history 5 Final stretch of this project now leading to the point where the regular Delftboys content takes over. we're now getting up to steam, while the period is half as long, content is more than twice the previous era With the turn of the century homosexuals and the main art circles fell out of love with each-other again. The threat of war was descending all over Europe art circles in consequence became family oriented as never before, even without clergy to urge them on . . . cannon fodder had to be produced and since the new century also heralded the age of photography we start off with these 2 main themes:

with photography, having images of your favorite men around to keep your dreams alive becomes widely available. Even hollywood grabs a piece of that pie, be it officially directed to women So much different from the first film with true homosexual content: "Anders als die Anderen". Click on the image for details about it's content

starting from Berlin, unrivalled world gay capital in this era, we also get our own magazines, first filled with, aestetic art images,
but gradually pix of fully naked men (arty pix, mind you) slip in. A preference for the well-hung type, not depicted since roman days, slips in immediately.
Do not be fooled into thinking there is very little about Germany here: as a matter of fact, there was such an immense amount of material from there, and so many twists and turns in the events that determined europe's culture that it made a special section indispensable. My research has been going on for 3 years now, but a draught version of the German section finally goes online july 2005.

pre-fifties real porn images showing hard dicks, fucking, sucking, rimming even, were there but kept pretty safe, so pretty hard to find now

those who could afford the luxury of staying out of war efforts managed to get an art elite afloat that was more elitist than ever before. Hardly anybody who was not in the inner circles understood it, the main thing was that figurative art was the 'not done' thing for quite a while. And it had to get much worse (WWII) before it got better again. It started with Cézanne (right), but got worse through the following decades: as photography and then film conquered Europe the first reaction was to forget about realistic artwork. Impressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, followed each other, getting far away from naturalism, making room for a lot of charlatans. Not all artist from the period can be thrown on the rubbish dump, most started out as figurative artists, but even so there's no way to fit 'm within my erotic catagories.

So We're back were we started in the days of church suppression and have to go deep down below the official paths again (isn't that where we belong, feel most at home anyway?) to find the real subversives: The problem with homo's was and still is 'self-loathing': We all go through that between puberty and the final coming-out, mostly not finished before the age of around 40. Between those ages we want to be as normal as can be and be liked and loved and accepted. In present day culure waves of subversive confrontation are still interchanged with reactions of normalcy and retreat. we now get to a few artists that after lengthy conflicts with themselves andf their environment managed to throw of the morality restraints and explore where their true feelings lead them:

Thomas Eakins teached at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1876 and was attacked for his radical idea of insistence on working from nude models. In '86 he was forced to resign after allowing a mixed class to draw a nude male model. Eakins's quest for realism led him to study anatomy and make full use of Muybridge's photographic researches. Financial support from his father allowed Eakins to continue on his chosen course despite public abuse, but his later career was spent working in bitter isolation.

Arguably he should be on the page of the 19th century, but he only got a slight bit of recognition well in the 20th century. (an artificial division anyway). And If you feel the rowing theme is strongly present on these pages: Yes I did row in my student years.

Another guy who started out as an impresionist in Paris but later took some distance from them, moved to England and returned to a more naturalist style is John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

Those 'Late Victorian' and later 'Edwardian' times were full of Sex Secrets, and Sargent lived in England in the closest contact with the Aristocracy or Art and Money. Some people piece together the private, closeted lives that they all supposedly shared ... He was a close friend of writer Henry James, and some people may draw deductions ... But the private lives of people are not filmed so everything is speculation based on letters, hearsay and wild literature deductions.
Those 'dangerous' pictures that threatened the reputation of the painter were kept many years by his sister, hidden from the public. Henry Scott Tuke (below) stayed in the figurative school and gradually overcame his shyness to portray naturally beautiful waterboys:
just one of his true masterpieces sneeked from the masterclass-pages is here, enjoy!
Much more of Tuke and others is online for you in 107 galleries of the vast masterclass collection,
which does not stop at 1950 but focusses on male erotic art of the past 6 decennia.

Put a natural simple strong Russian man on stage and admire him for his beauty, strength and grace of movement, now that was not done since the Romans. Homo erotisism oozes out of every pore. No wonder all the world, Cocteau included got the hots for this guy. Pity he was managed by the monstrous Diagilev, who exploited the poor Russian countryboy so far he went completely insane. If only he wouldnt have been as straight as a fiddle.

this sketch by Cocteau shows a keen observation of the relationship between Diaghilev and Nijinsky (or more jealousy, from Diaghivev and possibly from Cocteau too?)

exerpt from Nijinski's diary: One day in the streets of Paris I pushed Diaghelev in order to show him that I was not afraid of him. Diaghelev hit me with his stick, as I wanted to go away from him. After this we lived for a long time together. I loved the Ballets Russes. I gave my whole heart to it. I worked like an ox. I lived like a martyr. I lived sadly and sorrowed alone. I wept alone. I loved my mother and wrote her letters every day. I was afraid of life, because I was very young. I could not go on composing the ballet "Jeux." It was a ballet about flirting and unsuccessful, as I had not feeling for it. The story of this ballet is about three young men making love to each other. I began to understand life when I was 22 years old. I composed this ballet alone, too. Debussy, the well-known composer, wanted the subject to be written down. Diaghelev likes to say that he created the ballet, because he likes to be praised. I do not mind if Diaghelev says that he composed the stories of "Faune" and "Jeux," because when I created them, I was under the influence of ‘my life’ with Diaghelev. The Faune is me and Jeux is the life which Diaghelev dreamed. Diaghelev wanted to make love to two boys at the same time and wanted these boys to make love to him. In the ballet, the two girls represent the two boys, and the young man is Diaghelev. I changed the characters, as love between three men could not be represented on the stage

Apres-midi d'un Faun was a masterpiece and triumph, but after that diaghylev had him hop across stage in the most ridiculous effiminate costumes. It could only go wrong, so sad, comparable to Joey deStefano's tragic pornstar carreer and movies like Boogynights and Velvet Goldmine

You ask why all this attention for this guy? Only because I come from a dance background and I've never been able to grasp what was the spell this guy had over his audience. Reading only did not get me any wiser, laaking at all these photo's , posters, drawings I think I finally get an idea. About the statue: there is only a ceramic version. Again Diaghilev got impatient (or jealous) and found the modeling took too much time and pulled Nijinsky off the project. the suitpic is tfrom the same session as the one above but he looks so much better. the nude is by Arristide Maillol.

spanish author Gabriel Morcillo Raya was one of the first to delve deeply in arab male culture
(although; look again closely at one image on the 19th century page)
Just like on the image above, there are still holes in this chronology that need to be filled. If you know of material that should be here, do mail me.

Also Scandinavia deserves attention in our history. Starting with Eugène Jansson. In his first period he painted nightscapes and dawns around Stockholm. Prone to depression, he charted a strange career, haunted by night, desire and death. That is untill he came out to being homosexual. A friend art critic reviewed the radical artist and describes how Jansson had explained to him how his innermost wish since youth had been to be able to paint the male nude, but it was only since his economic position had improved that he had been able to fulfill this desire.

Financially strengthened, Eugène began enlisting volunteer models from the Swedish Navy's cold-water bathhouse on the island of Skeppsholmen, Stockholm. From 1906 he also worked nearby in a provisional studio at Skeppsholmen, painting nude or semi-nude young men performing aerobics, training with weights. Contemporary reviewers wrote: Jansson's new subject matter reveals the new vitalist philosophy: A German-Scandinavian movement incorporating Nietzsche's philosophy and the biological theories of Hans Driesch and Ernst Haeckel.

When one takes so many liberties even in Scandinavia we did not need to wait long before homophobic repercussionsions kicked in. And then of the worst kind: from within the organised artworkers community. He was kicked out. This in turn angered some of the most respected scandinavian artists so much that in solidarity they also began to paint male nudes. J.A.G. Acke (1859-1924 below), a great admirer led the support campaign. But also Edvard Munch (right, known from the world famous "scream") took part.

Embraced by the Swedish artist colleague J.A.G. Acke (1859-1924) who became instrumental in introducing `Open-air Vitalism' to Swedish art in 1904, Eugene Jansson was encouraged to explore the theme of human perfectibility in relation to nature.

