This article addresses the history of gay men in the United States. Unless otherwise noted, the members of same-sex male couples discussed here are not known to be gay (rather than, for example, bisexual), but they are mentioned as part of discussing the practice of male homosexuality—that is, same-sex male sexual and romantic behavior.
Pre-colonization Two-spirit is a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans for Gender variant individuals in their communities. The presence of male two-spirits existed before European contact, and "was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples".Gilley, Brian Joseph (2006: 8). Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country. . According to Will Roscoe, male and female two-spirits have been "documented in over 130 North America tribes, in every region of the continent".Roscoe, Will (1991). The Zuni Man-Woman, p.5. . Two-spirits might have relationships with people of either sex. According to Lang, female assigned at birth two-spirits usually have sexual relations or marriages with only females.Lang, S. (1998), pp. 289–298. However, in most tribes a relationship between a two-spirit and non-two-spirit was seen for the most part as neither heterosexual nor homosexual (in modern-day terms) but more hetero-normative; partners of two-spirits have not historically viewed themselves as homosexual, and moreover drew a sharp conceptual line between themselves and two-spirits.Lang, S. (1998), pp. 208-212.
1600–1899 British colonization
There were few openly gay men in the European colonies of North America at this time, due to legal consequences as well as social ostracism. Anal sex was specifically prohibited by a statute passed in 1563 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and was copied by the North Carolina assembly in 1715.
19th century
Since 1814 "crime against nature" has been used as a legal term in published cases in the United States, normally defined as a form of sexual behavior that is not considered natural and is seen as a punishable offense in dozens of countries and several U.S. states; this often included homosexual sex. Other sexual practices that have historically been considered to be crimes against nature include anal sex, as well as fellatio, bestiality, incest, miscegenation and necrophilia. The term is sometimes also seen as a synonym for sodomy or buggery.See Rose v. Locke, 1975, 96 S.Ct. 243, 423 U.S. 48, 46 L.Ed.2d 185.Andrews v. Vanduzer, N.Y.Sup. 1814 (January Term, 1814) (Vanduzer accused Andrews of having had connection with a cow and then a mare and the court understood this to mean that Vanduzer was going around telling others that Andrews had been guilty of the crime against nature with a beast). Legal punishments for sodomy often included lengthy prison sentences, fines, and hard labor.
Nevertheless, there were some gay men who had an important impact on American history at this time, particularly literature. Walt Whitman, a prominent and influential American poet, is widely believed to have been gay or bisexual. In the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, he published a cluster of homoerotic poems under the name Calamus. Another important homoerotic book was published in 1870 by the American author Bayard Taylor, titled Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania.Whitcomb, Selden L. and Matthews, Brander, Chronological Outlines of American Literature, Norwood Press, 1893, p. 186 This book has been deemed the "first gay novel" in America.Austen, Roger, Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977, p. 9 It has also been noted for its enigmatic treatment of homosexuality. Roger Austen notes "In the nineteenth century Bayard Taylor had written that the reader who did not feel 'cryptic forces' at play in Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania would hardly be interested in the external movement of his novel."Austen, Roger, Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977, p. 77 Another such work is Imre: A Memorandum, written in Europe by the expatriate American-born author, Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson, who originally published it under the pseudonym of Xavier Mayne in a limited-edition imprint of 500 copies in Naples, Italy, in 1906. Imre: A Memorandum is the first American gay novel with a happy ending.
1900–1949
The first recorded police raid in American history on a gay bathhouse took place in New York City on February 21, 1903, when New York police raided the Ariston Hotel Baths. 26 men were arrested and 12 brought to trial on sodomy charges, 7 men received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years in prison.(Chauncey, 1995)
The first recognized gay rights organization in America, the Society for Human Rights, was founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago in 1924. It only existed for a few months before disbanding due to the arrests of several of the Society's members. Still, it was officially recognized due to having received a charter from the state of Illinois, and produced Friendship and Freedom, the first American publication for gay people.
