Gay New York

May 2, 1994
Mining oral histories, diaries, police records, newspaper reports, etc., University of Chicago historian Chauncey here re-creates the prototypical pre-WW II gay community in New York City, which participated actively in the city's social and cultural life, until restrictive legislation forced it underground. Chauncey takes us on a tour of gay enclaves ranging from the Bowery's ``degenerate resorts,'' where effeminate ``fairies'' openly mingled with working-class heterosexuals, to Harlem's celebrated drag balls and Broadway's (plus publishing row's) ``pansy craze.'' Chauncey's deft charting of racial and class-divided clusters within the gay community itself is deepened with myth-shattering insights into shifting heterosexual attitudes toward gays, as well as transitions in their own self-perceptions. The impact made by this richly textured study is powerful.