In the half-century between 1890 and the beginning of the Second World War, a highly visible, remarkably complex, and continually changing gay male world took shape in New York City.
The opening sentence of the Introduction essentially lays out all to come. The book is not intended as a fully comprehensive history of homosexuality in New York as the title may indicate, but is specific to a certain period. The title does suggest this limitation, however, through the use of the word “gay.” The Gay Nineties is the literal jumping off point here and the narrative reveals how the resulting underground homosexual scene which developed in NYC in the first half of the 20th century stemmed from that particular decade.
Relatively few men wore women's clothes, and, given the laws against transvestism, even most men who wished to don a woman's full wardrobe dared do so only in relatively secure settings, such as a few of the Bowery resorts.
The book is filled with information that is likely to be surprising to a great many people. Given the current climate of perhaps unprecedented acceptance of cross-dressing by both genders in America, it may be nothing less than an outright fact to learn that at one time in New York City men could actually be arrested, convicted and jailed simply for wearing women’s clothing. Making this all the more surprising, of course, is the conventional wisdom—obviously misplaced—that homosexuality and cross-dressing are seemingly inextricably linked.
The emergence of Greenwich Village as a gay center was closely linked to the development of the bohemian community there. Although the Village had originally been north of the city’s borders, a refuge for the rich from urban disorder and disease, by 1900 most of its elite residents had departed and the Village itself had been physically incorporated into a city whose borders had long since pushed far beyond it to the north.
One of the things which makes this book accessible and interesting to all readers regardless of sexual preference is that it also works independently of its focus on homosexuality as a history of New York. The growth of New York City into the metropolis it became over the period of history covered in the book is revealed to be intimately connected to the social order. Neighborhoods that became famous to people who have never been there—from Harlem to Greenwich Village—grew into that fame (or infamy) in no small part due to the catering to various social desires that most definitely did not exclude sexual proclivities deemed deviant or officially codified as illegal.
“Supposing one met a stranger on a train from Boston to New York and wanted to find out whether he was "wise" or even homosexual. One might ask: `Are there any gay spots in Boston?’ And by slight accent put on the word "gay" the stranger, if wise, would understand that homosexual resorts were meant.”
Quoting from Painter’s work “The Homosexual” the author here offers insight into the development of the term “gay” being used synonymously with homosexuality. Painter’s explanation demonstrates that like most slang which eventually enters into the mainstream, “gay” began as part of the secret coded language understood only by those outside the mainstream. What is important is to realize that the secret code is dependent upon a dual level of meaning. In Painter’s example, for instance, the question that is posed would at the time have seemed to someone not wise to it as merely an innocent inquiry dependent upon the non-homosexual connotation of “gay” which would have been more along the lines of asking if there was fun or exciting to do in Boston. With the introduction of “gay” into the mainstream, that connotation eventually became subservient to its long-established prevailing definition. It is certainly conceivable—if not utterly predictable—that at some point in the future the original meaning of “gay” will be lost entirely and relegated to becoming an archaic definition no longer used at all. Such is the power of the secret language of the subculture.