It became a link between nineteenth century Symbolism and twentieth century Modernism. The critic Axel Gauffin emphasised that Jansson's figure paintings ought not to be conceived as portrayals of reality: We should not expect of these nudes, he insisted, an academic study with a traditional treatment of the skin, any more than we should of the impalpable, attractive colour play of the expressionists. What Jansson is seeking is the opposite, he is seeking nerves and muscles under the surface of a living ecorche.

Unknown outside Sweden, Jansson was a singular artist, bold and innovative. He died in 1915. And sorry for quoting so much artyfarty mumbojumbo here. Thought here, for once it's good to give an insight as to how things went in 'enlightened' circles.

Let's return to the streets of Paris. In fact this could be any of the metropoles of Europe. During the years between the wars, many ways were sought and found to exchange thoughts and fantasies about homo erotic feelings.

repressive police and local authorities kept bars and clubs from catering to the homosexual clientele who were still forced to find likeminded company in the open air. Even women got involved, just like in the break of Boystowngang's "cruising the streets"

unfortunately, this fun could not last . . . You felt it looming over us on these pages,

a porn industry starts to emerge: cheap prints, hand coloured and sold through the emerging adult bookstores. Historic themes were popular as argument that gay sex was of all times

just as everybody did who lived in the period:
The times of dreaming and partying came to an end: We have to dedicate attention now to Nazi Germany:

whatever you think about the message, the ministry of information itself was a masterpiece, run by talented dedicated strategists and posterdesign artists

Only one set of pix here hints at the pretty significant volume of male body glorifying work that Nazi-Germany left us. That is not because we should shy away from this subject, but because the volume and importance justify a special gallery.
It has been dedicated purely to developments in central Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and how it came to be that within two decennia central europe changed from being the most tolerant society to the most repressive.

Cocteau, hero of mine with a page of his own in the masterclass did lead a double life. Being highly respected in theater, music and dance circles, he could not get off on the idea of impresionistic, cubistic, square-peg kind of dicks, so he started private fantasy works. All of the images he's famous for now were only shown to friends and kept safely in his 'Livre Blanc'. Most were not published till after his death. An heroic man who could not care less about what people thought of him, and thus ended up in jail lots of time, must be recorded here as the first person to produce a homo porn film, "chant d'amour' and numerous books, of which Querelle made it into the landmark movie by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in which the lead, played by the gorgeous Brad Davies, drawn on the image to the right here, got fucked in the ass, and subsequently was one of the earlier aids victims, so we can assume what we saw on screen was not acting, but the real thing. The BFI film cover below links to the full uncensored film:

Over in the US many artists kept their sexual preferences to themselves, even if it was 'only just' as in the case of Leyendecker. In the always more tolerant New York City 3 artists got together and crossed that line.

Chant review: Jean Genet’s only film has been banned, censored and blacklisted ever since its 1949 release, and no wonder. It’s pornographically explicit, featuring full frontal hard ons, masturbation, and fetishised close ups of sweaty feet, armpits and thighs. Though no sex takes place, the erotic factor of Un Chant D’Amour is off the scale, and makes for a confronting viewing experience that feels like watching porn. As well, as a twenty-five minute black and white avant garde short, it’s everything but commercial. Un Chant D’Amour is as its title suggests, also lushly romantic, an avant-garde tribute to burning desire and unreachable ecstasy. Genet captures thought, feeling and sense with abstract images which never boggle or ooze intellect. Kenneth Anger (b. 1930) 's work is characterised by a pervasive atmosphere of violence, the occult and gay sexuality. The poetic imagery and visual force of his films were influential on both the American and international avant-garde movements and mainstream directors such as Scorsese, Lynch and Fassbinder. Like his directorial debut, Fireworks, Scorpio Rising, Eaux D'Artifice or any of his other films, Anger himself, in-the-flesh, is a definite must-see. he also wrote the book Hollywood Babylon, getting even with Hollywood hypocrits, revealing scandals and controversies among the rich and famous.

Just as with jean Cocteau, Pavel Tchelitchev has a very elemetary style of drawing when it comes to his erotic work. We do not see it back in his official oevre of which a sample is below. Isn't it also pretty remarkable that image below looks like a modern day skinhead with a nice jacket. Well, its 60 years old.

