Stonewall Riots In Walt Whitman's Another Country

When it comes to history through the lense of the gay man, the written word is invented and the common era begins simultaneously on June 28, 1969 during the Stonewall Riots. Prior to that there is little recorded evidence that gay people existed at all. One cannot dismiss the handful of examples, Walt Whitman comes to mind along with the author of Another Country, James Baldwin. There’s The Society for Human Rights, the first recognised LGBT rights organization in America, which existed for a short time in 1924, followed by the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, and the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian civil rights organization, formed in 1955. Though lesbians and gay men were arguably two separate, though aligned, groups before the AIDS crisis,

That things are bad and the continue to progressively get better throughout the years. This is an idea built on hope and misinformation. Contrary to popular belief there was in fact a blooming gay community, mainly in New York City, in the earlier half of the 20th century. Ball culture emerged, lesbian verse became a vibrant literary genre, gay men and women could exist and speak and be as loud as they wanted in Harlem cabrets and Village speakeasies. Bohemia was a queer world of its own. Gay people lived among themselves, spoke among themselves, developed their own music, dance, legend, and art. In 1929, European gay and transgender individuals had amassed a large movement, pushing for the repeal of anti gay laws and the advancements of the gay community. This early gay world was almost completely erased by an anti-gay pushback in the late 30s and 40s. Referred to in the US as the Lavender Scare, gay and lesbian individuals were pushed out of jobs and forced into secrecy. In 1937 the Nazis burned unknown quantities of queer writing leaving many of the records of this world forgotten. By the time Baldwin reached adolescence a vibrant history would be

On January 1st of 1962, the year Another Country was published, Illinois became the first state to repeal its anti-sodomy laws. Illinois remained the alone in this until 1971. During the time Baldwin was writing, being gay did not just have a thick social stigma around it; it was very much illegal. These two things cannot be fully separated, the social stigma feeds off the criminal nature of homosexuality and the laws enforcing homosexuality’s illegality are supported by the social stigma. This was especially true in America. In Another Country, Baldwin writes about Eric, a gay actor who, like Baldwin and many of his contemporaries—Josephine Baker and Allen Ginsberg among them—moved to France for a plethora of reasons, especially to escape the harshness of American homophobia. While in America, the homosexual men of the novel are nestled deeply in secrecy. Rufus’s relationship with Eric is never discussed by any characters, except when Vivaldo confesses his feelings for Rufus to Eric himself. Young Eric’s sexuality is only discussed through implications and narration. It is worth pointing out that the first time Baldwin, a gay man himself, can explicitly discuss homosexuality at all is while Eric is in