Loose Lips	Loose Lips Archive

We know that homosexual men have always been around and always will be. But what does it mean to be homosexual? And what does it mean to be gay? At a minimum, male homosexuality must include one male with an erotic attraction to other males. Beyond this bare minimum, however, it is astonishing to see how much variation-- how many ways to be gay-- are possible. Does a male with such erotic attractions dress, talk, and act like other males, being distinguished from them only in the bedroom? Or does he begin to dress and act like a female, sharply setting himself off from other males? The first possibility is the Log Cabin Republican model; the second is the drag queen model, and there are many choices in between.

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And what about the object of the erotic attraction? Is it to be straight men? Traditionally masculine, adult gay men? The transgendered? Teenage boys? At different times and in different cultures, each of these has been chosen as the approved erotic choice. