CHAPTER 8 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Signifying Queerness Literature and Visual Art Susan K. Thomas and William J. Simmons EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 263 Kate Millett, Dinner for One, 1967, mixed media. Source: Estate of Kate Millett. rom the earliest recorded history, words and images have been essential vehicles for human expression. Whether in the form of prehistoric fertility statuettes, Renaissance portraiture, modern poetry, or contemporary novels, literature and the visual arts have offered a means to transform the intangible into the tangible, which, in many ways, resembles LGBTQ experience. Through a focused process of introspection and articulation, the creation of art and literature allows personal traits such as gender identity and sexual orientation to be expressed and communicated to readers and viewers. But beyond individual expression, art and literature may also capture and record a society’s collective sensibility about gender and sexuality—including minority gender identities and same-sex attractions—thus preserving it and making it available to future generations. As such, words and images can represent important resources for understanding the global history of gender variance and same-sex desire. The history of art and literature, alongside other forms of historical evidence, reveals that social attitudes about gender variance and same-sex desire have changed over time, with some societies being very accepting, even celebratory, while others being indifferent or repressive. It also shows that LGBTQ writers and artists persevered even in the most inhospitable familial, communal, or societal environments. Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. F While it is not always possible to know if a writer or artist was same-sex attracted or gender variant, or identified as gay or transgender, art and literary historians have identified many, many texts and images with implicit or explicit themes of gender variance or same-sex desire. Some of these are now seen as essential to LGBTQ history, even though they may not have been viewed that way by their makers, or in the time or place where they were created. As such, it is not always easy to decide if such works or their makers should be characterized as gender non-conforming, homosexual, gay, etc. What, exactly, comprises LGBTQ history is a dynamic, evolving subject; so is the terminology used to describe it. This chapter is written from the perspective of the present day and describes art and literature that is now considered part of LGBTQ visual and literary history, therefore present-day terms are used to describe such works. The first half of the chapter describes major works, themes, and creators in LGBTQ literary history, with an emphasis on Europe and America, from antiquity through to the present day. The second half presents a similar overview of LGBTQ visual arts, such as painting, sculpture, photography, and related media. LITERATURE There has not been a time that homoerotic literature has not existed beneath the larger umbrella of literature. Authors have used the genres of poetry, mythology, and prose to subtly (and at times, not so subtly) record their feelings and desires for same-sex lovers, or to live life as a different gender. Because of the persecution or opposition in many world cultures throughout history, queer individuals have turned to literature as a source of knowledge, validation, and comfort. Ancient Mythology and Classic Literature Themes of love between members of the same sex exist in a variety of ancient texts throughout the world, drawing on heroic love between men who bond through the shared experience of battle. The affection between men often emerges through homoerotic undertones in these early works. The Ancient Greeks, and later the Romans, drew upon pederasty: romantic and sexual affection between older men and teenage boys. The oldest surviving story is an Ancient Sumerian epic poem about a historical king who ruled the Mesopotamian city of Uruk in 2750 BCE. Written 1,000 years before Homer’s Iliad or the Bible, Gilgamesh tells the story of a man who learns to temper his own emotions and actions, which turns him EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 264 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. into a strong leader. The text also describes the friendship between the title character King Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a wild man who is tamed by a temple priestess. Although the poem does not explicitly state that Gilgamesh and Enkidu have a sexual relationship, the homoeroticism in the text is undeniable as the priestess Nikun tells Gilgamesh that after meeting Enkidu, “You will take him in your arms, embrace and caress him / The way a man caresses his wife” (Mitchell, 2004). While many literary critics have defined the relationship as homoerotic, historically, the text would have been a reflection of heroic love, a deep affection and respect between warriors. Numerous mythologies and religious narratives include stories of romantic affection or sexuality between men or between male gods and men. There are also instances of divine action that results in a gender change. Critics often interpret these stories through a homoerotic lens, which may differ from the original culture’s understanding of the stories. In classical mythology, the tradition of male lovers was credited to ancient Greek gods and heroes such as Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, and Heracles (with Ganymede, Hyacinth, Nerites, and Hylas, respectively) to validate the tradition of pederasty, a same-sex relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male, based on the consent of the boy. Pederasty was considered an educational institution in some cultures as the adult mentored the boy in that society’s moral and cultural values (Freeman, 1999). Although Homer (8th century BCE) did not portray the heroes Achilles and Patroclus as homosexual lovers in the Iliad (8th century BCE), later ancient authors, such as Aeschylus, presented the relationship as pederastic in The Myrmidons, writing of “our frequent kisses” and a “devout union of the thighs” (Crompton, 2003). Plato does the same in his work Symposium (385–370 BCE); Phaedrus cites Aeschylus and presents Achilles as an example of sacrificing oneself for a lover. Symposium also includes a creation myth that explains homosexuality and heterosexuality, and celebrates the pederastic tradition and erotic love between men (Woods, 1998). The Sosias painter, Achilles Binding the Wounds of Patroclus, ca. 500 BCE, red-figure vase painting, Altes Museum (Berlin, Germany). Source: Photo by Bibi Saint-Pol. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. In the Symposium, Aristophanes tells the creation myth to describe why people say that they feel whole EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 265 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. when they have found their true love. He explains that in primal times, people had double bodies that looked like two people joined at the back, their faces and limbs turned away from each other. There were three sexes: the all-male, the all-female, and the androgynous, who were half male, half female. The people attempted to scale Olympus to set upon the gods. Zeus considered destroying them with thunderbolts, but not wanting to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, cut them in half, separating the two bodies (Plato). The tradition of pederasty in ancient Greece, and later the acceptance of limited homosexuality in ancient Rome, created an awareness of same-sex attraction between men and sex in ancient poetry. In the second of Virgil’s Eclogues (1st century BCE), the shepherd Corydon proclaims his love for the boy Alexis. During the same century, some of Catullus’s erotic poetry is directed at other men and his “Carmen 16” is considered to be one of the earliest examples of explicit sex acts between men (Woods, 1998). Sappho (630/612–570 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet born on the island of Lesbos. (Lyric poetry is poetry meant to be read aloud accompanied by music played on a stringed instrument called a lyre.) Very little is known about Sappho’s life, but her poetry was well-known and admired throughout much of antiquity. Subjects in Sappho’s poetry vary. Some of her poems, such as “Fragment 16” and “Fragment 44,” are lyric retellings of Homer epics (Rutherford, 1991). Several of her poems have themes of love, and would have been written to be performed as wedding poems, intended to be sung to the bride when she entered the nuptial chamber (Greene, 1996). Other poems appear to be odes from one woman to another, which has caused discussion regarding Sappho’s sexuality and intentions within her work. Group of Polygnotos, Sappho (seated) reads one of her poems to a group of three student-friends, ca. 440–430 BCE, red-figure vase painting, National Archaeological Museum (Athens, Greece), no. 1260. Source: Photo by /CC BY-SA 2.5 license. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Sappho’s sexual desire, whether for men or for women, has been debated for centuries. Today, she is a symbol of lesbianism and island where she lived (Lesbos) is the basis of the modern term lesbian. However, this has not always been so. In classic Athenian comedy Sappho was caricatured as a promiscuous heterosexual woman (Most, 1995). The first testimonia, or written documentation, that EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 266 discuss Sappho’s homoeroticism come from the Hellenistic period, but these ancient authors do not appear to have believed that Sappho had sexual relationships with other women (Rayor & Lardinois, 2014). Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Homosexuality and Biblical Allusions The Judeo-Christian Bible has been used to both denounce and defend homosexuality. There are passages in the Old and New Testaments that appear to prohibit same-sex behavior, especially between men. Other passages describing romantic affection and homoeroticism between men have been interpreted as gay-themed and accepting of homosexuality. In the latter half of the 20th century, scholars began to argue that the love between David and Jonathan reached further than platonic friendship. The story of David and Jonathan focuses on the close friendship that the two develop as youth after David has killed Goliath. “Now it came about when [David] had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself . . . Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself” (1 Samuel 18, New JPS Translation). The traditional and mainstream interpretation of the relationship between the two men is platonic, an example of homosociality. The story of David and Jonathan is similar to that of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Both relationships are between heroic and powerful men. Gilgamesh and David both have a love for the other man that is described as being stronger than that of a woman. Both Enkidu and Jonathan have untimely deaths. And both friendships can be read as homoerotic because of the close relationships that exist between the men as they put their love for each other above all else, even their love for women. Sodom and Gomorrah The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is the best-known story in the Judeo-Christian Bible used to condemn homosexuality. The word sodomy, taken from Sodom, was coined by an English churchman to describe sex between men (Greenberg, 2004). The story is that God, knowing of the sin in Sodom, sent two angels disguised as men to the righteous man Lot, who welcomed the men, fed them and invited them to spend the night in his house. That night, the men of the city came to Lot’s home and demanded he turn the visitors over to them so that they could have sex with them. Lot refused and offered his two virgin daughters instead. The men of the city once again insisted that Lot turn over his guests, but Lot again denied them. In the morning, the angels instructed Lot to take his family and flee the city, for God was going to destroy Sodom in fire and brimstone for its sins. Lot’s family was to take what they needed and flee to the hills without looking back. The family did as instructed but, as they fled, Lot’s wife turned to look back at the destruction, only to be turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:1–26, Tanakh). Although the common perception is that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality, Jewish literature often rejects this reading (Greenberg, 2004). The text in the Book of Ezekiel cites Sodom’s arrogance, and its inhospitality to both visitors and the poor, although the residents of the city had plenty to share (Ezekiel 16:49). Rabbinical scholars who authored the Talmud, a Jewish commentary on the oral Torah, describe the destruction of Sodom as the result of selfishness and an unwillingness to share their wealth with travelers (Tosefta Sotah 3:11–12). Some biblical scholars argue that the use of the word yada (know), which is often used in the Hebrew bible to indicate carnal knowledge, reveals the intention of the men of Sodom to have same-sex relations with the angels. Yada is used in Genesis when Adam knew Eve, meaning that they had sexual intercourse (Genesis 4:1). If yada is translated as carnal knowledge, the implication is that the men of the city planned to rape the angels, a violent act of aggression that condemns the men of Sodom, not because it is same-sex rape, but because it is rape (Robinson, 2010). The rape of women would have been as abhorrent as homosexual rape. Additionally, the word yada exists in the Hebrew EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 267 bible 900 times as meaning “to know” or “to interrogate,” while “to know” as a euphemism for sexual intimacy is only used 13–14 times throughout the entire Hebrew scriptures (Hebrew frequency list, 2016). If this is the case, the men of Sodom sinned through their intent to interrogate the angels to learn their intentions and to avoid sharing personal wealth, which was inhospitable. Because Lot offered his two virgin daughters to the crowd in place of the angels, the translation of the word yada is more likely to be to know the angels sexually in the act of violent rape. Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Susan K. Thomas The English Renaissance (15th–17th century CE) The Renaissance was a cultural and artistic rebirth in Europe and England dating from the 14th century to the early 17th century. This period is often considered a cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. With the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, new thinking in Europe was reflected in art, architecture, politics, science, and literature. These changes in culture and art were reflected in England during the late 15th century. During the English Renaissance, gender divisions were substantial as women were considered inferior to men, and held subservient roles. Women were unable to hold property, and were expected to be under the safeguard of a male protector, either a husband or male family member, even when going out. Cross-dressing gave a woman a protection and independence that she did not otherwise possess by allowing her to leave the home and travel alone. However, cross-dressing was illegal for both men and women, as the Judeo-Christian Bible labeled it as a sin. Clergy delivered sermons against the practice during church services. The regulation of clothing produced and marked gender difference, although other cultural shifts were occurring. In the theater, cross-dressing was a necessity as women were not permitted to take the stage. Instead, young effeminate men often played the role of women. This was not a statement, but a comic tradition—playwrights often included the comic tradition of cross-dressing in their plays (Howard, 1988). William Shakespeare (1564–1616) used the motif of cross-dressing as a subterfuge in seven of his plays by disguising women as men, and in all seven of those plays crossdressing both complicates and resolves the plot. This device creates a level of homoeroticism in the texts as the women often encounter their unknowing lovers while disguised as men, only later to reveal their true identities. In As You Like It, the character of Rosalind must disguise herself as a man, Ganymede, after being exiled from court. She flees with her friend, and daughter of the king, Celia, who is now disguised as a poor woman, to the Arcadian Forest of Arden, where they meet Orlando and his servant, Adam. Orlando is in love with Rosalind, and therefore is saddened at her exile. Rosalind is also in love with Orlando and, disguised as Ganymede, pretends to counsel Orlando to cure him of his love. Ganymede says that he will take Rosalind’s place, and that he and Orlando can act out the relationship. Hilarity ensues when the young Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede (Rosalind). Over the course of the play, Ganymede convinces Orlando to promise to marry Rosalind. Ganymede then reveals himself as Rosalind to Orlando, and the two marry in the final scene of the play. The gender reversals in the story are of particular interest because Rosalind, who in Shakespeare’s day would have been played by a boy, finds it necessary to impersonate a boy, who is then pursued by a young woman, who is played by a boy. 16th and 17th Century Europe The period known as the Age of Enlightenment (1685–1815) permitted some challenge to traditional doctrines of society in Western Europe. Developments in industry allowed the production of consumer goods in greater quantities at lower prices, which encouraged the spread of books, pamphlets, and newspapers (Outram, 1995). With an increase in the dissemination of the printed word, literacy increased for both men and women (Darnton, 1985). In France, a waning of religious influence meant that the amount of literature about science and art increased (Petitfils, 2005). And while books were often too EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 268 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. expensive for most to buy, readers accessed books through state-run libraries or by purchasing cheaply produced editions (Outram, 1995). During this time, there was a renewed interest in the Classical era of Greece and Rome, allowing authors to allude to Greek mythological characters or to place their stories in Ancient Greece, where pederasty was common. Because the legal punishment for sodomy was death in some European countries and in England (and its colonies), it was dangerous to publish literature with overtly homosexual themes, which could result in an investigation of an author’s personal life, potentially ruining their reputation and eliminating opportunities. Thus, authors often expressed homoerotic themes in coded language that only some readers would understand. This permitted authors to escape prosecution for obscenity and further investigation. Being too overt in writing would mean immediate suppression, as in the case of the text Alcibiades the Schoolboy, a satirical Italian dialogue published anonymously in 1652. The text, a written defense of homosexual sodomy and love between men, is set in ancient Athens. A teacher modeled after Socrates desperately wants to consummate the relationship with his student Alcibiades. He uses all the tactics of rhetoric and dishonesty at his disposal, arguing that Nature gave people sexual organs for their own pleasure, and that it would insult her to use them otherwise. Upon its publication, Alcibiades was suppressed for its explicit nature. Only ten copies of the text still survive. In 1888 an article revealed the author as Antonio Rocco, an Italian priest and philosophy teacher (Dynes, 1990). Had Rocco been discovered as the text’s author in 1652, he would have been prosecuted for obscenity and, at the very least, imprisoned. 18th and 19th Century Europe and America During the 18th and 19th centuries homosexual authors continued to protect themselves from prosecution under overbearing obscenity laws through the coding of texts, but others protected themselves by writing about heterosexual relationships through the woman’s perspective, as in the case of John Cleland’s (1709–1789) novel Fanny Hill, published in 1749. Published in two installments, the erotic novel Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. Written as a series of letters between Frances “Fanny” Hill, a former prostitute, and an unknown woman, it tells the story of Fanny’s youth as a young girl coming to London and becoming a prostitute before marrying a man who does not care about her past. In November 1749, Cleland, the publishers, and the printer were arrested on obscenity charges as a result of the novel’s content. Although its uncensored version was officially pulled from circulation, illegal copies were distributed, making Fanny Hill a best-selling novel until the 1970s (Sabor, 2004). Cover of American edition of The Life and Adventures Miss Fanny Hill (ca. 1910). Source: Photo by Chick Bowen, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 269 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Contemporary critics described Cleland’s novel as homoerotic due to the level of detail in Fanny’s description of her sexual affairs, her obsession with penis size, and the two instances of homosexuality in the text (Robinson, 2006). These, as well as Cleland’s lack of close friends and his unmarried status, have added to the supposition that he was homosexual. Additionally, his bitter falling out with his friend Thomas Cannon (1720–?), author of the 1749 pamphlet Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d, the earliest published defense of homosexuality in English, also led to this speculation regarding Cleland’s sexuality (Gladfelder, 2012). Although none of the pamphlets have survived, a partial record of the contents exists in the publisher John Pulser’s 1750 indictment for his part in the publication of the text. Cannon begins the pamphlet by half-heartedly denouncing the practice of pederasty (Gladfelder, 2007). The balance comprises an anthology of ancient Greek and Roman texts, complete with Cannon’s own commentary supporting pederasty and homosexuality. The obscenity charges brought against Cannon were eventually dropped, and the pamphlet that brought such trouble has disappeared almost into obscurity. During the second half of the 18th century, Gothic fiction became popular in both England and America, largely with female audiences, by combining horror, death, and at times romance. Homosexual authors of Gothic fiction, such Matthew Lewis’s (1775–1818) The Monk (1795) and Charles Maturin’s (1782–1842) The Fatal Revenge (1807), used one of Shakespeare’s techniques to create homoerotic texts—writing a female character who disguises herself as a young man to gain access to the protagonist or to an all-male world that is excluding her. This plot device enabled the author to create a subject who becomes infatuated with a man, but permitted the author to safely avoid prosecution for obscenity through the reveal that the young man in the text is actually a woman in disguise, with whom the protagonist then falls in love. While the Gothic novel grew in popularity, the Romantic movement gained momentum at the end of the 18th century and continued into the early 19th century. Romantic literature—which could allow men to express affection for each other in literature, often through the motif of ancient Greece and the use of pederasty—was an acceptable medium for depicting such affection. In 1805 Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (part of what is today Germany), published his novel A Year in Arcadia: Kyllenion, the earliest known novel to focus on an explicitly homosexual male love affair (Haggerty, 1995). The novel’s setting is ancient Greece, and focuses on several couples falling in love, including a homosexual one (Béeche, 2013). Although the text is veiled as a close friendship, the homoeroticism is present, and even some of Duke August’s contemporaries felt that his characters pushed the acceptable boundaries of male affection in literature (Jones, 2015). By the mid-19th century, literature in America was shifting between Transcendentalism (the omnipresent existence of the divine in all nature and humanity) and Realism (the authentic representation of reality). One of the best-known poets in American history, Walt Whitman (1819–1892), incorporated both in his work. His most popular collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855. The Calamus poems in Leaves of Grass celebrate and promote the “manly love of comrades” (Whitman, 1981 [1855]). Critics believe that these poems are Whitman’s clearest expression in print of same-sex desire and attraction between men. He is believed to have had romantic and sexual relationships with several different men in his lifetime, but the only descriptions are by men who claimed to have had relationships with him. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 270 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. M. P. Rice, Walt Whitman and his rebel soldier friend Peter Doyle (ca. 1869). Source: Bayley Collection, Ohio Wesleyan University. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Many scholars believe that American poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was a lesbian, pointing to her relationship with sister-in-law Susan (Sue) Gilbert Dickinson. The poet lived much of her life as a recluse in a home next door to Sue Dickinson’s home, allowing the two to see each other daily. Throughout their friendship Sue was supportive of Emily, who considered her not only a beloved friend, but also an influence, inspiration, and confidant (Martin, 2002b). Numerous poems and letters point to a close friendship between the two women, and Emily may have been in love with Sue, but there is no indication that the two had a romantic or sexual relationship. In the later 19th century, Gothic fiction saw a resurgence with novels such as Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (2009), Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While both Le Fanu and Stoker were heterosexual, both Carmilla and Dracula openly approach homosexuality and homoeroticism, respectively. Critics have noted that Carmilla has influenced the portrayal of vampires in later fiction through its use of same-sex sensuality. In one passage, the protagonist Laura describes a night visitor from years before (Jøn, 2001). She describes the stranger’s pretty face as she kneels next to the bed, her hands caressing her under the coverlet. The stranger moves into bed with her, comforting her. After Laura falls asleep, she is suddenly wakened by the “sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment” (Le Fanu, 2009). What becomes notable about Carmilla is that Laura’s predator is not a male vampire, but a female one, creating a level of homoeroticism that had not previously existed in the Gothic genre. A similar homoeroticism marks Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) through Dracula’s pursuit of Jonathan Harker. In the text Dracula, Jonathan Harker has fallen asleep in an area outside of the safety of his room in Dracula’s lair. As three female vampires converge and prepare to take Harker, Dracula appears and states firmly, “This man belongs to me!” (Stoker, 1997). Harker swoons and the scene ends. The following morning, Harker wakes with his clothes folded by his bedside, presumably by Dracula, and the reader is left to interpret what may have happened during their interaction. Other instances occur between the two that contribute to the homoeroticism within the novel (Stoker, 1997). EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 271 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. William C. North, Emily Dickinson (ca. 1846–47), daguerreotype. Source: Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 272 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Napoleon Sarony, Oscar Wilde, ca. 1882, albumen print. Source: Library of Congress. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The intimacy of the vampire bite was further developed in the 20th century (Jøn, 2001). Homoerotic undertones in vampire literature exist through to the present day, and some contemporary scholars believe that people within the queer community identify strongly with vampires because the vampire’s “experiences parallel those of the sexual outsider” (Keller, 2000). Vampires must be secretive, lest their true identity and passions are revealed. There is also the constant fear of discovery (Dyer, 1988). Irish author Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in novel form in 1891 after being published as a short story the previous year. The Gothic tale is the story of the title character, Dorian Gray, who makes a deal with the devil to remain forever young while his portrait ages. Reviewers of the novel criticized the text for its “decadence” and allusions to homosexuality (Ross, 2011). Although there is nothing overtly homosexual in the novel, it is homoerotic. Dorian Gray is described by his beauty, a trait often perceived as feminine. A homoerotic undertone surfaces when that beauty is recognized by other EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 273 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. men. At the beginning of Dorian Gray, the artist Basil Hallward, paints Gray’s portrait. Hallward is enamored of Gray’s beauty, finding in him his ultimate muse. Over the course of the novel, a span of 18 years, Gray indulges himself by experimenting with the vices he has read about in a French novel. The implication is that these immoralities not only encompass alcohol and illicit drug use, but also sexual encounters with both men and women. Four years later, in 1895, Oscar Wilde was arrested and charged with “sodomy” and “gross indecency” because of his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a younger man. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to two years’ hard labor (Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1895). The trial received worldwide attention, and was a bitter reminder to those with same-sex attractions that not only was sodomy considered unnatural, but that it was also a crime, although irregularly prosecuted. Early 20th Century Europe and America Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was possibly the most famous lesbian author of the 20th century. Born in Pennsylvania, Stein spent much of her adult life as an expatriate in Paris. Living with her brother Leo, the two became avid collectors of modern art, and opened their home to avant-garde writers, authors, and musicians. Stein’s sexuality was an open secret. She lived with her partner, Alice B. Toklas, from 1907 until Stein’s death in 1946. While together, the two had close friendships with many well-known artists and authors, such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway, Thornton Wilder, and Sherwood Anderson (Castle, 2003). Much of Stein’s writing was radically innovative as it incorporated repetition and word-play. She gained notoriety in the 1930s with the publication of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, a memoir of Stein’s early years in Paris. Several of her works had lesbian themes, including her short story “Miss Furr and Miss Skeen” (1922), which, like much of Stein’s work, contains repetition and word-play throughout, specifically the word “gay,” which is repeated at least 130 times. Stein was one of the first authors in the 20th century to use the word gay for homosexual, although it was a form of coding at that time since heterosexual readers would understand it to mean carefree or happy (Castle, 2003). A contemporary of Stein, Willa Cather (1873–1947), was an American author who later critics speculate was lesbian. Many point to the years in her youth when she dressed in boy’s clothing, wore her hair short, and preferred to be called William Cather, Jr. However, Cather understood that boys and men held special privileges in the world, and she likely longed for those privileges, but by her second semester at university Cather was dressing in women’s clothing. As an adult, her longest relationships were with women, including Louise Pound, Isabelle McClung, and most notably, Edith Lewis, with whom Cather lived for 39 years. Literary scholars have identified homoeroticism, or same-sex desire, in two of Cather’s novels, One of Ours (1922), which won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize in Literature, and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). Both novels are told from a male protagonist’s point of view, which was uncommon for female authors at the time. Both texts also contain close friendships between men that are affectionate, although never sexual. The Bloomsbury Group was an influential group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists that began in 1912. The ten core members were Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, John Maynard Keynes, Desmond MacCarthy, Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, and Virginia Woolf. The group were united by a belief in the importance of the arts. Their works and philosophical ideas influenced literature as well as modern attitudes toward feminism, pacifism, and sexuality. At least three of the men identified as gay—Duncan Grant, E.M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey—though Forster remained closeted to all but his close friends during his lifetime. Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was the most famous of the Bloomsbury Group, at least to contemporary audiences. While already married, Woolf embarked on an affair with writer Vita Sackville-West in the early 1920s, which continued into the 1930s. In 1928 Woolf presented Sackville-West with Orlando, a novel about a man whose life spans three centuries and both sexes. Nigel Nicolson, Vita Sackville-West’s son, described the novel as “the longest and most charming love letter in literature” (Blamires, 1983). EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 274 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. British author Radclyffe Hall (1880–1942) was at the height of her career when she decided to write the lesbian-themed novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). She was so determined that the text remain as she intended that prior to its publication she told her editor that she required complete commitment from the publisher as she would not allow even one word to be changed in the manuscript (Souhami, 1998). The narrative of the novel follows Stephen Gordon, a woman whose parents are expecting a boy when she is born, and christen her Stephen, which foreshadows her sexual identity. As she grows, Stephen develops crushes; first on girls and, later, women. After her father’s untimely death, Stephen begins to dress in masculine clothes and falls in love with Mary, a woman who returns her feelings. The novel ends tragically when Stephen, who cannot keep her partner happy, pushes Mary into the arms of a man who has fallen in love with her, hoping that one of them can live happily. Richard Bruce Nugent, Dancing Figures, ca. 1935, black ink and graphite on paper, Brooklyn Museum (New York, NY), acc. 2008.50.6. Source: Brooklyn Museum. The Well of Loneliness was published July 1928 to mixed reviews. Some critics thought the text was poorly structured. However, others praised the book for its sincerity and artistry. The book was the subject of an obscenity trial that resulted in a determination that the book was obscene and should be destroyed (Doan & Prosser, 2002). On appeal the verdict was upheld (Souhami, 1998). Initially, the novel faced the EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 275 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. same outcome after its publication in the United States. In February 1929 courts deemed the book to be immoral. However, upon remand to the New York Court of Special Sessions, the book was determined not to be obscene (Taylor, 2001). The Harlem Renaissance was a social, cultural, and artistic movement that began in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City near the end of the World War I and lasted until the middle of the 1930s. During this time it was known as the New Negro Movement, and was a resurgence of African-American arts. Several noted writers of the Harlem Renaissance were known to be gay or bisexual, including Richard Bruce Nugent (1906–1987), an openly gay writer and painter. His short story “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” in the November 1926 issue of FIRE!! is thought to be the first short story to be published on the theme of bisexuality. Contemporaries of Nugent during the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes, were all successful writers who were closeted about their sexual identities. The novel Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen (1891–1964), written and published during the Harlem Renaissance, has been recognized for its homoerotic subtext between the characters Irene and Clare because of Irene’s appreciation of Clare’s beauty. Additionally, Irene and her husband Brian have a sexless marriage and, while they do have children, they live as co-parents not as sexual partners (McDowell, 1986). The status of their marriage has caused both Irene and Brian to be interpreted as lesbian and gay respectively. Irene labels Brian as queer, and he often expresses a desire to go to Brazil, a country considered to be more tolerant of homosexuality in the 1920s. Both are considered indicators of Brian’s sexuality. The text’s primary theme is racial passing, but the metaphor expands to multiple levels, including sexual (Blackmore, 1992). Pulp Fiction During the same period as the Harlem Renaissance in the early 1930s, the number of publishing houses catering to alternate texts began to expand. These presses published both heterosexual erotica and gay and lesbian texts. To circumvent censorship and legal prosecution, the publishers were cautious about how they marketed these publications. Panurge Press, founded by Esar Levine, was a mail-order company specializing in limited editions of erotica—some of it focused on same-sex desire and sexual activity. Although mail-order business made tracking a publisher more difficult, Levine was arrested several times, and once spent six months in prison after bail was not granted (Bronski, 2003). These small publishers led the way for pulp fiction, the original novels published only in paperback form. Pulps were labeled as such because of the cheap wood-pulp paper on which they were printed, which was very economical for a small publishing house. The name became synonymous for books with eye-catching, often erotically suggestive, covers. Pulps were released in a variety of genres that included thrillers, romances, crime noir, westerns, science fiction, and horror. In the 1950s a larger number of lesbian-themed pulp novels were published than gay-themed pulps. These texts were often written by men and had an audience of both lesbians and straight men. The gay-themed texts were often considered more literary and less commercial than the lesbian publications (Bronski, 2003). Tereska Torres’s Women’s Barracks, published in 1950, was the first pulp paperback to address a lesbian relationship. The book was a fictionalization of Torres’s real-life experiences in the Free French Forces in London during World War II. The book sold four million copies and was selected by the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in 1952 as an example of how paperback books were promoting moral indecency. As a result, the Committee began to require publishers to conform to specific moral standards in the content and publicizing of books, or else face fines or imprisonment. While this initially affected how authors framed their work in pulp fiction, as the decade advanced publishers became bolder in printing material that might be deemed immoral (Stryker, 2001). By the 1960s more gay-themed than lesbian-themed pulp novels were being published. Beginning EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 276 in 1957, obscenity laws began to change, allowing for more obviously gay material to be published without being prosecuted as obscene (Gunn and Harker, 2013). A number of renowned and respected gay authors began their careers writing for pulp fiction, such as Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, and Truman Capote (Stryker, 2001). Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Susan K. Thomas Post-World War II Following World War II, more same-sex themed books were reaching bookshelves than ever before. American author Gore Vidal published The City and the Pillar in January 1948. The text is significant for being the first post-World War II text that has an openly gay character who is content and does not die tragically at the end of the novel (Stryker, 2001). Vidal also wrote the protagonist Jim to be an athletic, masculine man. The author was determined to challenge stereotypes of the gay man as a transvestite, lonely and bookish, or effeminate. He was determined to write the character as authentic and real (Vidal, 1995, xiii). Vidal was also very direct in his approach to the protagonist Jim’s sexuality in the novel. The title of the text harkens back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot’s wife turns to look back at the burning Sodom and is turned into a pillar of salt. Throughout Vidal’s novel Jim is unable to stop thinking of a sexual encounter he had with his best friend, Bob, in high school. Jim’s obsession with that encounter metaphorically freezes him so that he is unable to move on, resulting in disastrous consequences at the end of the text. Upon the release of The City and the Pillar, The New York Times refused to review the book, and every major newspaper or magazine refused to review any of Vidal’s novels for the next six years (Vidal, 1995, xvi). The publication of the text was significant and led the way for the release of other gay-themed texts by authors such as Truman Capote and Charles Jackson. In the same month as The City and The Pillar, Random House published Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms. The novel is in the style of the Southern Gothic, which uses common themes of deeply flawed, disturbing, or eccentric characters that may dabble in the occult, have ambivalent gender roles, are placed in decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events that often stem from poverty, alienation, crime, or violence (Merkel, 2008; Bloom, 2009). Other Voices, Other Rooms, while including openly gay characters differs from The City and The Pillar in that it does not include sex between men. This difference may explain the positive response to Capote’s novel even before its publication. Lesbian author Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) published her second novel, The Price of Salt, in 1952; a story about the beginnings of a lesbian relationship in New York City in the 1940s. The book was initially published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, as Highsmith feared that she would be forever labeled a lesbian author, which would overshadow her writing. The novel was considered groundbreaking for its time because of Highsmith’s choice to end the novel with a happy ending, and for departing from the stereotypical characterization of lesbians (Carlston, 2015). Highsmith did not acknowledge authorship until the 1990 Bloomsbury re-release, retitled Carol. A film adaptation of Carol was released in 2015. Highsmith’s novels The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) and Small g: A Summer Idyll (1995) are also gay themed. The latter also mentions HIV, but not as a significant element in the plot or character development. During the 1940s gay playwright Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) suddenly earned fame with The Glass Menagerie (1944). Critics consider Williams among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama, along with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller (Bloom, 2009). Williams received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for two of his plays, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) in 1948 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) in 1955. Both texts include references to Williams’ life, including homosexuality, mental instability, and alcoholism, and both would be made into highly successful Hollywood films. During this same period James Baldwin (1924–1987) published his second novel, Giovanni’s Room, which had explicit gay and bisexual themes. Baldwin’s first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 277 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. which had a very subtle bisexual undercurrent, was widely accepted by African Americans, and Baldwin was considered the voice of a new generation. After reading Giovanni’s Room, Baldwin’s editor encouraged the author to burn the manuscript, arguing that a publisher would never be willing to accept a book with such an openly gay storyline, and that Baldwin’s fans would never condone such a text. Critics, while not pleased with the explicit homosexuality in the text, were much kinder than anticipated (Levin, 1991). By 1963 Baldwin could publish the bisexual-themed novel Another Country