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Harlem’s Hidden Gay History: The Rockland Palace Drag Balls

The Hamilton Lodge was a black gay social group that held extravagant drag balls in Harlem, New York, in the 1930s. Prohibition put an end to the Hamilton Lodge drag formals at the Rockland Palace on West 155th Street.

New York’s drag balls were given national exposure by the 1990 documentary “Paris is Burning.” Harlem’s gay scene was well known before Prohibition, and Hamilton Lodge was one of the foremost venues for the area’s thriving LGBT community. Artists who supported Harlem’s gay community during the 1930s included Tallulah Bankhead.

Inside the Rockland Palace, The Black Archives

“You had a large majority of drag queens and what we now call gender-queer pushing the boundaries,” says Hael Fisher, who is relaunching the Hamilton Lodge drag balls. “And you had a lot of white onlookers who came up from the West Village to be a part of this.”

The Rockland was torn down in the 1960s and the site became a car park.

Gay Centres

During the 1970s era of gay liberation, gay centres were established usually by squatting in unused or unwanted, dilapidated premises in various cities around the world. One such gay centre was The South London Gay Community Centre at 78 Railton Road, Brixton, London, an empty shop, which was established in the mid 1970s.

Gay centres afforded a safe space where, often for the first time, gay men and lesbians could meet and exchange ideas, and discuss politics. Not only campaigns were formed in them, but also gay groups and organisations, businesses, theatre companies, dance companies and the like. It was such a catalyst for ideas and activity that within months, the immediate area was home to two women’s centres, the Anarchist News Service, Squatters Groups, a Claimants’ Union for those on welfare benefits, the Brixton Advice Centre, Icebreakers, the Race Today Collective and a food cooperative.

The centre at Brixton is important in the UK’s gay history because it was the first one, and formed the template for those following. The squatters were evicted after two years.

A Brief History of Homophobia in Russia

Stalin didn’t think much of gay rights.

Dan Healy of the Moscow Times had given us a history of homophobia in Russia.

“Orthodox clerics condemned sex between men and youths. They also condemned men who shaved, used make-up, or wore gaudy clothing as devotees of the “sodomitical sin.””

Peter the Great outlawed sex between men in his Military Code of 1716, to be punished by flogging, and male rape, by penal servitude. In 1835, motivated by reports of vice in the Empire’s boarding schools, Tsar Nicholas I formally extended the ban on male same-sex relations to wider society in a new criminal code. Men who engaged in voluntary “sodomy” (muzhelozhstvo) were exiled to Siberia; sodomy with minors or the use of force netted exile with hard labor. This law remained in force until 1917. There was no law against lesbian relations.

Tsarist Russia avoided enforcing the law against upper-class homosexuals. There was no Russian equivalent to Oscar Wilde, Colonel Alfred Redl of Hungary, or Prince Eulenberg of Germany. Many supporters of the Romanov dynasty, and members of the tsar’s family, were flagrantly gay but when the government drafted a new criminal code — never to be adopted — in 1903, it continued to criminalize male homosexuality.

When revolution came in 1917, the Provisional Government wanted to enact the 1903 criminal code, but lost power to the Bolsheviks, who abrogated all tsarist law in November 1917. Until 1922 there was no written criminal law.

Police raids had been conducted on circles of “pederasts” in Moscow and Leningrad who were accused of spying; they had also “politically demoralized various social layers of young men, including young workers, and even attempted to penetrate the army and navy.”

Stalin forwarded Yagoda’s letter to Lazar Kaganovich, noting “these scoundrels must receive exemplary punishment” and directing that a law against “pederasty” be adopted. The new law was adopted for all the Soviet republics in March 1934, with a minimum sentence of three to five years for consenting male homosexuality.

Healy continues:

“Harry Whyte, a British Communist working for the English-language Moscow Daily News wrote to Stalin in May 1934, asking him to justify the new law. He boldly explained why it violated Marxist principles. He asked Stalin, “Can a homosexual be considered a person fit to become a member of the Communist Party?” Stalin scrawled across the letter, “An idiot and a degenerate. To the archives.”

The anti-homosexual law remained in place until 1993 in Russia. Without access to FSB and presidential archives we have only a rough idea of how many men were prosecuted under it; at minimum, tens of thousands suffered.

De-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev actually cemented the law in place. In 1958 the Interior Ministry issued a secret decree “on the strengthening of the struggle against sodomy,” telling police to enforce the law with renewed vigor. From this date about 1,000 men were imprisoned annually in the Soviet Union for their homosexuality. Soviet authorities worried that the millions of men released from the single-sex Gulag camps were a source of “sexual perversion” dangerous to Soviet society.