If anybody can help me along with this project, in getting details corrected or adding significant bits that are missing thusfar, anybody ? mail me. maybe a few links are useful at this point, as to the things I've looked around already meaning: don't send me anything you found there, coz I already looked through: artchive, netmuseum, schwules museum Berlin, metropolitan museum NYC, ibiblio webmuseum, British muserum, tate, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, artcyclopedia, hermitage St Petersburg, gaylesbianbitransqueerartencyclopedia, JohnSingerSargent.org and Amazon.com. these sites are listed here and not in the general linkspage of delftboys as they do not primarily focus on erotic art. They serve up lots of resources and hundreds of hours of studymaterial. now for the printed material used: Lamour Blue, Cecile Beurdelay '94 Benedict Taschen Verlag Gmbh Köln; Who's the pretty boy then, James Gardiner '87 Serpent's tail London; Secret Knowledge, David Hockney, '01 Thames and Hudson, London; Velazques Every Painting, Nicola Spinoza '80 Rizzoli New York; Oscar Wilde, Martin Fido, '88 Cathay Books London; L'Homme et la Danse JP Pastori, '80 Office du Livre Fribourg; A hidden Love, by Dominique Fernandez, 2002 Prestel Verlag Muenchen London NYC

go on

to subscribe, the greeks (where we started our historytour), the lobby, masterclass overview or links

