The Gay Nineties

I'm borrowing this from a post I made to another blog in 2011

The following photos are of some of the young men who were working boys at Paresis Hall (aka Columbia Hall), one of up to six New York male for male brothels in the late 19th century. It was located on Fifth & Bowery, off of Coopers Square. The photos date from 1890 - 1899 and were either sold or given to clients.

Billy Walsh

Francis "The Horse" Kane

Amos John

Charley Ford

George Horn

Arnold Doyle

Johny Gibson

Danny Moore

Nathaniel "The Kid" Cullen

Jimmy Smith

Willy "The Bull" Pearson

Joshua

Raymond

Tim Kelly

Tommy O'Rourke

The last photo is apparently of the boys masquerading as working boys of another kind. If this is in fact a true photo, it's obvious that some of the boys were quite young, in their early teens. Despite our moral perspective, I suppose it's something that shouldn't be all that surprising given the poverty of the time. Even putting aside poverty, many children left school by the time they were 14, often earlier, (the 1900 U.S. census reported only 519,000 students in public high schools, which was double what it was in 1890) and began working, taking on what we now consider to be adult roles. Something which would have carried over into areas like prostitution.

I first saw most of these photos a few years ago on a blog. I believe it was Queerpitcher which, unfortunately, is now closed. In addition to these photos there were others, including those of clients like E.C. Bald, the cyclist.

The photos of both boys and clients had inscriptions on the back, written by one of the boys named Jacob Miller from whose collection most of these came, with names, sexual preferences and sizes (I don't mean shoe size.) You can see transcripts of two of these at the following links. A word of caution, some of the language is NSFW

Two clients of Paresis Hall

Another working boy

Wishing you someone to love

Will and Sonny

From smuchshypush. Source NBC Days of Our Lives

My true love hath my heart

My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for another given:
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,
There never was a better bargain driven:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

His heart in me keeps him and me in one,
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own,
I cherish his because in me it bides:
My true love hath my heart, and I have his.

---

Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586)
The Bargain

Images of men - William Gale Gedney (1932 - 1989)

William Gedney made two trips to eastern Kentucky. In the summer of 1964, he traveled to the Blue Diamond Mining Camp in Leatherwood, Kentucky and stayed for awhile at the home of Boyd Couch, head of the local United Mine Workers Union. Then Gedney met Willie Cornett, who was recently laid off from the mines, his wife Vivian, and their twelve children. He soon moved in with the Cornett family, staying with them for eleven days. Twenty-two of the photographs from Gedney's 1964 visit to Kentucky were included in his one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (December 1968 through March 1969). Gedney corresponded with the Cornetts over many years, and finally returned to Kentucky to visit and photograph the family again in 1972. In his notebooks Gedney writes about these lives he witnessed and photographed, the complicated relationships within such large families, the importance of the automobile. Gedney made notes about a creating a book dummy of the Kentucky work, but no completed dummy exists in the archive. With the exception of one image, the Kentucky photographs were never published during William Gedney's lifetime. From the Duke University web site

Gedney sold the one photo in 1977, apparently for $70.00 since he sent $35.00 to the Cornetts indicating, "I made myself a promise that if I ever sold any of the pictures I took of your family I would split any money with you."

Gedney's photography reveals the poverty in which the Cornetts and their neighours lived, but that was not his primary aim. He was chronicling people of a time and place. Poverty was part of that and most definitely helped to shape their lives, but Gedney's photography did not make it the focus, rather content and structure were.

"Wynne"-ing ways

In the end, it wasn't even close - 1,150 to 866. Although Sandra Pupatello was leading after the second ballot, both Gerrard Kennedy and Charles Sousa dropped out and threw their support behind Kathleen Wynne and their delegates followed. Wynne becomes the first female Premier in Ontario history and the first openly gay Premier in Canada.

At the convention she didn't shy away from the possible impact of her sexuality.

Let's put something on the table: Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You've heard that question. Let's say what that actually means: Can a gay woman win? ... I don’t believe the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, colour or sexual orientation. I don’t believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts.

In the end it may be a factor for some, but not important enough to matter. What is more pressing is how she will deal with governing in a minority situation, the continuing labour strife with the teachers and, most importantly, the deficit of $11.9 billion. She seems to be making the right moves by promising to call back the legislature next month and to work with the opposition. The opposition, however, must want to work with her as well and, after all, this is politics where despite the lip service paid to putting the Province ahead of ideology that has seldom happened. She is a conciliator, but that can be a double-edged sword. She risks appearing ineffectual and overly accommodating.

None of this may matter. Ontarians have reached the end of their patience with the Liberals; McGuinty's prorogation of the legislature after his resignation as Premier didn't help. Wynne may not have time to change this, even if she can, before the Conservatives and the NDP, sensing blood, pull the plug and force an election.

Burn

From Unfriendly Black Hottie

A uniform makes the man

Or much more likely, makes you want to make the man

This spread through the net with the note, "Me and my boyfriend at the Marine Corps Ball"