Discussions during the Perestroika years seemed to point toward reform, but the Interior Ministry fought vigorously against any relaxation. In April 1993, as part of a package to bring Russian legislation in line with Council of Europe standards, the Yeltsin administration decriminalized male homosexuality, but there was no amnesty for the hundreds of men still in prison under the law at that time.

In 2002, during a Duma debate about changes to sex-crime legislation, nationalist-conservative deputies called for the re-criminalization of voluntary sodomy and for the first time in a millennium of Russian legal history, the criminalization of lesbian acts. The Kremlin ignored these calls, but the status of Russia’s lesbians and gays remains an open question. Like Harry Whyte in 1934, we might well ask, “Can a homosexual be considered a person fit to be a citizen of the Russian Federation?””

Lambda

The lambda was selected as a symbol by the Gay Activists Alliance of New York in 1970, following the Stonewall Riots, and was declared the international symbol for gay and lesbian rights by the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1974. The lambda signifies unity under oppression.

The Scottish Minorities Group hosted the first ever International Gay Rights Conference in Edinburgh from 18 to 22 December 1974. It was co-organised by Ian Dunn and Derek Ogg. Ian Dunn had organised the first meeting of what was to become the Scottish Minorities Group in 1969. Derek Ogg later founded Scottish AIDS Monitor in the 1980s.

The conference tried to provide an international sharing of experience, so that delegates could find out the social, political and legal situation for men and women from other countriesm, and included sessions on the rights of young homosexuals and of gay women. The problem of lesbian invisibility was explicitly addressed by a delegate from Campaign Against Moral Persecution in New South Wales, Australia.

Nearly 400 people attended the conference, which led in 1978 to the establishment of the International Gay Association, later to become the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).

The gay rights organization Lambda Legal and the American Lambda Literary Award derive their names from this symbol. Gay News offered a range of jewellery items featuring the Lambda symbol.

Leonard Matlovich

Leonard P. Matlovich was born on July 6, 1943 and died on June 22, 1988. He was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. Matlovich made history by becoming the first gay service member of US forces to out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays. In the 1970s he and Harvey Milk were the best known gay men in America.

The gay community rallied behind his fight to stay in the USAF. His photograph appeared on the cover of the September 8, 1975, issue of Time magazine, making him a symbol for thousands of gay and lesbian servicemembers and gay people generally. Matlovich was the first openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine.

In October 2006, Matlovich was honoured as a leader in the history of the LGBT community .

A Mormon and church elder, Matlovich found himself at odds with the church, and their opposition to homosexual behavior. He was twice excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for homosexual acts.

In 1986 Matlovich was diagnosed with HIV/Aids. Typical of the man, he was among the first patients to try a newly developed treatment, AZT.

His grave at the Congressional Cemetery does not prominently bear his name. The inscription reads: “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” His grave is in the same row as that of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Gay News Trial

In June 1976 the British gay newspaper Gay News published a poem, The love that dares not speak its name, by James Kirkup. Someone sent a copy to television campaigner Mary Whitehouse. She applied for a private prosecution for blasphemy in November and the prosecution began in December 1976. Gay News Ltd and Denis Lemon (the editor) were charged. The offending publication was “a blasphemous libel concerning the Christian religion, namely an obscene poem and illustration vilifying Christ in his life and in his crucifixion”.

The Independent obituary for Mr Lemon notes:

He published Kirkup’s poem in 1976 because he thought ‘the message and intention of the poem was to celebrate the absolute universality of God’s love’, although he admitted it was ‘probably not a great work of literature’.

A fighting fund to defend the newspaper was set up. On 4 July 1977 proceedings opened at the Old Bailey. Margaret Drabble and Bernard Levin were allowed to appear as character witnesses on Lemon’s part. On 11 July Lemon and Gay News were found guilty. Gay News Ltd was fined £1,000. Denis Lemon was fined £500 and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended. Costs of £7,763 were ordered.

Gay News and Lemon appealed. On 21 February 1979 the Law Lords upheld the verdict. On 7 May 1982 The European Court of Human Rights decided the case was inadmissible.

Denis Edward Lemon died from Aids related conditions in Exmouth on 21 July 1994.

The Lesbian and Gay Miners’ Support Group

The Lesbian and Gay Miners’ Support Group were set up during the 1984-85 miners’ strike and challenged prejudices held by many in the labour movement.

by February 1985 there were eleven lesbians’ and gay men’s miners’ support groups all over the country. By December 1984 the London group alone had collected over £11,000 through pub, club and street collections, benefits, parties and other events. The highlight event was undoubtedly the ‘Pits and Perverts’ gig at the Electric Ballroom where Bronski Beat headed the bill; it raised £5,650.

The London group was the first to be set up in July 1984, and started with 11 members. Six months later it had grown to 50 members.

The Lothian Lesbian & Gay Miners Support Group was set up in September 1984 with 12 members raising £40 a week for the White Craige strike centre in East Lothian.