with little issue. Cover of The Price of Salt by Claire Morgan (pseudonym of Patricia Highsmith) (Bantam Books, 1953). Painting by Barye Phillips. Source: Bantam Books/Penguin Random House. Also during the 1950s, the Beat Generation was emerging in San Francisco. The central themes of the Beat culture are rejection of standard narrative values, the spiritual quest, exploration of American and Eastern religions, rejection of materialism, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration (Charters, 2001). Among the best-known pieces of literature are Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” (1956), William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch (1959), and Jack Kerouac’s (1922–1969) On the Road (1957). Both Ginsberg and Burroughs identified as gay, and Kerouac engaged in same-sex relations during his life. “Howl” and Naked Lunch also became the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to change obscenity laws in the United States (Charters, 2001; Morgan, 1988). The poem “Howl” was written in 1955 and published in Allen Ginsberg’s (1926–1997) collection Howl and Other Poems in 1956. “Howl” was considered controversial because of its numerous references to illicit drugs and sexual practices, both heterosexual and homosexual. At this time, a number of books that discussed sex were being banned, including Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Raskin, 2004). Ginsberg’s use of explicit language led to a trial on First Amendment issues after the publisher of the piece was brought up on charges for publishing pornography. The judge in the trial dismissed the charges, determining that the poem carried “redeeming social importance,” thus setting an important legal precedent (Morgan, 2006). William S. Burroughs’ (1914–1997) Naked Lunch (1959) is a series of loosely connected vignettes that Burroughs said could be read in any order. The protagonist, William Lee, is a drug addict modeled after Burroughs, who was addicted to heroin, morphine, and several other drugs. The book was considered controversial for both its erotic subject matter and its harsh language, which Burroughs recognized and intended. The book was banned in Boston in 1962 for obscenity, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed that decision (de Grazia, 1998). The Appeals Court found that the book did not violate obscenity statutes because it was believed to have some social value (Maynard & Miles, 1965). The 1960s was a tumultuous period for the queer community, but with changing obscenity laws lesbian and gay authors could now publish without prosecution and were able to bring attention to the oppression faced by people in that community. Notably, Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) published A Single Man (1964), which demonstrated the oppression that lesbian and gay people face. The protagonist loses his EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 278 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. partner in a tragic car accident but is then shut out by his deceased lover’s family and discouraged from attending the funeral, although the two had been together for years. A Single Man presents homosexuality as a human characteristic that deserves to be recognized and respected (Summers, 2015). Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of James Baldwin, Sept. 13, 1955, silver gelatin photographic print. Source: Courtesy of Van Vechten Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Post-Stonewall: 1970 and After Following the 1969 Stonewall Riots, sexual minorities, now often publicly identifying as bisexual, gay, and lesbian enjoyed a renewed visibility in U.S. society and mass media. Anything seemed possible as activist organizations were founded across the country in cities and on college campuses. This push in equal rights for lesbian and gay people was reflected in an increase in publications. With the shift in politics and obscenity laws, authors became even bolder in their texts, writing about openly affectionate same-sex characters. Lesbians often found it easier to publish than gay men during this period. Isabel Miller’s Patience & Sarah (1971; the pen name of Alma Routsong, 1924–1996), Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), and Rosa Guy’s (b. 1922) Ruby (1976) were published during the decade along with others. One of the common themes in 1970s lesbian and gay literature continued to be the lack of a happy ending, as in Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle when the protagonist moves to New York City to attend EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 279 school and is forced to realize that, within the city, rubyfruit jungle (a metaphor for women’s genitalia) is not as delicious or as varied as she had dreamed. Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. The Combahee River Collective Statement The Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in 1974 in an attempt to create a feminist space for black women that also considered the intersectionality of class and sexuality (Marable and Leith, 516). While many African Americans belonged to and supported the National Organization of Women (NOW), its goals focused on improving the economic situation of middle- and upper-middle-class women (Harris, 2001). While many white women sought to leave the home to join the workforce, many black women had been required to work outside of their homes to support their families for decades. The CRC began as the Boston chapter of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), a black feminist organization that focused more closely on issues affecting black women. However, the members in the Boston chapter of NBFO were “more preoccupied with issues of sexual orientation and economic development” (Harris, 2001) than the main chapter of NBFO, which “aimed their activities at the more personal and practical level rather than at the political mainstream” (Harris, 2001). The Boston chapter, which became the Combahee River Collective, “came to define itself as anti-capitalist, socialist, and revolutionary” (Harris, 2001). Lesbian author and activist Barbara Smith wrote the statement with Demita Frazier and Beverly Smith, who divided the statement into four chapters: The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism; What We [CRC] Believe; Problems in Organizing Black Feminists; and Black Feminist Issues and Projects. Since the statement’s publication and distribution, it has become a key influence on black feminism and on social theory about race. Susan K. Thomas The late 1970s also saw some of the most provocative literature written by gay men to date. Larry Kramer’s (b. 1935) Faggots (1978) and Andrew Holleran’s (b. 1944) Dancer from the Dance (1978) signaled a change in writing that was free from legal censorship. Both Kramer’s and Holloran’s novels focus on the gay party scene in New York City and on Fire Island, a summer resort destination near New York City. Kramer’s text is a harsh parody of the casual sex and drugs that existed during the late 1970s as the protagonist attempts to find love in a culture that seems to emphasize casual sexual encounters. The book is sexually explicit in a way that would have led to its suppression just 15 years earlier. Andrew Halloran’s Dancer from the Dance is also the story of young men searching for love in an urban gay culture that emphasizes casual sex, partying, and drug use. Although Halloran’s novel also exposes outsiders to certain parts of gay male culture in 1970s New York City and Fire Island, it is often considered to be less bitter than Kramer’s novel. Instead, the book has been praised for its vivid imagery and lush language. Both texts are significant because of their authors’ bold and explicit writing and their critiques of the gay community. The 1980s The surge of publications in the 1970s continued into the 1980s, especially from women authors. African-American novelist Alice Walker’s (b. 1944) 1982 novel The Color Purple won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1983 National Book Award for Fiction. The epistolary novel is the coming of age story of a young African-American woman in rural Georgia, beginning in the 1930s. Young Celie is married off to an older widower who is both verbally and physically abusive. Through the course of the EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 280 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. texts, Celie finds love with another woman, who helps Celie discover her own voice for the first time in her life. The novel’s themes focus on the sisterhood of women, racism, and gender roles. The Color Purple has been listed as one of the 100 Most Frequently Banned Books by the American Library Association because of racism, harsh language, violence, physical abuse, and sexual content (100 notable books of the year, 2006). Although Walker has never made a public statement about sexual identification she has been romantically involved with both men and women. During the 1970s and 1980s author Audre Lorde (1934–1992) published some of the most influential work in the women’s rights movement as she examined the intersections of gender, race, and sexual identity. Her poetry expressed anger and outrage at civil and social injustices that she had observed and experienced throughout her life. Her best-known texts today are Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1983), an autobiographical text, and Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), a collection of Lorde’s writings that draw upon her personal experiences of oppression, including sexism, heterosexism, racism, classism, and ageism. The impact of HIV/AIDS on gay and bisexual men caused a shift in the content of literature during the late 1980s and the 1990s. Stories about the search for sex and love, and acceptance of one’s sexual identity, gave way to tales of grief, loss, and survival in a time of political and social indifference to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Numerous novels and memoirs were published in the 1980s and 1990s about the impact of HIV/AIDS on gay men. The earliest novels to mention the illness are Dorothy Bryant’s A Day in San Francisco (1983) and Armistead Maupin’s Baby Cakes (1984). However, Paul Reed’s Facing It (1984) is often considered the first AIDS novel because the theme of the text is the epidemic, while Bryant’s and Maupin’s novels peripherally address the disease, which is present and affects the novel’s characters, but is not the subject of the text (Reed, 1993). Numerous memoirs also emerged from the 1980s and 1990s AIDS epidemics, documenting real-life witnessing of the disease from those who loved those living with and dying from AIDS. Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir (1988) chronicles his partner Roger Horwitz’s fight against and eventual death from AIDS. Abraham Verghese’s My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story (1994) traces Verghese’s experience as a young infectious-disease physician in the mid-1980s in Johnson City, Tennessee, who begins to treat patients with the then-unknown disease. Out of necessity Verghese became the town’s AIDS expert, and was often the only one at his patients’ bedsides as they were abandoned by family and friends who were fearful or in denial. By the late 1990s more heterosexual-identified authors were including the theme of AIDS in their work, such as in Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Hours (1999), whose character Richard Brown is dying of AIDS, and who is also the small thread tying much of the novel together. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 281 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. K. Kendall, Audre Lorde (Austin, TX, 1980), digital scan of a silver gelatin print. Source: Photo by K. Kendall/CC BY 2.0 license. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The 1990s The number and kind of publications by or about gender and sexual minorities increased even further in the 1990s, expanding into the genres of romance, science fiction, and fantasy as many queer and allied authors published books with LGBTQ protagonists by large genre publishers throughout the decade. Melissa Scott’s novels Trouble and Her Friends (1994), Point of Hopes (1995), co-written with Lisa Barnett, and Shadow Man (1995) explore ideas about sexuality and gender. Trouble and Her Friends was an early cyberpunk novel to feature a queer protagonist, while Shadow Man moved beyond the gender binary of male/female. Other authors, such as Rachel Pollack, Richard Bowes, Anne Harris, and Nicola Griffiths, created worlds in which queer protagonists were not only common, but also flourished. Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) is one of the best-known lesbian science fiction authors of the 20th and early 21st centuries. As an African American woman, one of her common themes was the intersection of cultures that often resulted in cross-species relationships and flexible views of sexuality and gender. In her novel Fledgling (2005), Butler writes of the vampiric Ina species and their emotional and sexual EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 282 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. relationships with humans, both men and women. Butler also explores the intersection of species as the protagonist is 53-year-old Shori, who is part Ina and part human, and sexual relationships with humans (Nayar, 2011). These relationships are polyamorous, as the Ina are the primary partner of several male and female humans, who willingly allow the Ina to feed from them (Shaviro, 2013). The science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), written by Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), became immensely popular in 1970, winning both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel (1970 Hugo awards; SFFWA, [n.d.]). The irrelevance of gender is one of the prominent themes in the text. Le Guin chose to eliminate gender “to find out what was left” (Cummins, 1990). This theme is most recognizable through the character Genly Ai, who begins the novel as masculine, but becomes more androgynous over the course of the novel as he becomes more patient and caring, and less rigidly rationalist (Cummins, 1990). In the novel, Ai visits the Gethen system, whose inhabitants are androgynous, a tactic that the author uses to examine gender relations in human society. In the Gethen culture, Ai is considered an oddity for his masculinity, which appears aggressive in relation to the passivity of the Gethenians (Reid, 2009). Ai is only able to bond with the Gethenians, primarily the character of Estraven, once he can accept the Gethenian’s gender ambiguity. Some feminist theorists have criticized the novel for what they interpret as homophobia in the relationship between Estraven and Ai. There is an implied attraction between the two characters, but that aspect of their relationship is never physically explored. In a 1986 essay Le Guin acknowledged and apologized for the fact that the novel had presented heterosexuality as the norm on Gethen (White, 1999). Leslie Feinberg (1949–2014), a transgender author and activist, wrote a handful of significant novels on themes of sexual orientation, gender non-conformity, and transgender politics. The groundbreaking 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues won both a Lambda Literary Award and an American Library Association Gay & Lesbian Book Award. The coming of age novel tells the story of Jess Goldberg, whose androgyny as a child creates problems for both her and her parents, and as she grows, she has difficulties fitting in. Throughout the book Jess discovers and accepts her gender differences and finally finds a voice to speak out against oppression. Stone Butch Blues was the first known novel published by a person identifying as transgender. In 2006 Feinberg published a second novel, Drag King Blues, which also had transgender and gay themes. Additionally, Feinberg published several non-fiction books about transgender issues, including Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come (1992) and Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue (1999). 