise more or…More
Riot at the Black Cat
The Black Cat is one of about a dozen gay bars lining Sunset Boulevard in Silverlake, the heart of L.A.’s gay community in the 1960’s. Many are beer bars with jukeboxes, pool tables, and pinball machines, inhabiting rundown buildings where the rents were cheap.
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Sodomy at the Court of Louis XIV
Louis XIV did indeed have a younger brother named Philippe, but the king was never at risk of being supplanted. Philippe I, Duc d’Orléans, known as Monsieur, is one of history’s most notorious effeminates, whose affections and fortune were lavished on male favorites, from courtiers to opera dancers.
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Bottom-Shamed by Mark Twain
The story of his encounter with “The Burning Shame” goes back two decades before Huckleberry Finn, to a pitcher of beer that changed the course of American literature.
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Rise and Fall of the ‘Pansy Craze’
Staging back-alley drag balls was one thing; performing for Astors and Vanderbilts was quite another. What’s more, slummers didn’t just indulge in voyeuristic pleasures; they sampled the seafood, so to speak—a metaphor on full display in periodicals like Broadway Brevities, one of several mainstream publications covering the Pansy Craze.
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A Novel from a Darkening Time
Butterfly Man makes it clear that Levenson must have been entirely familiar with the gay demimonde that it depicts.
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Momentos of Desire
The following is by a grant recipient in a program launched in 2022 by The G&LR, our Writers and Artists Grant, which was awarded to three recipients in 2023. The purpose of this grant is to assist advanced students engaged in LGBT-related research, and awardees are expected to produce an article for this magazine as part of their project. This is the third of three articles from 2023’s recipients.
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