Lesbians Against Pit Closures followed in November 1984, involving more than 20 women who collected £50 a week for the Rhodisia Women’s Action Group, Worksop. The gay community’s support for the miners received much coverage in the left-wing and trade union press. The lesbians’ and gay men’s ‘fringe meeting’ at the October 1984 Labour Party conference was attended by about 250 people.

The recognition of gay rights issues by the union and Labour movements and the contacts forged during the miner’s strike between them and the gay movement led to the formation of a network of gay groups for the members of trade unions which continues to thrive. It also led to gay and lesbian issues being included in training courses for union representatives in the workplace, and the adoption of gay rights policies by the Labour Party.

Gay Saunas and Bathhouses

The growing cities of the late 1800s included growing populations of gay men. Generally, households were poor and many did not have advanced plumbing. From the 1880s public facilities for bathing were seen as desirable public amenities. A number of the bath houses in large cities where gay men were congregating and forming communities became ‘gay’. The movement for “turkish” baths “hamam” with steam rooms and lounges also proved popular with gay men. After World War II a number of raids were carried out on gay premises in a number of countries, and they went underground, re-emerging after the sexual and cultural revolution of the 1960s. During the Aids scare of the 1980s there was renewed attention on closing down gay bathhouses which were seen as helping to spread the infection.

They survive.

Gay Straight Alliances

Gay Straight Alliances are an increasingly popular way of bringing people together in order to reduce homophobia and homophobic bullying.

GSA’s have become popular and are groupings of individuals who get together to create a safe space where gay people can meet and talk with straight peers without fear of harassment and discrimination. However Noah Davis-Power points out that such alliances need resources, funding and commitment – it is not enough to just set them up and tick the box.

GSA’s exist to assure that each member of every community at work or school is valued and respected regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

Most of them have been formed in high schools and colleges but there are also some gay straight alliances in the adult and internet worlds like Twitter and Facebook.

If you think you could benefit from having a gay straight alliance, here are steps to forming a Gay Straight Alliance:

1. Follow the guidelines at your school or office. Establish the GSN the same way as any other club or society. Check the regulations or company policies on establishing and running clubs or support groups.

2. Find a supportive teacher or staff member or manager. Identify an ally or champion and get them on your side to help start your GSN.

3. Inform the school’s or employers’ administration or personnel section. They often work as liasons to other school members or colleagues.

4. Know the law.

5. Carry out a climate survey. This will allow you to better understand the prevailing culture and position of your colleagues on such issues as anti-LGBTI+ bullying and harassment and to make your case for continuing with the GSA.

Coming Out Day

What do you consider your moment of coming out? Was it the moment you came to terms with who you are? Was it the moment you shared a part of your life with the people you loved? Whatever it was, it was the moment you decided to be honest with yourself and perhaps with others.

I spent a few minutes on October 11th, National Coming Out Day, reading some coming out stories online. Some were happy stories. Some weren’t so happy. There were some I definitely related to. There were some I wished I could relate to.

I came out to myself three years ago, at the age of twenty two. Prior to that, like many of my Chinese peers, I had successfully (if awkwardly) dodged questions relating to dating and marriage by focusing on my studies and convincing others that I was simply not ready to date. Upon coming to a firm realization of my identity, it wasn’t long afterward that I found myself revealing the truth to my parents, due to an unexpected turn of events.

The incident happened by pure chance. I had unwittingly left my cell phone at home while at work, leading my father to see a text message from one of my male friends, who had innocuously ended the message with *kiss kiss.* Though this may hardly have been a cause for alarm, it certainly was for my mother, who confronted me with the dreaded question upon my return home:

You’re not gay, are you?

It was the question I feared so much that I had done everything possible over the last two decades to prevent it from being asked. Now that my carelessness had presented me with the opportunity, my moment had come – I could no longer lie.

Though to this day I still don’t know where I had gathered the courage to come out to my parents, I’m grateful for having done so, even if it left a gaping wound in our relationship that’s still far from being in the recovery stages. But having done so, the healing process can hopefully begin sooner rather than later. My coming out story isn’t exactly a happy story, but it’s one that I’m sure at least some of my brothers and sisters out there can relate. Either way, it’s not a story of regret, because it was at that moment where I was more honest and open with myself than I had ever been before. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it wasn’t to end there – coming out is a lifelong process.

To all those who supported me throughout my never-ending coming out story, I give my gratitude. I’m certain I wouldn’t be living the life I am now if it weren’t for you. To all those who came out and faced rejection, disapproval, or worse, I’m proud of you. I can’t think of anyone stronger than you. To all those who haven’t come out yet, there’s no need to explain – I understand your situation completely, and I hope that you find your very own moment one day.

What’s your coming out story?

Article written by J. Chu