1901 France	Oscar Wilde dies in an obscure Paris hotel. Alfred Douglas is by his side.
1902 Germany	The Community of the Special is founded by Benedict Freidlander as a more cultured approach to the homosexual struggle. Its publication Der Eigene (The Special) is concerned with art and masculine culture.
1903 Germany	The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee issues a pamphlet for mass circulation entitled What the People Should Know About the Third Sex.
1905 Germany	Parliamentary debate to repeal paragraph 175 led by the Social Democrats in the Reichstag.
1906 Sweden	Paul Burger Diether, the contact person for the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, in Stockholm, announces a lecture on homosexuality, which is suppressed by the authorities.
1906 Austria	A branch of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is established in Vienna, by engineer Joseph Nicoladoni, and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel.
1907 Sweden	A homosexual scandal involves industrialist and designer, Nils Santesson.
1907 Germany	Six military officers commit suicide after being blackmailed. In the previous three years some 20 military officers are court martialed for homosexual offenses, including Lt General Wilhelm Count von Hohenau, a relative of the Kaiser.
1907 Germany	Freidrich Heinrich, the Prince of Prussia declines his investiture as Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St John, explaining that his homosexual orientation made him unsuitable for the post.
1907 Germany	The Moltke-Eulenberg scandal begins to unfold. Prince Eulenberg's circle included Gen. Count Kuno Moltke, Count Johannes Lynar, Count Fritz, Wilhelm Hohenau, Freidrich Krupp.
1907 Germany	On April 27, the journalist Maximilian Harden publicly reveals Eulenberg's homosexuality, and suggests he have the decency to follow the example of Prince Freidrich Heinrich and go into exile.
1907 Germany	May 2. The Kaiser is made aware of the growing scandal and is given a list of 15 suspected homosexuals among his acquaintances. The Kaiser demands that Hohenau, Lynar and Moltke resign their commissions, and that Eulenberg either clear himself or go into exile.
1907 Germany	July. The district attorney of his home district clears Eulenberg of violating Paragraph 175 of the penal code.
1907 Germany	More than 2,000 people attend a debate on Paragraph 175 in Berlin addressed by Dr Hirschfeld.
1907 Germany	August Bebel, the leader of the German Social Democrats speaks for the second time in the Reichstag for the repeal of Paragraph 175.
1907 Germany	October, 29. The opening of a libel suit by Moltke against Harden. The trial confirms Moltke's homosexuality, and Harden is acquitted of libel.
1907 Germany	November 6. Beginning of the libel trial of Chancellor Bulow against Adolph Brand. Ignoring police evidence that Bulow is being blackmailed, in a political cover-up, the court sentences Brand to 18 months in prison.
1908 Germany	January 4. The Moltke - Harden re-trial opens December 18, 1907. A political cover-up Moltke is cleared, while Harden is sentenced to 4 months in prison.
1908 Germany	April 21. A phony libel trial set up with a friendly publisher allows Harding to prove in court that Eulenberg has had homosexual affairs, and perjured himself in previous trials when he denied the fact. Public opinion leads to charges being brought against Eulenberg on May 7.
1908 Germany	June 29. Trial of Prince Eulenberg begins. Eulenberg feigned ill health, and the trial is postponed for almost a year.
1908 Germany	During Kaiser Wilhelm's annual hunt to the Black Forest, the chief of the Military Directorate drops dead of a heart attack while performing for the assembled guests in a tutu. The incident is hushed up. Soon after the Kaiser suffers a nervous breakdown.
1908 United States	The Intersexes, by Xavier Mayne (Edward Stevenson) Privately printed, it is the first American work to deal with homosexuality. In it Stevenson gives some description of the homosexual culture of his time. Homosexual resorts in New York city, and elsewhere were masked as "a literary club, athletic societies, dramatic societies or a chess club", steambaths and resturants are plentifully known to the initiated". The homosexual capitals of the U.S., are New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, St Louis, San Francisco, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Philadelphia.
1908 U.S.	Lawyer Fiskher-Hansen is tried in New York for attempting to blackmail Philadelphia decorator Joseph E. O'Brien for $15,000. The lawyer is later acquitted.
1909 Germany	The trial of Prince Eulenberg is resumed on July 7, after a delay of almost a year. When Eulenberg faints during the first hour of the proceedings, the court grants Eulenberg a conditional postponement until he is well enough to stand trial. The trial is never re-convened.
1911 Netherlands	Dominated by a Christian Democratic majority, the Dutch Parliament passes a Morals Statute, to the Dutch Criminal Code. Article 248b sets the age of consent for heterosexuals at 16, while that for homosexual relations is 21. The first homosexual rights organization is founded that same year, as the Dutch branch of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, by the jurist Jacob Schorer. Throughout its existence the organization meets with fierce opposition from both Catholic and Protestant groups. It is dissolved in 1940, when Schorer destroyed the membership lists just prior to the German invasion and occupation. Schorer's library is destroyed by the Nazis.
1911 U.S.	Chicago Vice Commission issues "the Social Evil in Chicago". Dealing mostly with heterosexual prostitution, the report also describes a largely effeminate segment of Chicago homosexual life.
