Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality in The

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Free Comrades: Anarchism and Homosexuality in The FREE COMRADES ANARCHISM AND HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 1895 -1917 FREE COMRADES ANARCHISM AND HOMOSEXUAlITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 1895 -1917 Terence Kissack Free Comrades:AHarchism and Homosexuality in the United States, 1895-1917 © 2008 Terence Kissack This edition © 2008 AK Press (Oakland, Edinburgh, West Virginia) ISBN-13 9781904859116 Library of Congress Control Number: 20()693352H AK Press AK Press 674-A 23rd Street PO Box 12766 Oakland, CA 94612 Edinburgh EH8 'lYE USA Scotland wwwakpress.org www.akuk.com [email protected] [email protected] The above addresses would be delighted to provide you with the latest AK Press distribution catalog, which features the several thousand books, pamphlets, zines, audio and video products, and stylish apparel published and/or distributed by AK Press. Alternatively, visit our web site for the complete catalog, latest news. and secure ordering. PIillted in Canada on acid tree, recycled paper with union labor. Cover by Chris Wright (www.seldomwright.com) Interior design and layout by ZB CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Anarchism and the Politics of Homosexuality Chapter One: "The Right to Complete Liberty of Action": Anarchism, Sexuality, and American Culture 13 Chapter Two: The Wilde Ones: Oscar Wilde and Anarchist Sexual Politics 43 Chapter Three: Free Comrades: Whitman and the Shifting Grounds of the Politics of Homosexuality 69 Chapter Four: "Love's Dungeon Flower": Prison and the Politics of Homosexuality 97 Chapter Five: '''Urnings,' 'Lesbians,' and other strange topics": Sexology and the Politics of Homosexuality 127 Chapter Six: Anarchist Sexual Politics in the Post-World War I Period 153 Conclusion: Anarchism, Stonewall, and the Transformation of the Politics of Homosexuality 181 Notes 189 Bibliography 214 Index 230 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book began as my dissertation in United States History which I com­ pleted at the City University of New Yo rk in 2004. The fr iends I made at CUNY-most especially Erica Ball, David D. Doyle Jr., Megan Elias, Cindy Lobel, Kathy Feeley, Marcia Gallo, Kerri Jackson, Delia Mellis, Jason To ugaw, and Peter Vellon-were enormously helpful to me and were by fa r my best teachers. At CUNY I had the privilege of working with Martin Duberman, who served as chair of my dissertation committee. Marty's knowledge of the history of radicalism and sexuality in the United States proved to be an invaluable re­ source. I am equally indebted to the other members of my committee. I spent some of my best days as a student in seminars run by David Nasaw and Thom­ as Kessner. As committee members they were masters of the art of academic tough love. Thankfully, David and Tom both have a wicked sense of humor; difficult lessons were taught without too much bruising of my ego. Blanche Wiesen Cook was both a sartorial and an academic influence in my life. I was fo rtunate that Lisa Duggan agreed to serve on my committee even though she was not CUNY fa culty. I am grateful fo r her carefu� and insightful comments and fo r her quick wit. A number of fr iends, colleagues, and teachers honed my thinking and lifted my spirits. Special thanks to Paul Av rich, Carol Berkin, The Boys at Boleri­ um Books, Maljorie Bryer, Joey Cain, Phillip Cannistraro,Jack Diggins, Betty Einerman, Jeffrey Escoffier, Michael Helquist, Kevin Jenkins, Hubert Kennedy, Brigitte Koenig, Jon Kaufmann, Gerard Koskovich, Regina Kunzel, Barbara Loomis, Molly McGarry, Martin Meeker, Kevin Murphy, James Osborne, D. Sachs, Susan Stryker, Randolph Trumbach, Nancy Unger, Jim Van Buskirk, and Willie Wa lker. lowe an enormous debt to my editor Zach Blue and to Barry Pateman, whose dedication to the exploration of anarchist history and willing­ ness to give his time and insights is truly remarkable. A number of institutions and organizations assisted me during my ·research. CUNY's History Department, the CUNY Graduate Center, and the Colonial Dames of New Yo rk all awarded me much needed financial support during my days as a student. The archivists and staffat the New Yo rk Public Library, the Tamiment Archives at New Yo rk University, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Emma Goldman Papers Project of U. C. Berkeley, the Hatcher Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor which houses the Jo�eph Labadie Collection, and the volunteers and staffof the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgen­ der Historical Society were all very generous with their time and assistance. I am enormously thankful for the love and support of my parents, Alfred Kissack and Micheline Maccario, who never wavered in their enthusiasm for my work. Sadly, my mother passed away in late 2007. I dedicate this book to her. My brothers,Alec, Lyle, and Bruno; their respective partners, Laura, Clem­ mie, and Maureen; and my niece and nephews, Allie, Mitch, Diego, Ramsey, and Tyson deserve my thanks for putting me