Behind the Mask of the Mattachine

The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation

James T. Sears

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136568794
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Take a revealing look at gay sex and gay history - and the man who helped kick-start gay activism in today's society.

The Mattachine is the origin of the contemporary American gay movement. One of the major players in this movement was Hal Call, America's first openly gay journalist and the man most responsible for the end of government censorship of frontal male nude photography through the mail. Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation, the Hal Call Chronicles travels back to the times before Stonewall and its aftermath, to the beginnings of the modern homosexual movement and the lesser-known individuals who started it. This stunning chronicle boldly goes beyond the standard whitewashed/desexualized history usually provided by other gay historians, to give the unexpurgated - and sexually charged - history of the activists who organized homosexuals, using the biography of the controversial Hal Call as its springboard.

Behind the Mask of the Mattachine provides a revealing illustration of gay life and gay sex in the past through an intergenerational history of the early gay men's movement. Noted author James T. Sears generously weaves oral history, seldom seen historical documents, and rare photographs to provide a rich behind-the-scenes look at the first wave of Mattachine activists and the emerging gay pornography industry. This historical chronicle of a previously neglected era is packed with details of Call's personal struggles, his celebration of the phallus, and his assertion linking homophobia and heteronormativity to our culture's sex-negative tradition. The reader is transported to the sexual underworld of youthful hustlers, porno kingpins, spurned lovers, sex clubs, cruising grounds, secretive societies, and personal in-fighting over the direction of gay activism. This enthralling narrative is impeccably referenced.

Behind the Mask of the Mattachine examines:

• the origins of the Mattachine Society
• the Mattachine Foundation of Harry Hay and others of the "Fifth Order"
• the Weimar Republic in Germany—the roots of the modern homosexual movement
• networking of homosexuals through correspondence clubs and speakeasies in Depression-era America
• the intense rivalries between San Francisco and New York City Mattachine groups
• censorship of books, magazines, and films
• much more!

The book explores the lives of three generations of pre-Stonewall gay activists:

• Magnus Hirschfeld and Benedikt Friedländer
• Henry Gerber and Manual boyFrank
• Harry Hay and Hal Call

Behind the Mask of the Mattachine is not only candid about gay sex and its impact on society but also puts a needed spotlight on a time in lesser-known gay history. This is important, illuminating reading for historians and gay persons interested in the undeniably sexually charged history of the early gay men's movement.

Take a look at these other James T. Sears books on LGBT issues: Growing Up Gay in the South online at http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=0502 and Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Issues in Education online at http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=5180

Index

ACLU. See American Civil Liberties Union

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), 312–313, 323n8 , 323n9

ACT-UP, 3

Aday, Sanford, 461

Adler, Alfred, 325n41

Advocate, The (magazine), 276

African American gay men. See also Bird, Merton; Graves, John; racism; Whitaker, Bailey

in Chicago, 44, 50n14

in Dayton, 372n4

discrimination of, 397, 407n56

homosexual organizing and, 44, 115, 167, 543

interracial relationships and, 164, 173n2, 543

in Los Angeles, 115, 119n13, 162

in Mississippi, 410n86

in New York City, 73

After Lorca (Spicer), 256n57

age of consent. See intergenerational sex

Ahern, Steven Dale, 313

AIDS. See Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

Aims and Principles (Mattachine Society), 248, 259

Alamosa, CO, 32

Albert, Ken, 526, 532, 534n26

Alexandria, VA, 453

Allen, Luther, 338, 345, 388n2 , 388n4, 389

Allen, Richard, 424

Alvarez, Walter, 519

Alstyne, Van Guy, 254n32

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 280, 418

American Friends Service Committee, 341

American Psychiatric Association, 255n42

American Psychological Association, 255n42

American Sociological Association, 529

AMG. See Athletic Model Guild

Anchor, Cliff, 17

Androgenes Anonymous, 153, 170

Androgynous Minority, 116

Androgyny (Singer), 6

Anger, Kenneth, 480

anti-communism. See Communism

anti-Semitism, 65, 86, 376n27

Aphrodite, 6...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• HARRINGTON PARK PRESS
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• Foreword
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• ABBREVIATIONS and TERMS
• Introduction: Logos, Eros, and Psyche
• SECTION I: RELATIONSHIPS
• SECTION II: FOUNDATIONS
• SECTION III: MATTACHINE (1950–1953)
• SECTION IV: SEXUALITIES
• Index