1914 England	Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter found the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology. The Society emphasizes an educational approach, and has a special homosexual subcommittee.
1914 U.S.	In his Moral Conditions of Seamen, Dr McMurtrie reports that "In a recent conversation with a gentleman conversant with all phases of the seaman's life, I was told that homosexual practices among sailors had decreased in recent years to a notable extent. This he considered to be due to several causes, the most important being the passing of long voyages...another reason...was the rise of public sentiment condemning it among the men."
1914 Austria	A branch of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is established in Vienna.
1915 U.S.	The Anarchist Emma Goldman lectures on homosexuality during her speaking tour of the U.S.
1916 Ireland	Roger Casement, the Irish patriot is executed in l916. During his trial Casement is abandoned by many of his supporters, when the authorities reveal detailed diaries Casement kept of his frequent encounters with young men.
1916 Sweden	Mauritz Stiller, and Axel Esbensen produce the first Swedish film with a gay theme, Vingarne ("The Wings").
1917 U.S.	The Immigration Act of 1917 excludes from immigration into the U.S. of "persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority". This wording is construed to include homosexuals.
1917 USSR	The Bolshevik government removes all Tzarist laws, including those regulating sexual behavior. A period of sexual freedom and experimentation follows immediately after the revolution.
1918 US	"Recently, in San Francisco, a 'vice club' was raided. The gruesome revelations pertaining to this club of homosexualists invited the attention of the military authorities, who saw the corruption that must necessarily ensue among the soldiery if it were not summarily suppressed."
1918 Germany	Dr. Hirschfeld speaks to a mass rally in front of the Reichstag in support of the German Revolution then taking place.
1919 US	April. Twenty sailors are arrested for homosexual activities at the Newport Rhode Island Naval Training Station.
1919 US	July. Sixteen civilians are arrested on homosexual charges in connection with investigations instituted by the Newport Naval Training Station.
1919 Germany	The Institute for Sexual Science is founded by Dr Hirschfeld in Berlin
1919 Sweden - The first Swedish sexology book dealing with homosexuality is published by Dr. Anton Nystrom.
1920 Germany	A public lecture by Dr. Hirschfeld in Munich is physically attacked.
1920 US	When an Episcopal clergyman is accused of soliciting homosexual contacts at the Newport, Rhode Island YMCA, where he worked; protests by members of the Newport Ministerial Union, and the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island, and a campaign by the Providence Journal forced the Navy to conduct a further inquiry into the methods used in uncovering homosexual activity at the Newport Naval Training Station. The investigation is critical of the methods used, but clears the officers who ordered them of any wrong doing. The ministers then turn to the Republican controlled Senate Naval Affairs Committee, which investigates the charges. Their report "Alleged Immoral Conditions at Newport", issued in l921, condemns the conduct of naval officers, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, for the methods used to entrap homosexuals. Riverside Drive in New York is referred to as a cruising spot in the report.
1921 US	The Army issues psychiatric screening regulations excluding men with feminine physical characteristics, and "sexual perverts". These regulations remain in effect until just before World War II.
1921 Germany	Eros Theater, a gay theater is established in Berlin.
1921 Germany	Dr. Hirschfeld is attacked by a gang of anti-Semites in Munich, and is left in the street for dead.
1922 Germany	The Scientific Humanitarian Committee presents its petition to de-criminalize homosexuality to the Reichstag.
1922 Germany	German Foreign Minister Rathenau, a democrat, Jew and homosexual is assassinated by right-wing extremists.
USSR	The Soviet Criminal Code makes no distinction between heterosexual and homosexual consensual adult sexuality, nor does it regulate such sexuality.
1923 USSR	Sexual Life of Contemporary Youth, by Izrail Gel'man, published in Moscow by the People's Commissariat of Public Health states that "Science has now established, with precision that excludes all doubt, (homosexuality) is not ill will or crime, but sickness..."
1923 Austria	A meeting addressed by Dr Hirschfeld in Vienna is attacked by Nazi youth who open fire, wounding many in the audience.
1923 USSR	A pamphlet, "The Sexual Revolution in Russia", by Grigorii Batki, the director of the Moscow Institute of Social Hygiene is published. In it he states, "Concerning homosexuality...Soviet legislation treats these exactly the same as so-called "natural" intercourse. All forms of sexual intercourse are a private matter."
1923 England	The British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology prints an abridged translation of the German pamphlet What the People Should Know About the third Sex, as The Problem of Sexual Inversion.
1925 US	The State of Illinois issues a charter to the Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber, and dedicated to "promote and protect the interests" of people who, because of "mental and physical abnormalities" are hindered in the pursuit of happiness. This represents the first guarded attempt to found a homosexual rights organization in the US. Members of the group are arrested for publishing an "obscene" paper, and Gerber loses his job as a postal clerk.