up and putting up with me during research trips. Finally, I want to thank my partner Mark Coleman. Mark was not in my life when this book was in its infancy, but I would not have finished it without his love and support. INTRODUCTION: ANARCHISM AND THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE LATE-NINETEENTH AND early-twentieth centuries, activists living in the urban, industrial We st began to articulate a politics of homosexuality. Though various early-nineteenth century political thinkers, like Jeremy Ben- � tham and Charles Fourier, touched on the question of homosexuality and its .J5 :::; >­ place in the social order, same-sex love enjoyed increased attention in the late- '" � nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries due to a quantitative and qualitative .c; '" shift in the political and sexual cultures of the We st. 1 This development is best documented in Northern Europe, especially Germany and England. In these countries, intellectuals and reformers including Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Edith Ellis, Anna Ruling, Edward Carpenter, Helene Stocker, and John Addington 1::� g Symonds published and circulated defenses of same-sex love. In 1897, the '" g' German sexologist and sex radical, Magnus Hirschfeld formed the Scientific- E Humanitarian Committee (SHC), the world's first homosexual rights organiza­ tion. The SHC published a journal, sponsored lectures, did outreach to media, clergy, and other professionals, and lobbied for legal reforms. The members of the SHC and other contemporary activists were radical intellectuals, producing new forms of knowledge and political ideas. They created new understandings of homosexuality, forged new political terms and goals, and articulated sharp ;;; critiques of oppressive social norms and values. These activists constructed new :> o U 2 FREE COMRADES forms of political and social consciousness that shaped the lives of millions of people.2 Historians have not documented a similar movement in the United States during this per�od. This is not to say that Americans in the late-nineteenth and early -twentieth centuries were silent on the moral, social, and cultural mean­ ings of same-sex love. As in the rest of the developed world, America witnessed a dramatic increase in the level of interest in homosexuality. Sexual behavior and identity were the subjects of a number of discussions and investigations based in law, psy chiatry, journalism, and literature.' Few Americans, however, produced political defenses of same-sex love similar to those being penned by European sex radicals. The only pre-World War I era American work comparable to those being produced in Europe at the time is Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson's The Intersexes: A History of Simisexualism As a Problem in Social Life. The Intersexes engages with the texts of other reformers and seeks to add new perspectives and information to the unfolding debate about the place of same-sex love in Western culture. But Prime-Stevenson published his book only after moving to Italy. There were 125 copies ofPrime-Stevenson's work printed in 1908 by a smail, private English-language press in Rome. There is very little evidence that Prime-Stevenson's work had much impact in the country of his birth." In this period, there were no political groups organized along the lines of the SHC in the United States. There is mention of one smail group, but the veracity of the account describing its existence is questionable. In an autobio­ graphical narrative published in 1922, Earl Lind claimed to have been a member of a New York group called the Cercle Hermaphroditos that formed "to unite for defense against the world's bitter persecution of bisexuals."s By "bisexual" Lind meant men, like himself, who were sexually attracted to men. Accord­ ing to Lind, members of this group, which "numbered about a score," met at "Paresis Hall," a resort located in New York City's Bowery and well-known as a hang out for "fairies," or effeminate homosexuals.6 Though members of the group shared their experiences of job discrimination and their risk of random street violence, they did not take any action beyond coming together for mu­ tual support. At best, then, the group-assuming it existed-was, in the words of George Chauncey, a "loosely constituted club" offering support and recre­ ational opportunity to its members.7 The Cercle Hermaphroditos published no pamphlets, journals, or books; sponsored no lectures; and left no evidence of any activity outside of Paresis Hall. In fact, other than Lind's account, there is no evidence that the organization actually existed, and as historian Jonathan Ned Katz notes, "it is difficult to know exactly where Earl Lind's accounts pass ANARCHISM AND THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY 3 from fact to fiction."The story of the Cercle Hermaphroditos, Katz writes, may well be "apocryphal."R Of course, there were individuals who carved out a place for themselves by claiming social space within cities, and refusing to conform to normative gen­ der and sexual codes.
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