18th century gay meeting places

The first point I'll make is that if you really want to dig deeper into this subject, far beyond what my little scratching of the surface has provided which isn't much, eh? The Gay Subculture in Early Eighteenth-Century London The Late Seventeenth Century The first gay cruising grounds and gay brothels may have appeared in London towards the middle of the seventeenth century, but the evidence is scant.

The evidence of a developing culture begins in the 17th century, but not in the abundance we see in the 18th. He is the go-to on this subject and has devoted his career to studying the historical, cultural, and literary presence of gay culture and homosexuality in and around the Georgian era.

Now that I've shocked you to your toes, let's get to know what exactly was illegal. A perfect place to begin this brief exploration so that we can get on the same page with terminology is etymology. Michael Drayton in The Moone-Calfe (c) denounced the theatres as the haunts of sodomites.

Bear with me here for the legality is partially to do with semantics and all to do with the shift from act to identity. Tomlinson challenges the harshest of punishments for sodomy in his journal. As a brief aside, know that my references to homosexuality are not exclusive to men, but it's important to realize that male sexuality was far better documented than that of female sexuality.

The meeting places were generally taverns, public houses, coffeehouses [1] or even private rooms [2] where patrons could either socialise or meet possible sexual partners. Molly house In 18th- and 19th-century Britain, a molly house or molly-house was a meeting place for homosexual men.

The Molly Club Queer

There are references, certainly, to both genders being part of the shift from act to identity, and thus culture, but the references are not as prevalent and certainly not part of the legal documentation. Situated in the 18th century taverns and inns, coffeehouses or even private rooms and suites of the sprawling English Colonial World, “molly houses” were clandestine locations where gay men and cross-dressing individuals found community.

This research section only scratches the surface, but it's an important section to include given the preferences of Patrick March, Viscount Kissinger, in The Heir and The Enchantress. Would it shock you to learn that homosexuality was not illegal in the 18th century?

A look inside the development of both gay culture and homosexual identity in the 18th century. This source describes it well:. Good golly, Miss Molly! Lesbianism was in no form illegal, so when we discuss the semantics of the sodomy law, realize there was nothing illegal about lesbianism.

Molly Houses Community amp

Publication Date: March 31, Good golly, Miss Molly! In homage of this shift, I'll be using our more modern words in this research post since they encompass culture and identity. The term "homosexual" does not appear until The term "gay" as it relates to sexuality does not appear until the s.

Victor’s research focus is on what are known as “molly houses,” or 18th-century meeting places for homosexual men in England, often in the back rooms of taverns or public houses. How about if you learned there was a vibrant gay culture during this time?

The literary documents of the time, such as novels, journals, letters, court cases, magistrate documentation, newspapers, plays, sculptures, and art, offer us the best perspectives of what was happening and what society's views were on the topic.

They represented safe spaces to interact and socialize, places filled with the possibility of social negotiation – and of social connection, which was. While "sodomite" was the primary term used outside of slang, such as "molly"its distinguishing characteristic is that it references a specific act rather than an identity, and thus marks the distinction in legality and culture.

You might still be up in arms about my opening question regarding legality. Samuel Pepys, for instance, in the 17th century, remarks on how commonplace it was to meet a gentleman who preferred the sterner sex. This difference between an act and an identity is important because it was in the 18th century that the shift occurred where sexuality became part of ones identity rather than an act performed.

The late 17th century saw a rise in not just journal entries on the subject, but other mediums, such as entire plays devoted to homosexuality, newspaper articles on the raids of male brothels, sculptures and drawings showing same-sex affection, letters between lovers or letters referencing gentlemen pubs, and more.

It is in using these words that we differentiate what was legal from what was not legal, and what was accepted and what was not accepted.