1926 Germany	Albert Moll, German sexologist organizes the first Congress for Sex Research in Berlin. He did not invite Dr Hirschfeld, arguing that he confused science with propaganda, and that if he had attended, many other important people would not have.
1927 US	Controversy over The Captive, a play with a lesbian theme ends with the New York state legislature outlawing "sexual perversion" as a theme on any of the state's stages. The law remains on the books until 1967.
1928 Denmark	The World League for Sexual Reform holds its first congress in Copenhagen.
1929 England	The World League for Sexual Reform holds its second congress in London.
1929 US	Raid on the Lafayette Baths in New York City.
1929 US	The Well of Loneliness, is published in the US.
1930 USSR	The article on homosexuality, by Mark Sereisky, in the 1930 issue of The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, calls it a "sexual attraction counter to nature," and a form of mental illness. Sereisky believed homosexuality could be cured by transplanting testicles from heterosexual men into homosexuals (once the problem of tissue rejection could be worked out.) This represents a Stalinist shift from previous official soviet views of homosexuality. The earlier edition of the encyclopedia stated that "in the advanced capitalist countries the struggle for the abolition of these hypocritical (anti-sodomy) laws is at present far from over...Soviet law does not recognize 'crime' against morality..."
1930 US	A new code of standards is adopted by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, headed by Will Hays, stating that "Sex perversion or any inference of it is forbidden on the screen".
1930 Denmark	The Danish parliament reforms its sodomy laws, the first Scandinavian country to do so.
1930 Italy	In a discussion of a draft penal code , Mussolini argues that Italian men were so virile, they could not be homosexuals, and so Italy needed no law banning homosexuality, and that such a ban would frighten away degenerate foreigner tourists whose cash Italy needed. Like Napoleon III, Mussolini prefers to leave the issue outside the criminal code in order to avoid sensational trials. Bowing to German influence, persecution of Jews and homosexuals is stepped up, and after 1938 homosexuals are considered political offenders. The usual penalty was exile to remote parts of Italy.
1931 Germany	The German Communist party agrees to organization of an association under the auspices of Wilhem Reich, at that time a party member. The German Association for Proletarian Sexual Politics, or Sexpol reaches a membership of 20,000. A major plank of its program calls for the repeal of Paragraph 175
1932 Sweden	Coinciding with the campaign of the more mainstream based National Federation for Sexual Enlightenment, iron-mill worker Eric Thorsell begins a one man agitation, with newspaper articles and public lectures, against paragraph 18:10 of the penal code, criminalizing homosexuality.
1932 Poland	A uniform penal code, Kodeks karny, decriminalizes sodomy.
1933 Germany	The last of the irregular series of "Newsletters" of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee is published in February, by Kurt Hiller, who is arrested and sent to a concentration camp in July.
1933 Germany	May 7, Kristalnacht. Nazi students attack Dr Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science as the beginning of Hitler's crusade against the "Un-German Spirit".
1933 Germany	The Nazis pass a law providing for "surgical castration as a therapy and crime prevention measure." Homosexuals are the major victims of this law.
1933 USSR	Revision of the Soviet penal code outlaws consensual homosexuality, reflecting the growing Stalinist repression. Maxim Gorki writing in Pravda and Izvestia, calls it a "triumph of proletarian humanitarianism", and warned that the legalization of homosexuality had been the main cause of Fascism in Germany.
1933 USSR	Mass arrests of gays are carried out in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov and Odessa. A large number of those arrested are actors, musicians and artists. Accused of engaging in "homosexual orgies" they receive years of imprisonment or exile in Siberia.
1934 USSR	The law punishing homosexual acts with imprisonment of up to eight years, becomes a federal statute through the active intervention of Stalin, thus requiring all the republics to insert the law into their penal codes.
1934 Germany	The Night of the Long Knives. Hitler begins official persecution of homosexuals with the murder of his long time ally and head of the Storm Troops, Ernst Roehm.
1934 1935 Europe	The World League for Sexual Reform is officially dissolved. With the rise of Nazism, and the betrayal of the Stalinist left, most European sections have already ceased to function.
Germany	Paragraph 175 is expanded to include kisses, embraces and homosexual fantasies.
Austria	Sigmund Freud writes his famous "Letter to an American Mother", in which he states, "Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of." The letter is first published in 1951.
1936 US	Richard Loeb, of the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case is killed in a fight with another inmate in a Joliet prison toilet.
1936 USSR	Commissar of Justice, Nikolai Krylenko, insists there is no reason for anyone to be a homosexual after two decades of socialism, and that people persisting in these practices are obviously "remnants of the exploiting classes", and as such deserve five years at hard labor.
1936 US	Random House prints a 4 volume edition of Dr Havelock Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Previous to its publication, only doctors and lawyers could legally purchase books dealing with human sexuality.