21st Century In the new millennium, LGBTQ themes and writers are appearing in more and more literary genres. Authors incorporate positive portrayals of LGBTQ protagonists into numerous genres, from romance, to historical fiction, to vampire detective fiction. Authors have also expanded into the graphic memoir, comics, and children’s and young adult literature. Lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel (b. 1960) was initially best known for her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which ran from 1983 to 2008 and is one of the earliest ongoing depictions of lesbians in popular culture. However, Bechdel gained critical and commercial success in 2006 with the publication of her graphic memoir, Fun Home. The book chronicles her childhood and the years before and after her father’s suspected suicide. The text focuses primarily on her relationship with her parents, especially her father, who Bechdel theorizes was also gay. Fun Home was named one of the top books of 2006 by The New York Times (100 notable books of the year, 2006), The Times of London (Gatti, 2006), and Publishers Weekly (The first annual PW comics week critic’s poll, 2006). Time magazine named the book one of its top ten picks for 2006 (Grossman, 2007). The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen the publication of numerous memoirs and novels focused on gender identity. Trans author Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (1994) describes hir transition from living as a man to a woman (Bornstein prefers the gender-neutral pronouns ze/hir). Following her medical and social transition to live as a woman, Bornstein realized that EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 283 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. she still did not feel like she fit in, and realized that choosing a gender reflected society’s gender binary, which requires people to identify according to the two available genders (Bornstein, 1994). She has since stated that she does not call herself a woman, and she knows that she is not a man (Bornstein, 2012). Trans activists Jennifer Finney Boylan and Janet Mock have both released memoirs describing their gender transitions and their work to expand the gender binary through their activism. Lane Rasberry, Kate Bornstein at Babeland, Seattle, WA, December 6, 2010. Source: Wikimedia Commons. In 2007 Jeffrey Eugenides published the novel Middlesex, a coming of age story about Calliope “Callie/Cal” Stephanides, an intersex person who is assigned female at birth. Callie is raised as a girl and is attracted to other girls. She only learns she is intersex after an accident, when tests determine that she has 5-Alpha Reductase Deficiency (5-ARD), a genetic condition that causes a genetically male-typical person to be born with genitals that appear to be female-typical. Although Callie was born with female genitalia, she also has male gonads, including internal testicles. Nature versus nurture and gender identity, and intersex status are two themes within the novel. Although raised as a girl, Cal quickly renounces his female gender upon learning he could have been raised a boy. In 2003, Middlesex was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (Fischer & Fischer, 2007). Children’s and Young Adult Literature Authors began publishing children’s books with lesbian and gay themes in the 1980s. The first known gay storybook is Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin by Susanne Bösche, published in Denmark in 1981 and in England in 1983. The plot describes a few days in the life of Jenny, a five-year-old who lives with her father, Eric, and his boyfriend Martin. The book covers small stories such as Jenny, Eric, and Martin doing laundry together, and the preparation for a birthday party for Eric. Bösche explains that she wrote the book to help children recognize different family forms (Bösche, 2000). Similarly, Lesléa Newman (b. 1955) wrote Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) after speaking with a lesbian couple she knew with a child who commented that they could not find any children’s books that reflected their family. The book is about a child, Heather, who is raised by her lesbian parents, Jane and Kate. The family unit is discussed simply and positively, as are other family situations in the book. Both Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin and Heather Has Two Mommies met with controversy upon publication, being both regulated in libraries and pulled from bookshelves. The American Library Association ranked Heather as the ninth most frequently challenged book in the United Stated during the 1990s (100 notable books of the year, 2016). Since the 1980s, numerous LGBTQ storybooks have been published for children that reflect varying families and personal identities. Maurice Sendak’s (1928–2012) We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993), Jeanne Arnold’s Amy Asks a Question: Grandma, What’s a Lesbian? (1996), Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three (2005), and Lesléa Newman’s Mommy, Mama, and Me (2009) are just some of the titles that have been released about differing family forms. Other books have been published that reflect a diversity of gender and sexual identities, such as Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland’s King and King (2003), Christine Baldacchino’s Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress (2014), and Jazz Jennings’s I am Jazz (2014). The genre of young adult fiction has expanded immensely since the 1997 publication of J.K. Rowling’s EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 284 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The popularity of the Harry Potter series has inspired a new generation of readers as well as authors, who have released a variety of fiction in different genres from fantasy, to mystery fiction, to graphic novels. While the 20th century saw an increase in young adult fiction, hundreds of young adult LGBTQ novels have been published since 2000. While numerous texts still approach coming out, such as Perry Moore’s Hero (2009) and Benjamin Alire Saenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2014), many other texts embrace situations that openly LGBTQ young adults might face in their own lives, such as the quest for love in David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy (2005) or the still present danger of HIV/AIDS, as in J. H. Trumble’s Just Between Us (2013). Publishers have also released more young adult books about discovering gender identity. Alex Gino’s George is the story of a pre-teen who was assigned male at birth, but identifies as female. George initially struggles to come out, but her best friend Kelly accepts her and supports her. Gino’s text was a significant contribution to the genre of gender identity because it is written for an audience in Grades 4–6. Other novels, such as Jeff Garvin’s debut novel Symptoms of Being Human (2016) embrace the theme of gender fluidity. In the 21st century readers can expect the catalog of LGBTQ literature to expand as barriers that once blocked writers have been removed. The reading public has also become more accepting, and have embraced much of the work created within the queer community. Additionally, with the development of the internet, authors can now easily share writings through websites that promote publication and collaboration. The number of authors who self-publish has also increased substantially, which has continued to provide validation for writers not only for their work, but also for a wider range of sexual and gender identities. Authors are now able to reach audiences in ways that were never realized before, and in doing so, are helping reduce the ignorance that so heavily limited LGBTQ literature in the past. VISUAL ARTS LGBTQ individuals around the world have contributed immensely to the visual arts: drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and performance alike. For many, art has been an opportunity for expression where it has otherwise been denied. The visual arts—as a form of decoration, self-expression, worship, or political veneration—became increasingly important over the millennia, beginning long before modern times. Ancient and Medieval Art (before c. 1350) The modern era (after c. 1500) is most often associated with investigations of gender and sexuality, these themes were present much earlier in the visual arts. While sexually explicit images do survive, they alternatively flourished and faced repression. Such depictions might be erotic or pornographic; they might also reflect political, social, religious, and ethical issues in the time they were created. Masculinity was certainly valued in Ancient Egypt, as evidenced by the massive grandeur of the tombs and monuments to male (with a few exceptions) pharaohs. However, the Ancient Egyptians had a very complex and sophisticated understanding of gender. Queen Hatshepsut, for example, was often portrayed as a male pharaoh. Other depictions of pharaohs are androgynous, such as the Colossal Figure of Akhenaten (1352–1336 BCE), where the king does not at all look like traditional depictions of a pharaoh; his shoulders are narrow, his waist wide. Moreover, he has no genitalia, which reinforces the statue’s androgynous presence. There are many theories as to why this might be the case, but it is possible that the pharaoh hoped to be represented in the manner of a multi-gendered, or androgynous god. The secular states of ancient Greece and Rome, prior to the regulations placed upon sex by the institutionalization of Christianity, allowed for a variety of artistic depictions of same-sex desire, which became a cornerstone of Classical art, or the art at the height of Greco-Roman culture. One of the most famous literary works of classical antiquity, Plato’s The Symposium, celebrates homosexual desire and, despite later restrictions on such behavior, the text has become central to Western philosophy. In ancient EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 285 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Greece there was a profusion of images of both homo-social bonding (that is, images that depict men socializing in erotic and non-erotic settings) and explicit same-sex intercourse. An example is Achilles Binding the Wounds of Patroclus (late 6th century), an image of masculine companionship, a type of quasi-sexual imagery that would remain a staple of Western art until the 18th century. Likewise, depictions of the lesbian poet Sappho, as on the painted pot Sappho and Attendants (c. 450 BCE), point to a world of same-sex desire and companionship, but not lesbian sex per se. Warren Cup (detail), Roman, 1st century CE, silver, British Museum (London, UK). Source: Photo by Sailko (Francesco Bini)/CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Most famous among Greek depictions of male homosexuality in popular culture are images of pederasty, a sexual process of courtship and a means of intellectual and social stewardship, a form of sexual and intellectual companionship in which older men would court pubescent boys (up to the age of 17). Pederasty was often the subject of painted pottery, with the most commonly represented form of intercourse being intercrural sex—a non-penetrative form of sex that involves the rubbing of the penis between the thighs. There was no concept of pedophilia as understood today, and these relationships were not clandestine. In fact, they were woven into the fabric of Greek culture (Saslow, 1999). While pederasty did not feature as prominently in Roman society, there are instances of explicit sex between males, such as the Warren Cup (1st century)—a silver goblet depicting two scenes of anal sex between adult men and youths in a luxurious setting. Such drinking cups were intended as conversation pieces during dinner parties. Homoeroticism in Greek and Roman art also took the form of representations of the athletic, youthful, subtly erotic male body. While these images are not explicitly “gay,” as the term is understood today, EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 286 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Classical depictions of the male nude nevertheless became important to later gay male artists. This became more apparent beginning with Alexander the Great’s reign (336–323 BCE). Changing notions of beauty prompted depictions of men who are slender and feminized, and depictions of Alexander often reveal a fashion for slimmer bodies and longer hair (Saslow, 1999). There are few surviving images of lesbianism in Roman art, and very few in Greek art (depictions of the lesbian poet Sappho being a prominent exception). This shift can also be seen in depictions of the gods, such as with the Apollo Belvedere (c. 300 BCE), whose narrow waist and hairless body reflected a growing association of lightly muscled bodies with intellectualism, rather than the brutish muscularity associated with lower-class men and foreign people. The revival of a Greek and Roman style in art in the Renaissance would intensify this association between conventional masculine beauty and intellectual or artistic superiority. The Barberini Faun (c. 200 BCE) is another prime example that depicts a suggestive reclining male nude. But it is important to remember that such depictions could have appealed to women in a heterosexual sense, or to men in both a homosexual fashion and a merely masculine ideal of fitness and emotional fortitude. In this way, these works should not be viewed as purely homoerotic; they represented multiple desires—from the erotic to an urge to display artisanal skill by crafting a detailed, attractive body out of stone. The growth and influence of Christianity led to increased restrictions on non-procreative sexual behavior and related artistic representations. Images of homosexuality throughout the medieval era (5th to 15th century) in Western Europe depict same-sex behavior in the context of moral judgement and sin (Saslow 1999). Same-sex sexual behavior was increasingly termed sodomy and became a moral and spiritual transgression, as evidenced by illustrated manuscripts. Most famously, perhaps, Dante’s Divine Comedy relegated male-male sex to the seventh circle of hell, which was illustrated in images such as Dante and Virgil Meet the Sodomites (Inferno 15) (c. 1345). Dante and Virgil Meet the Sodomites in Hell, in Guido da Pisa, Commentary on Dante’s Inferno, ca. 1345 CE, painted manuscript. Source: Wikimedia Commons. One notable exception is the phenomenon of tombs shared by men in the medieval period (Bray, 2003). While this was not commonplace, such burials were described using the Latin word connubium, which translates as marriage. This did not necessarily mean that the entombed men had a sexual relationship when alive but, rather, that there remained in the medieval period an interest in the companionship of men—whether it suggests sexual behavior or not. These burials were, in fact, blessed by the English church, and were understood as nonsexual friendships, but they are part of the cultural history of same-sex friendships that may or may not have been romantic or sexual. