They, along with countless others, sustained a vibrant gay subculture that revolved around bars and friendship networks. Vining remained in New York City rather than return to his small hometown in New Jersey. Pat Bond, a woman from Iowa who first met other lesbians while in the military, decided to stay in San Francisco after her discharge. Large numbers of the young left families, small towns, and closely knit ethnic neighborhoods to enter a sex-segregated military or to migrate to larger cities for wartime employment.Īfter the war, many of them made choices designed to support their gay identities. World War II served as a critical divide in the social history of homosexuality. By 1915, one participant in this new gay world was referring to it as ?a community distinctly organized.? For the most part hidden from view because of social hostility, an urban gay subculture had come into existence by the 1920s and 1930s. Late in the century, as large cities allowed for greater anonymity, as wage labor apart from family became common, and as more women were drawn out of the home, evidence of a new pattern of homosexual expression surfaced.Īt first, these individuals developed ways of meeting one another and institutions to foster a sense of identity. Copyright 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Source: Excerpted from The Reader's Companion to American History.