The gay male community gained more visibility in 1948 with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred Kinsey, a sexologist who was bisexual. The book states, among other things, that 37% of the male subjects surveyed had at least one homosexual experience,Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, p. 656 and that 10% of American males surveyed were "more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55".Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, p. 651
1950–1999 1950s: Homophile movement
In 1950, gay activist Harry Hay and several other men founded the Mattachine Society, the first enduring LGBTQ+ rights organization in the United States. The Mattachine Society was involved in two landmark gay rights cases in the 1950s. In the spring of 1952, William Dale Jennings, one of the cofounders of the Mattachine Society, was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly soliciting a police officer in a bathroom in Westlake Park, now known as MacArthur Park. His trial drew national attention to the Mattachine Society, and membership increased dramatically after Jennings contested the charges, resulting in a hung jury. In 1958 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of ONE, Inc., a spinoff of the Mattachine Society, which had published "ONE: The Homosexual Magazine" beginning in 1953. After a campaign of harassment from the U.S. Post Office Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Postmaster of Los Angeles declared the October, 1954 issue obscene and therefore unmailable under the Comstock laws. The magazine sued. The Supreme Court reversed the Postmaster's decision, marking the first time the Supreme Court had explicitly ruled on free press rights around homosexuality. The case is known as One, Inc. v. Olesen.
The Cooper Donuts Riot was a May 1959 incident in Los Angeles, in which gay men, lesbians, transgender women, and drag queens rioted, one of the first LGBTQ uprisings in the US. The incident was sparked by police harassment of LGBT people at a 24-hour cafe called "Cooper Do-nuts".
1950s: The Lavender Scare
During the early period of the Cold War, homosexuality was widely regarded as a mental illness and a security risk. Government officials asserted that gay employees were at risk of being blackmailed. This is because exposure could jeopardize their careers and reputations. As historian Marc Stein argues in an interview with PBS NewsHour, the idea was that individuals whose sexual orientation had to be kept secret could then be pressured into revealing classified information. It has been argued by other historians that the fear was showing how more Cold War anxiousness was about loyalty and morality. There was hardly any evidence that suggested homosexual employees had actually compromised national security.
In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy asserted that communists had invaded the State Department. At the same time, congressional investigations had grown to include allegations that "sexual perverts" were employed in federal agencies. A Senate subcommittee concluded that the homosexual employees presented a security risk because they could be subject to blackmail. According to accounts from former State Department officials, there were hundreds of employees that were investigated, interrogated, and forced to resign during this period.
On April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450. The order mandated that federal agencies investigate employees for conduct considered to be inconsistent with national security, including what it described as "sexual perversion." Although homosexuality was not directly named, the policy was used to remove gay men and lesbians from federal employment.
Dismissals and investigations were continuous throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was not until 1973 that a federal court made a ruling that sexual orientation alone could not be the only reason for termination from federal employment. In 1975, the Civil Service Commission announced that applications from gay and lesbian individuals would be considered on a per case basis.
1950s–60s: Gay men in literature
Notable gay writers of the 1950s and 1960s who explored male homosexuality in their work included James Baldwin, John Rechy and Allen Ginsberg. Another 20th-century writer, Gore Vidal, had a lifelong male partner but preferred not to categorize himself as gay. Vidal wrote about homosexuality in The City and the Pillar (1948) and transness in Myra Breckinridge (1969). Mart Crowley's play Boys in the Band, about a group of gay male friends, was produced in 1968, then adapted into a groundbreaking film in 1970.Vincent Canby, 'Boys in the Band':Crowley Study of Male Homosexuality Opens, New York Times, March 18, 1970 Along with a liberalization of censorship laws, the 1950s and 1960s also saw the rise of Gay pulp fiction.Bronski, Michael, ed. Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps. (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2003)
1960s: Legal challenges
As of 1960, every state had an anti-sodomy law.New York Times: Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Law Banning Sodomy," June 26, 2003, accessed July 16, 2012 In 1961, the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code advocated repealing sodomy laws as they applied to private, adult, consensual behavior.Illinois in 1961 became the first state to repeal its sodomy law. Laws of Illinois 1961, page 1983, enacted July 28, 1961, effective January 1, 1962. The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States: Illinois. A few years later the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took its first major case in opposition to these laws, Enslin v. Walford, which was denied certiorari by the Supreme Court.
Another significant case came in 1961, when astronomer Frank Kameny protested his firing by the U.S. Civil Service Commission due to his homosexuality, arguing this case to the United States Supreme Court. Although the court denied his petition, it is notable as the first civil rights claim based on sexual orientation.
In 1965 the case Scott v. Macy, about how Bruce Scott was denied a Defense Department job because of "immoral conduct", was decided. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the charge was too vague, thus granting the first major court victory for gay employment rights. The case was argued by lawyer David Carliner December 17, 1964 and decided June 16, 1965.
1960s: Gay rights activism
In 1964, organized by gay activist Randy Wicker, a small group picketed the Whitehall Street Induction Center after the confidentiality of gay men's draft records was violated. This action has been identified as the first gay rights demonstration in the United States.Campbell, J. Louis (2007). Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: "Have You Heard My Message?". Haworth Press. , p. xvii