1936 US	Manhattan Beach, California. A shouting, jeering mob of about 100 men and women severely beat William Haines, and drive about 19 of his friends out of town. The White Legion, a klan like group is involved in the attack, which is apparently provoked by rumors that a member of Haines party had molested a young boy.
1936 Netherlands	General Treasurer Ries is accused of having sex with a minor. He loses his job, and is abandoned by the government even through the charges are withdrawn.
1937 US	In the wake of a heterosexual molestation, the New York City police begin compiling a list of all known "sex degenerates", including all men charged with sex crimes during the last 15 to 20 years.
1937 Germany	Himmler issues a special order not to bother homosexual artists and actors, so long as they are not too flagrant. A special permission for an arrest is required.
1937 Czechoslovakia	Hans Rutha, a high official in the Czech Nazi party, and an editor of the party paper, and five others are arrested, in October, on suspicion of homosexual offenses. The head of the party indicated that internal opposition within the party was responsible for denouncing Rutha and the others. Soon after his arrest in November Rutha kills himself. In December, members of the Nazi youth organization also face homosexual charges, but receive suspended sentences.
1939 England	Dr. Havelock Ellis dies.
1940 US	New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey breaks up a blackmail ring that had operated for many years.
1941 US	Navy issues induction directive implicitly disqualifying homosexuals. The Army Surgeon General issues induction screening directive including homosexuality as a disqualifying category. Selective Service follows suit.
1942 US	Detroit's Club Frontenac is raided and female impersonators arrested during a raid on a private party.
1942 US	Atlantic City closes its burlesque and drag shows. The Chief of Police states, "Female impersonators as entertainers are out."
1942 US	In order to head off a feared use of homosexuality by heterosexuals trying to avoid the draft, the Selective Service issued regulations requiring those admitting their homosexuality be referred back to their local boards, a regulation that discouraged homosexuals, as well, from declaring their sexuality.
1942 US	Gustave Beekman is charged with operating a house of male prostitution near the Brooklyn Naval Yard. In an affidavit Beekman states that the house was frequented by two Germans who questioned men there about military movements and that a U.S Senator, David I Walsh, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee also frequented the house. Beekman serves 21 years in Sing Sing prison, while the FBI claims to have cleared Walsh. The New York Post calls it a whitewash.
France	The Vichy government of General Petain criminalizes homosexual acts with anyone under 21.
1942 US	San Francisco. A series of military inspired vice crack downs leads to the revocation of liquor licenses, and the placing of bars off limits. At least three gay oriented bars are included.
1943 US	Psychology for the Fighting Man, a popular paperback deals with the issue of situational homosexuality among recruits, and was tolerant of homosexuals in the military who were discrete.
1943 US	San Francisco female impersonator nightclub Finocchios is cited for liquor violations and placed off limits to enlisted personnel.
1943 US	Sumner Wells resigns as Under Secretary of State to forestall revelations of his homosexuality.
Sweden	The 1864 penal code prohibition against "fornication against nature", is interpreted to include lesbian sexuality.
1944 Sweden	Homosexuality, in private, between consenting adults is declared legal, although the age of consent is higher for homosexuals.
1944 US	Military directive establishes homosexuality as a disqualification from the Women's Army Corps (WACS), thus clearing the way for a purge of lesbians at the wars end.
1944 US	Purge of lesbians at Fort Oglethorpe, George, WAC Training center.
1944 US	War Department Circular requires the discharge of homosexuals either apprehended or reported, those seeking advice or treatment from medical officers are excluded from the regulations.
1944 US	Section VIII, Psychopathic Personality is added as a category for discharge from the military. A catch-all phrase that included homosexuality, as well as other traits the military considered unsuitable. Those receiving Section VII, or Blue Discharges, are excluded from all military benefits, which became a post-war grievance for many gay GIs.
1944 US	San Francisco Poet, Robert Duncan publishes a defense of homosexuality, "The Homosexual in Society", in the periodical Politics.
1945 US	Veterans Benevolent Society is formed in New York City. Primarily a social organization for gay veterans, it becomes peripherally involved in the grievances of GIs denied benefits as a result of Section VIII discharges. It also offered educational programs.
1945 US	A Quaker Emergency Committee is organized in New York City to assist gay men arrested for solicitation. The fact that it is headed by the rabidly homophobic Dr George Henry calls into question its claim to have helped some 15,000 sex offenders.
1945 US	Veterans Administration denies GI Bill benefits to any serviceman discharged because of homosexuality, these instructions are renewed in 1946, and 1949.
1945 US	War Department Circular #85 provides that homosexuals who had not committed any sexual offense would be given honorable discharges from the military.

final thought
Maybe in the near future this art history section can be extended to include the pre-aids, aids and hopefully post aids eras . . .

about the history overview included above and on the preceding pages:
GAY CHRONICLES FROM THE BEGINING OF TIME TO THE END OF WORLD WAR II
was compiled by Len Evans © 1996 Of all mankind's ideas, the equating of sex with sin has left the greatest train of trouble.
Barbara Tuckman