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The First Greens of Homo History

Homintern
Forfatter: Gregory Woods
Forlag: Yale University Press (USA)
At a time when the gay lobby has become an everyday concept, Homintern is a welcome analysis of the fear potential of homosexuality.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Just over a year ago, the 12. June 2016, an 29 year old man attacked the Pulse gay club in Orlando. 49 people were killed. The attack shook an entire world.

Homophobic attitudes live best in our society. Fortunately, the opposition has become more and more organized. But homosexuality is still criminalized in 76 countries. Eight of these punish homosexual practices with death. In Russia, "gay propaganda" is prohibited.

The fear of gays has its history. Gay and Lesbian Studies professor at Nottingham Trent University Gregory Woods, who has been writing about gay culture and gay history ever since the 80 century, takes in his latest book Homintern for himself, well-established conspiracy theories like gays have a hidden agenda to take over the world, and he examines networks of gay writers, artists and intellectuals who transformed the 20. the culture of the century.

"Community Threat." What is it about the culture of homosexuals that makes both the authorities and other authorities have regarded it as a social threat? Just as communists and Jews have been accused of developing networks underground and across borders, gays have been accused of upgrading to a kind of underground pink revolution. The theory is, of course, ridiculous, says Gregory Woods. IN Homintern he outlines in detail how the fear of the gays has been fueled from the Nazis ravaged in 30s Berlin, until Christian evangelists came on the scene when the AIDS epidemic was at its most dramatic in the 80s.

Woods, however, is not only studying the persecution of gays; also gay people like Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag and James Baldwin – their lives and works – and why gay networks arise are under scrutiny.

In 1966, Times Magazine complained that "deviations in fields such as theater, dance and music are so widespread that one would think they were running their own secret lodge".

At the same time as the book goes in to take a peek at the prejudice of one gay mafia, it also makes a point of the huge influence gay art and literature have had on Western culture. Woods takes the reader on a guided tour of "gay art" in the 20th century, focusing mainly on literature in Western Europe and the United States. Through 400 pages, which look at cultural expressions from Harlem in the 1910s, via 20s Paris and 30s Berlin to 50s New York, the book provides a portrayal of the last century's gay culture and the women and men who both redefined themselves and changed the story. Mention is made among others André Gide, Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev, Vatslav Nijinsky, Gertrude Stein and Thomas Mann – and the list could continue. Woods presents a long parade of well-known and lesser-known characters in the gay landscape, divided into geographical regions and supported by literary references and anecdotes.

homintern. The book's title is a pun. From the late 10s to a little into the 40s, the Comintern organization – "The Communist International" – a Lenin-initiated association of communist and left-wing socialist parties around the world – existed which was dedicated to spreading communist propaganda to people in all countries. In the West, the organization was considered a threat, and the topic was constantly in the news. Some homosexuals in Oxford then came up with the joke that they themselves represented "Homintern". The idea behind it was that gays could also build alliances across both borders and class divisions, and create a kind of alternative existence for people who were forced to live their lives in secret and in difficult conditions.

There is hardly any genetics behind homosexuals' perceptions of aesthetics; at the same time we clearly see that this is a pattern, in fact, all over the world.  

The fact that homosexuality actually exists became more and more known only at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly through researchers and sexologists, who were the first to name this identity. At the same time, scandals like Oscar Wilde's trial came into the spotlight. In 1966, Times Magazine complained that "deviations in fields such as theater, dance and music are so widespread that one would think they were running their own secret lodge". This helped create panic in people, who imagined that there were a number of creepy gays with dishonest intentions hiding in bushes and behind shells.

Find their place. The idea of ​​gays as a homogeneous group seems foolish; At the same time, Woods emphasizes that has has been a trend throughout history that gays are drawn to specific cultural arenas such as fashion, theater and literature. The author believes there is hardly any genetics behind the homosexuals' perception of aesthetics; at the same time we clearly see that this is a pattern, in fact, all over the world. One answer might be that "feminine" men and "masculine" women – people who do not quite fit into the usual gender categories – have to recreate themselves and the world around them to find their place. One way to do this is to create their own taste preferences.

Woods mentions how American writers such as Ginsberg, Stein and Baldwin were drawn to Paris in the early 1900s. Stein called them "the lost generation" of writers and artists, those who created the Paris trend, especially towards the stock market crash of 1929. Partly due to the French exile economy, since European currency was much cheaper than the dollar at the time. But the French capital, after Napoleon, was also far more liberal than the more Puritan America. Woods adds that even in today's United States, where many natives have never had their own passports, you can be sure that gays and lesbians have; If you grow up with the feeling of not fitting into the community that surrounds you, it may not be so strange that you start looking around for something else.

We are fighting for a society where the need for gay movement does not exist.

Fear and freshness. Woods argues that some of the government's as well as people's fears revolved around the gays' internal references and codes. For example, should a spy be taken and at the same time prove to be of gay orientation, this was often interpreted as confirmation of a gay conspiracy. The suspicion was found on both sides of the old iron curtain. Today, this seems to be sought, the author points out: Gays vote both red and blue, and there is no formally organized network of gays that intends to counter the interests of the heterosexual majority. On the other hand, Woods thinks it's interesting – from a cultural perspective – to look at groups that form alliances across barriers and exert some cultural influence, because it brings something new and different to the world.

Not only do gays have a bearing on art – let this be clear, emphasizes Woods: Heteros have a pretty good overview, they too. So what is this new thing that is shaping modern Western culture? The difference may be in the special approach of gays – another approach if you will – which they have had to embrace in a hostile society. One example he mentions is the paradoxes of Oscar Wilde, who turn down established gender roles and allow, among other things, male women and female men. This in turn creates a new and fresh aesthetic in fashion, film, theater and dance – eventually also in pop-
the learning culture.

Today. Historically, gay community has come as a virtue of necessity, Woods argues. How, then, could the decriminalization of homosexuality and a more inclusive attitude towards gays have changed the need for transnational networks?

As we put it in the gay liberation movement of the 60s: We are fighting for a society where the need for gay movement does not exist. Ideally, there should be no discrimination in the world, nor any distinction between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Unfortunately, this is far from the case today – we still have a long way to go. On the other hand, we see that much of the creative urge and creativity found in the gay communities around the world is precisely rooted in the prevailing circumstances.

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