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 287 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Renaissance and Baroque Art (c. 1350–1750) As Europe rebuilt from the economic depression of the Middle Ages, there was an explosion of artistic and scientific inquiry that heralded the Renaissance as the beginning of what art historians call modernity, during which sculpture, painting, and drawing took on the status of a fine art, rather than a craft. During this period, artists begin identifying themselves as artists and exploring their identities through their work. The renewed focus on the nude—male and female—created a socially acceptable space (at least for male intellectuals and male artists) for viewing the naked body, even in religious contexts. There are increasing numbers of depictions of sensual and youthful bodies, following the ideal of Greco-Roman sculpture, and in many cases, this did reflect the sexual desires or attractions of the artist. There are many changes in this regard in the modern period (beginning with the late Renaissance) through to the 20th century, but from this point, art held an important role in self-expression and communication across lines of difference. A variety of factors led to the explosion of artistic and scientific inquiry informing Renaissance art. European colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas created an influx of wealth, which also destabilized the rigid social hierarchies of the Middle Ages. Additionally, a rise in humanism (an interest in the affairs of human beings rather than the divine) began to challenge the power of the Catholic Church in Western Europe. There was a renewed interest in Classical art as a model for producing scientifically correct, beautiful human bodies. Finally, in 1450, Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press, which allowed for a wider dissemination of images beyond religious and aristocratic circles. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 288 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (“Donatello”) (Italian, c.1386–1446 CE), David, ca. 1440 CE, bronze, Bargello Museum (Florence, Italy). Source: Photo by Rufus46/CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. HIV/AIDS and the Performing Arts As the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on gay male communities started to become apparent in the early 1980s, a number of playwrights, musicians, and dancers responded through their work. In it, they memorialized the dead, addressed political and societal indifference, and captured the experiences of those who lived through the early years of the epidemic in the US (Román, 1998). Though not the first HIV/AIDS-themed play, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (1985) is arguably one of the most famous. A thinly veiled autobiography, the play follows the experiences of a group of gay men, including the protagonist Ned Weeks, who create a community health center, confront an apathetic mayoral administration, and experience firsthand the destruction of bonds of friendship, romance, and community as HIV/AIDS grips New York City. Kramer’s work epitomized the mixture EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 289 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. of creative criticism and biographical storytelling that is a hallmark of much theater about HIV/AIDS including other works such as William Hoffman’s As Is (1985) and Paula Vogel’s farcical The Baltimore Waltz (1992). Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: A Fantasia on National Themes (1993) is a monumental work comprising a sprawling cast of historical and fictitious characters whose destines are shaped by the epidemic. Whereas theater leaves behind a script that can be performed again and again, dance performances often do not survive. Thus, the archive of videos by dancer Bill T. Jones and his lover Arnie Zane (1948–1988) is an invaluable collection. Their work Still/Here (1994) can be read as an allegory or metaphor for HIV/AIDS and Zane’s experience of living with AIDS. John Bernd (1953–1988) explored the impact and politics of HIV/AIDS in works including Surviving Love and Death (1981), and Tracey Rhoades (1961–1993) confronted his own mortality in Requiem (1988). David Weissman’s short film Song from an Angel (1988) put on display the emaciated body of a person with advanced HIV disease—in this case, Rodney Price—to resist the homophobic, pathological gaze of sensationalist news coverage of the epidemic (Gere, 2004). Classical musicians and composers have likewise used their art to respond to HIV/AIDS. The most obvious examples of AIDS-themed works are texted songs. The NAMES Project AIDS Quilt Songbook is an open-ended collection to which composers donate their songs about AIDS that use the works of different poets, some of which are included in the anthology Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to AIDS (1992). Its patchwork format is meant to evoke the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. American baritone William Parker (1943–1993) commissioned the first series of songs, which included submissions by William Bolcom, Fred Hersch, Ned Rome, and Libby Larsen. Abstract instrumental music has also been composed in response to HIV/AIDS. The most famous example is probably John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 (1990), which eulogizes one of the composer’s friends in each of its four movements. Kristopher Jon Anthony’s choral piece When We No Longer Touch (1993) eulogizes those lost to HIV/AIDS using poetry by Peter McWilliams. The ongoing series of HIV/AIDS benefit concerts arranged by New York-based pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe keep much of this repertoire alive into the present day. Since the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs in 1996, the production of HIV/AIDS-themed performance artworks has slowed considerably (Attinello, 2006). Where tragedy once inspired artists to create, the luxury of a normal lifespan for people with HIV/AIDS and the vicissitudes of activist burnout have conspired to create conditions of “unforgetting” (Castiglia and Reed, 2012). Other artists have simply shifted the focus of their work and their energies on living with HIV. Matthew J. Jones In an iteration of the Renaissance centered on Rome (taking place slightly earlier and concurrently was the Northern European Renaissance, which encompassed the creative advances of the Germanic territories), there was a return to the androgynous beauty of the Classical and Hellenistic eras. A foundational image is Donatello’s David (1430–1440), a bronze precursor to Michelangelo’s more famous marble sculpture, in which the Biblical hero is portrayed as a slim aesthete rather than a brawny warrior. The cherubic boy stands daintily on the head of Goliath, whose masculine features imply a relative brutishness and foreign identity. It seems that David could not win a battle in his nakedness, but once again, this refers to the symbolism of intellectual beauty, that is, that well-crafted bodies recall moral and aesthetic virtue. Written records allow us to be more specific about the sexual practices of Renaissance artists onward. Donatello was indeed a homosexual, and it is likely that he was at work on his David at the same as Florentine officials were enacting laws against sodomy (Saslow, 1999). Perhaps the most widely regarded artists of the period who were known to have had same-sex romantic or sexual relationships were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. While it is true that da Vinci continued the tradition of creating paintings and sculptures of young, androgynous men, such as his supple Saint John the Baptist (1515), it might be his most famous image that produces an interesting contemplation on EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 290 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. homosexuality—the Vitruvian Man (1490). Though it is a small ink drawing, the image distills the simultaneously scientific, erotic, and aesthetic concern with male proportion and creates a formula for representing the ideal male body. In a similar vein, Michelangelo’s David represents an attempt to depict the nude male body with mathematically precise, and hence “perfect,” proportions. Artists of the Renaissance, drawing on Classical precedents, depicted lithe and hairless male bodies—a not-so-subtle feminization that was the contemporary ideal. This is not in itself homosexual, but it nevertheless reflects a cultural fascination on the part of male artists with the archetypal male body. An artistic obsession with the male form does not require homosexual activity, but it does suggest a widespread comfort with male intimacy. The artists of the Northern Renaissance, although they were not as committed to reviving Classical ideals, also engaged with body politics and sexuality in queer ways. A similar interest can be seen in the contemporaneous work of German artist Albrecht Dürer (a major figure of the Northern Renaissance), whose The Men’s Bath (c. 1496) illustrates a common arena of male fraternization, but because of a strategically placed faucet, could be interpreted as a homoerotic scene. Another known bisexual artist Caravaggio (who has since become a modern gay icon) created work that was both part of high culture and vaguely pornographic. His work is filled with young men, many of whom were assistants or simply boys hired off the streets, who were inserted into mythological or religious scenes. Most important in a history of gay art might be Caravaggio’s painting of Narcissus (1594–1596)—a mythological boy who was so beautiful that he fell in love with his own reflection. This meant that his pictures had a basis in erotic reality, rather than pure imagination. The boys in his paintings tend to be highly eroticized and sexualized—their boyish charm emphasized in such a way that it made his patrons very uncomfortable. The Catholic Church commissioned Caravaggio to paint Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602) but rejected the finished work, perhaps due to its intimate relationship between the saint and his androgynous companion (Saslow, 1999). There were few women who could be artists in this period because of lack of access to artistic training. However, there were many images by male artists that might be interpreted as depicting lesbian relationships, such as Titian’s Diana and Actaeon (1556–1559). Such images of Diana, Greek goddess of love, bathing with her nymphs, were often excuses for depicting several female nude figures, often bathing each other. Since most of the viewers of art in this period were men, it is hard to know how much these images of female intimacy were intended for male titillation or reflected an understanding of lesbianism as a unique identity. The 19th Century: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism The rising prominence of homosexual men in European upper-class and aristocratic circles in Europe allowed for the increasingly open admiration of male beauty in the 18th and 19th centuries. Johann Winckelmann, for instance, was a noted homosexual philosopher whose rhapsodic musings on the beauty of the Apollo Belvedere and other classical depictions of men created a renewed fad for Classical beauty. Winckelmann founded his art history on the masculine beauty of the Apollo Belvedere, which he exalted as history’s most powerful artwork. Such nostalgia for Classical times paralleled the emergence of a discernibly homosexual identity in art history based on shared aesthetic and erotic ideals. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (“Girodet”) (French), The Sleep of Endymion (1791 CE), oil on canvas, Louvre Museum (Paris, France), inv. 4935. Source: Photo by Marie Lan Nguyen/CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 291 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Jacques-Louis David was perhaps the most important of the neoclassical artists. His paintings revived classical themes not simply to valorize the past, but also to allude to contemporary events, a monumental shift of artistic self-awareness in the history of modern art. Indeed, his neoclassicism retains an element of the homoerotic. His The Death of Socrates (1787), for instance, portrays the famed philosopher not as an aging man, but rather as a muscular, smooth martyr. David himself was not homosexual, but his neoclassicism provided a fertile ground for such exploration. Perhaps the most famous painting in this regard is Girodet’s The Sleep of Endymion (1791), which has been frequently considered a depiction of same-sex desire, once again through allegory (Solomon-Godeau, 2005). Endymion was known to be among the most handsome subjects of Greek mythology, and Girodet depicts him with unabashed eroticism, and, in the Classical tradition, a notable feminization that places the male nude in between genders. The dappled lighting on Endymion’s lightly muscled, lounging body, when combined with the voyeuristic fact that he is asleep, creates a distinctly sexual scene. Girodet, in his addition of erotics to traditionally classical subjects, became a foundational member of the artistic movement that has since been called Romanticism. Some artists, however, rejected this style and opted instead for Realism, such as the renowned lesbian painter Rosa Bonheur. She was well known for painting animal scenes such as The Horse Fair (1852–1855), which, it has been speculated, contains a self-portrait of the artist dressed in men’s clothes. Bonheur dressed as a man, which required an annual permit from the Parisian police, to have access to the exclusively male art world. At the same time, she had a public relationship with fellow artist Nathalie Micas. Some have argued that this was an early example of a butch-femme couple, with Bonheur taking on a masculine appearance and Micas occupying traditionally feminine roles. Bonheur also utilized the new medium of photography (invented in the 1830s) to create self-portraits in which she wears men’s clothing. Another famous example of an early use of photography is Alice Austen’s similar crossdressing in Self-Portrait with Friends (1891). Other depictions of crossdressing women are apparent in early 20th century Europe as a newly masculinized vision of the “New Woman” emerged, such as the lesbian painter Maud Hunt Squire’s confident protagonist in Munich Beer Garden (1910). Photography became an important, if fraught, tool for Realist artists’ investigation of the body. The American Thomas Eakins, for example, used photographs of his nude male students in the process of creating sensual paintings. He sometimes painted himself into these compositions, emphasizing his own erotic gaze. Eakins was fired from his teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for removing the loincloth of a male model in front of female students, which the administration considered far too salacious. His contemporary Eadweard Muybridge used photography to bring scientific realism to the study of movement. He created series of photographs tracking the movement of nude male and female bodies to study the motion of muscles and bones. He could do so without much scrutiny, as his work was seen as a form of scientific investigation rather than art, but his pictures of wrestling male nudes and statuesque men nevertheless became a touchstone of a homosexual (or at least homosocial) imagery for many later gay male photographers. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 292 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899), The Horse Fair, 1852–55, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), acc. 87.25. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Also working in this period was Harriet Hosmer, who was considered by many to be the greatest sculptor of the 19th century. She was an American expatriate in Rome, and her circle of friends and colleagues included many prominent artists and writers. Her longtime partner was Lady Ashburton, who she was with for 25 years. Much of Hosmer’s sculpture focused explicitly on the subjugation of women by men (as she herself had often been as a woman in the male-dominated field of sculpture) as well as women occupying traditionally male roles (Cronin, 2009). For example, her Zenobia in Chains (c. 1859) depicts a queen from 3rd-century BCE Palmyra (near present day Syria) who had been captured by the Romans, which became incredibly famous, in part because of its overt (if problematic) feminist message of the patriarchal shackling of women. Hosmer was accused of utilizing male craftsmen to complete the sculpture, as many thought that a woman could not create a work of art of such strength and grace. Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916), Eakins’ Art Students Bathing (1884), albumen silver photograph, J. Paul Getty Museum (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), no. 84.XM.811.1. Source: J. Paul Getty Museum Open Content Program. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 293 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. At the turn of the 20th century, artists took cues from earlier artists and movements to create art that explicitly spoke to the complexity of identity. Innovations in art corresponded with innovations in finding new ways to discuss gay and lesbian issues—explicitly and implicitly. At the same time, movements for gay rights in the 1950s and 1960s allowed for greater freedom for gay and lesbian artists. In the latter part of the century, “queer” became an operative term for LGBTQ artists. Today, the enormous amount of queer creativity in art has become a source of inspiration and debate in art history and in other disciplines. The 20th Century Mysticism and Abstraction In the first half of the 20th century women made extraordinary strides in the development of modern art, as well as developing an understanding of sexuality in painting and photography. Despite histories of art that credit men with the creation of abstract art around 1900, it may have been a woman, Hilma af Klint, who did so. Klint was known to have relationships with women, and she spent much of her time in a women-only group of mystics who explored the relationship between art and mystic forces. Klint’s quasi-spiritual abstractions provide a counterpoint to the very masculine, hard-edged abstractions by Wassily Kandinsky that have become more famous. Carl Van Vechten (American, 1880–1964), Portrait of Diego Rivera and Frida (Kahlo) Rivera, March 19, 1932, silver gelatin photograph. Source: Van Vechten Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 294 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. of Congress, repro. no. LC-USZ62-42516. Another artist who worked in this woman-centric vein was Georgia O’Keeffe, who, though married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz, often had relationships with women. Henrietta Shore’s Cypress Trees, Point Lobos (c. 1930) is also in this vein, depicting two voluptuous, intertwined trees that suggest a connection with a female-centered naturalism or spiritualism. Frida Kahlo’s paintings, though they are more biographical, also connect to a sort of feminist/lesbian mysticism, this time in the context of Mexican traditions and symbolism. Kahlo’s legendary affair with dancer Josephine Baker is always surprising to historians because of Kahlo’s marriage to muralist Diego Rivera, but her paintings suggest that her sense of sexuality was beautifully in flux. Perhaps her most famous painting, The Two Fridas (1939), is both a double self-portrait and an allusion to same-sex desire, but also more generally the communion among women that was important to women artists in male-dominated artistic and intellectual worlds. Dada and Hannah Höch Other female artists in the early 20th century took a less autobiographical approach, but nevertheless suggested an increasing possibility for art to speak to different sexual experiences. Dada, a movement that swept through Europe and New York in the 1910s through the 1930s, aimed to combine politics and art in a way that had never been done before, often by lampooning political figures or making not-so-subtle double entendres to provoke humorous introspection. At the turn of the 20th century in Europe, photography and photomontage (a form of collage that incorporates photographs from magazines or newspapers) created unprecedented opportunities for the exploration of sexuality. One of the inventors of Dada was Hannah Höch, whose longtime lover was a woman. Höch often dealt with sexual themes, though it is sometimes difficult to categorize them as lesbian (Lavin, 1993). At the very least, there is always a certain androgyny to Höch’s work that was characteristic of a larger sexual permissiveness in Germany at the time. This is epitomized by the bi-gendered Dompteuse (Tamer) of 1930, in which the head of a female mannequin has been placed atop a prominently muscled male body. However, androgyny and female masculinity are not necessarily indicators of homosexuality and Höch did not identify as a lesbian. Marcel Duchamp (French & American, 1887–1968), Fountain (1916–17), glazed ceramic. Source: Photo by Alfred Stieglitz published in The Blind Man 2 (May 1917), 4. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Another foundational Dadaist was Marcel Duchamp, who often took on a female persona known as Rrose (or just Rose) Sélavy. When pronounced aloud Rrose Sélavy sounds like the French phrase “Eros, c’est la vie,” meaning “Eros, that’s life.” (In Greek and Roman mythology, Eros [or Cupid] was the god of love.) Duchamp did not identify as gay, but much of his work explored sexual themes, as with his Fountain (1917). Fountain is simply a urinal turned on its side, but this was considered one of the most important moments in modern art. By presenting an object without changing it at all (other than rotating it), Duchamp asserted that anything could be art. That his chosen object was so closely associated with male EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 295 genitalia and typically found in all-male spaces (men’s rooms) that have long been notorious as sites of casual homosexual sex, implies that Fountain was intended to provoke more than observations about the state of modern plumbing. In late 19th and early 20th century Europe, the urinal was one of the most common places of queer sex and interaction, and Duchamp was no doubt aware of this space of homosocial/homosexual interaction. (Houlbrook, 2005). Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. American Modernisms Paul Cadmus (American, 1904–1999), The Fleet’s In, 1934, oil on canvas, Navy Art Gallery, Washington Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.). Source: U.S. Naval Historical Center and Wikimedia Commons. Modern art in the United States saw a number of painters and photographers who explored sexual themes in their work. Foremost among them was Marsden Hartley, an American painter and poet, whose work has only recently been understood in terms of his gay identity. Hartley moved to Berlin in 1913, partially to study with the great German painters, and also because the city had much to offer in terms of queer life. Hartley’s The Warriors (1913) has become most emblematic of this sexual and artistic venture, with a host of men on horses with their bare buttocks turned toward us. In a series of related paintings composed of elements drawn from German military uniforms, Hartley mourned the Prussian officer Karl von Freyburg, the first great love of Hartley’s life, who was killed in the first weeks of World War I. This new impulse toward autobiography also can be seen in the work of Paul Cadmus, whose lengthy career was marked by meticulously drawn, muscular male nudes and large paintings laden with social commentary—including explicit homosexual content. Hartley and Cadmus were certainly important to three gay men who were associated with American Pop art—Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Johns and Rauschenberg were subject to closeting for their entire careers, as was the case for many other mid-century artists—men and women—despite the advances made in feminism and gay liberation. They were involved romantically, though this fact has been frequently silenced in academic art history (in fact, the art historian Jonathan D. Katz was removed from a conference at the Guggenheim Museum in New York for mentioning the relationship). However, Johns made frequent references to the gay poet Hart Crane, who killed himself after being beaten by male crewmembers on a steamship after making sexual advances to them. Johns’s Periscope (Hart Crane) (1962) could be seen as an ode to Crane as a gay martyr. Rauschenberg likewise could be seen as discussing queer themes in works like Bantam (1954), which may be a subtle homage to his gayness because of the inclusion of an autographed picture of gay icon Judy Garland, among other EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 296 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. potential queer codes (Katz, 1993). This closeting also applied to women. For example, the role of minimalist painter Agnes Martin’s lesbianism in her work has been the subject of debate for decades (Schiff, 2012; Katz, 2011). Andy Warhol, a contemporary of Johns and Rauschenberg, was out as a gay man, and created art that one could definitively say is “about” homosexuality, such as his iconic films Blow Job (1964) and My Hustler (1965), as well as his frequent nudes, anatomical pictures, and self-portraits in drag. Warhol’s studio, called The Factory, was a place of sexual permissiveness that was central to the Downtown New York scene, which was a unique subculture that brought queer artists of all kinds together. His Torso (Double) (c. 1982) is an homage to the torsos of Classical and neo-Classical sculpture and simultaneously an example of Warhol’s trailblazing gay pornographic imagery. Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Torso (Double), ca. 1982, screenprint on paper. Source: © 2017 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Harmony Hammond (American, 1944–), In Her Absence, 1981, mixed media. Source: Alexander Gray Associates, New York. © 2017 Harmony Hammond/Licensed by VAGA, New York. Feminism and Lesbian Art A lesbian feminist identity also became more discernible in the visual arts. One of the most important Fluxus artists (a movement that combined music, art, and absurdist performance) was the lesbian feminist EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 297 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. intellectual Kate Millett, who is best known for her landmark book Sexual Politics (1969). Millett is also a sculptor; her Dinner for One (1967), for example, is a mish-mash of body parts and objects that suggests a polymorphous sexuality. Other lesbian feminists, such as Harmony Hammond, combined the tenets of feminism with a developing interest in queer theory. Hammond uses repurposed materials like wood, rubber, hair, and rags to create complex sculptures. She also works with traditionally “feminine” art forms, like weaving, which illustrate the potential for a feminist revaluation of artistic modes that had been relegated to “craft” or “decoration.” Hammond’s In Her Absence (1981) may not represent actual bodies, but it nevertheless conveys a sense of longing for someone the artist has represented in abstract, mitochondrial forms. Lesbian feminism in the arts, however, was seen by some to be a paradoxical statement. The painter Louise Fishman faced discrimination from mainstream feminists in 1960s and 1970s New York because of her lesbianism. Fishman’s canvases have no subject matter per se, but nevertheless exhibit the heavy, active brushstrokes that have often been associated with male painters. For Fishman, this originated in her love of sports, which formed a central part of her self-image. Jimmy DeSana (American, 1949–1990), Television, 1978, silver gelatin photograph. Source: Jimmy DeSana Trust. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 298 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. The AIDS Crisis and Queer Activism Artists’ responses to HIV/AIDS were as diverse as the communities it affected. Many artists, such Keith Haring, and the collectives ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and Gran Fury, created art that mimicked the tactics of advertising to disseminate information about AIDS outside of the gallery and museum walls. In 1987 ACT UP activists began plastering the city with their now-famous Silence = Death posters, which repurposed the pink triangle—once used to mark homosexuals in the concentration camps of World War II—as a symbol of community resistance in the face of a national disregard for people with AIDS. In a similar community-building spirit, Haring’s engaging, graphic prints, paintings, and murals depicted, in abstract terms, gay life in New York. His art became so woven into the fabric of the city that some of his public art projects remain prominent in the city as reminders of the ongoing presence of AIDS in queer communities. Artists in other media also contributed to the ongoing discussion of AIDS. Photographers like Jimmy DeSana and Robert Mapplethorpe celebrated gay BDSM subcultures and heretofore unseen queer bodies. DeSana’s Television (1978) is a comical and unsettling celebration of kinky sex, wherein a TV set becomes an unexpectedly erotic object. David Wojnarowicz and Derek Jarman created more expressly political photography and film, such as Jarman’s homage to the eponymous Caravaggio in a 1986 film. Painters also took part in this activist aesthetic. Martin Wong, a gay Chinese-American painter, for instance, largely depicted people of color and the plight of the working class. Works like his Mi Vida Loca (1991), which depicts a large penis as if it were a Catholic icon, suggest a complex relationship between homosexuality and organized religion. Other artists, such as the conceptual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, approached AIDS more metaphorically. His most famous works are his piles of wrapped candies, such as “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991). Gonzalez-Torres and his partner, Ross Laycock, both died of AIDS-related illness, and some have argued that “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) was created as a conceptual performance of the body’s fragility in the wake of the AIDS crisis. Museum-goers may take and eat a piece of the candy, which (literally) diminishes the work and recreates the “consumption” wrought by the AIDS virus, or, more generally, any kind of interpersonal loss (Hudson 2003). The candy may be replenished each night, or it could fully disappear over the course of an exhibition. While there are necessarily many interpretations available to “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), it has nevertheless become a touchstone of a subtle, intellectual queer activism that influenced countless young artists. Another of Gonzalez-Torres’s most important “portraits,” “Untitled” (Alice B Toklas’ and Gertrude Stein’s Grave, Paris) (1992), depicts the grave of the famed lesbian writers, art patrons, and collectors who were buried together in Paris. One could understand this photograph as an homage to a previous generation of queer bohemian pioneers. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Cuban-American, 1957–1996), “Untitled” (Alice B. Toklas’ and Gertrude Stein’s Grave, Paris), 1992, framed C-print, edition of 4, 1 AP. Source: © The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York. Censorship during the 1980s and into the present day continues to be a problem for artists hoping to discuss AIDS. The most famous case is the cancellation of a show of Mapplethorpe’s work out of fear of loss of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, which supported the show financially. A similar controversy erupted over Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), which appears to depict a crucifix submerged in urine. Many felt that government funds should not be used to support art that was expressly EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 299 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. gay, or deemed to be pornographic. This instance of censorship is one of many moments in the United States in which public and governmental opinion often took the form of homophobia. Nicole Eisenman (American, 1965–), It Is So, 2014, oil on canvas. Source: Nicole Eisenman, Anton Kern Gallery (NY) and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. Contemporary Art (after 1990s) After the body-centric queer art of the 1980s and early 1990s, there has been an increased interest in abstract art, as opposed to art that explicitly depicts LGBTQ life, as a vehicle for personal and community expression. For example, though Amy Sillman’s paintings occasionally contain nods to real objects and people, they are largely abstract, multi-colored paintings that would not suggest anything about her own sexuality or the sexuality of her sitters. Her portraits like N & O v3 (2006) reduce bodies to abstract shapes, but they are nevertheless part of a larger documentation of queer and straight artists alike in New York. However, representational art has remained an important strategy. Many contemporary artists continue to use the human body as a central theme, also known as figuration. Nicole Eisenman and Celeste Dupuy-Spencer create surreal scenes of everyday life, wherein gender ambiguity is both celebrated and normalized, and is also combined with sophisticated art historical references. Eisenman’s It Is So (2014), is an expressionistic ode to queer sexuality. Surrounding this couple, whose genders cannot be discerned, are literary and artistic references in the form of a stack of books—a copy of Homer’s The Iliad and monographs about Dürer and Picasso. This mundane surrealism has also been used by Anthony Iacono to document the sexuality of everyday life, from somber BDSM scenes to subtly suggestive still lives. His painting-collage Locked-in (2015) implies some sort of sexual submission, but it does so only with a pile of fruit and a pair of bent knees. David Benjamin Sherry accomplishes a similar eroticism of the everyday, this time in the context of landscape photography drenched with disco colors. In an act of queering a gay male art history, Deborah Kass has appropriated the work of Andy Warhol in her self-portraits like Yellow Deb (2012), which reformulates Warhol’s obsession with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and Jackie Kennedy. Kass’s partner Patricia Cronin has also continued this kind of queer figuration with Memorial to a Marriage (2002), a large-scale mortuary statue that depicts Cronin and Kass in a loving embrace. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 300 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Isaac Julien (British, 1960–), Masquerade No. 3 (Looking for Langston Vintage Series), 1989, Kodak Premier print/Diasec mounted on aluminum. Source: Isaac Julien, and Jessica, Silverman Gallery. © Isaac Julien. Portraiture, an old genre, remains very important to LGBTQ artists. Lesbian feminist painter Clarity Haynes takes a documentary approach in her body-positive portraits of members of the LGBTQ community. In the Classical tradition of drawing and painting from nude models, Haynes celebrates all sexualities and body types with an intense realism. Other lesbian portraitists include JEB (Joan E. Biren), Gloria Longval, Catherine Opie, and Susan Fleisschmann. Using a more stylized approach, other artists producing portraiture—such as Ebony G. Patterson, Mickalene Thomas, and Ewan Atkinson—celebrate the beauty of the black body throughout the African Diaspora. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 301 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Zachary Drucker (American, 1983–) and Rhys Ernst (American), Relationship, #10 (Madam, in Eden I’m Adam), C-print, 2009. Source: the artists and Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles. Repurposing Photography and Video Photography and video, with their increased availability via smartphones, has continued to be an important site of LGBTQ critique, performance, and creativity. Glenn Ligon’s Self Portrait Exaggerating My Black Features/Self Portrait Exaggerating My White Features (1998) features identical pictures of the artist, which calls to mind the arbitrary nature of gendered and racial stereotypes. Zackary Drucker’s and Rhys Ernst’s photography book Relationship (2016), for instance, documents their love affair as they transitioned genders. Their photographs are both sophisticated and humorous as they show themselves in the process of radically choosing their genders. In a similar vein, K8 Hardy’s Instagram performances and 2016 film Outfitumentary speak to a specifically femme lesbian point of view as Hardy chronicles her daily clothing choices. Hardy’s contemporaries A. K. Burns and A. L. Steiner have also considered the expansiveness of lesbian creativity in their video installation Community Action Center (2010). Likewise, Martine Syms’s and Isaac Julien’s video performances and installations consider the complexities of race and sexuality. Julien’s film Looking for Langston (1989) and its subsequent photographic series are an homage to the black gay identities of the Harlem Renaissance. Tommy Kha, a Southern gay photographer, also uses self-portraiture as a means of EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 302 interrogating intersectionality. Photographs like Kha’s Home (I) and Home (II) (2015) signal the ability of the photograph to speak to issues of regional identity in a queer, multinational context as Kha fades into the wall of his childhood home. Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Artistic Censorship Censorship has plagued LGBTQ artists, especially with the intensification of homophobia in the wake of the AIDS crisis. Censors often demonstrate a curious fascination (if not obsession) with the visual art they attempt to censor and, ironically, their efforts often contribute to the awareness (and auction value) of censored works of art. Early in the 20th century, while employed by the Works Progress Administration, Paul Cadmus painted The Fleet’s In! (1934), a highly eroticized depiction of Navy sailors, filled with prominent crotches and tight pants. The painting was removed from view after complaints from the Navy. In 1989 the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., canceled an exhibition of work by Robert Mapplethorpe after an outcry emerged due to content that included nude black men and gay leathermen in BDSM clothing. Since the show was supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the cancelation of the exhibition brought into relief the role of public funding, free speech, and Reagan-era homophobia. Likewise, Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987), a photograph depicting a crucifix submerged in a jar of (what has been alleged to be) the artist’s urine, was the subject of intense Congressional scrutiny after winning a visual arts award that was funded in part by the NEA. A 2007 Swedish exhibition of Serrano’s photographs depicting nudity and sexual acts was vandalized by axe-wielding neo-Nazis. David Wojnarowicz’s incomplete silent film A Fire in My Belly (c. 1986/7) was removed from an exhibition at the U.S. National Portrait Gallery in 2010 due to complaints from Republican politicians and the Catholic Church. The film contained a brief scene showing a crucifix crawling with ants. Although created prior to his diagnosis with HIV, the film is often seen as a response to the government’s and church’s lack of response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Lesbian artist Alma Lopez’s digital photograph Our Lady (1999), which reimagined the classic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol of queer Chicana sexuality, was the subject of violent protests when it was exhibited in the U.S. and Europe. Michelle Handelman’s video work Dorian, A Cinematic Perfume (2009), a queer re-presentation of Oscar Wilde’s infamous novella The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), was removed from a show at the Arthouse (Austin, TX) when one of the gallery’s board members became “offended” by its content. The video was restored to the show but with limited screening times and a guard posted at the entrance to the screening room (Tyburczy, 2015; Meyer, 2002). William J. Simmons Recent Debates Contemporary art is a complex and exciting phenomenon, and the most important realization from studying art history is that art is not only a thing of the past. LGBTQ artists have drawn upon past issues while making their work speak to 21st century issues. A fertile area of inquiry in this regard is what has been called “cyber-queer” art, or art that deals with queer themes in the internet era, such as the work of Casey Jane Ellison, K8 Hardy, and Jacolby Satterwhite. All three artists utilize video as a central part of their practice, which makes their work easier to disseminate via YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Hardy, for example, uses Instagram to explore her daily sartorial rituals through a distinctly queer feminist lens. The 21st century is vastly diverse, and there are endless new avenues for the study of art and sexuality. CONCLUSION EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/23/2018 10:42 AM via UNIV OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AN: 1761971 ; Murphy, Michael John, Bjorngaard, Brytton.; Living Out Loud : An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture Account: s8983984.main.ehost 303 Copyright @ 2018. Routledge. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Same-sex attraction and gender variance have long been a part of human literary and artistic expression. Prior to the modern period, they often appeared in literature and the visual arts. More recently, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender artists and writers became increasingly unafraid to explore gender variance and same-sex attraction in their work. The rich artistic and literary heritage that survives allows a greater appreciation of LGBTQ culture over time and across cultures. Learn more Readings Fone, B. R. S. (2001). The Columbia anthology of gay literature. New York, NY: Columbia University. Goods, G. (1999). A history of gay literature: The male tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Hammond, H. (2000). Lesbian art in America: A contemporary history. New York, NY: Rizzoli. Jones, Sonya L. (1998). Gay and lesbian literature since World War II: History and memory. London, UK: Routledge. Leavitt, D., & Mitchell, M. (Eds.) (1998). Pages passed from hand to hand: The hidden tradition of homosexual literature in English from 1748 to 1914. New York, NY: Mariner. Lord, C., & Meyer, R. (2013). Art and queer culture. London, UK: Phaidon. McCallum, E.L. & Tuhkanen, M. (2014). The Cambridge history of gay and lesbian literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University. Medd, J. ed. (2015). The Cambridge companion to lesbian literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University. Reed, C. (2011). Art and homosexuality: A history of ideas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University. Saslow, J. (1999). Pictures and passions: A history of homosexuality in the visual arts. New York, NY: Viking Adult. Summers, C. (2004). The queer encyclopedia of the visual arts. Jersey City, NJ: Cleis. Summers, C. J. (Ed.) (1995). The gay and lesbian literary heritage: A reader’s companion to the writers and their works, from antiquity to the present. New York, NY: Holt. Film/Video Bailey, F, & Barbato, R. (Directors). (2016). Mapplethorpe: Look at the pictures [Documentary film]. United States: HBO. Burns, R. (Director). (2006). Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film [Documentary film]. United States: PBS Paramount. Griffin, A. G., & Parkerson, M. (1996). A litany for survival: The life and work of Audre Lorde [Television documentary]. United States: POV. House, J. (Director). Queer as art [Television documentary]. London, UK: BBC Two. Jarman, D. (Director). (2008). Caravaggio [Motion picture]. United States: Zeitgeist. Julien, I. (Director). (1989). Looking for Langston [Motion picture]. 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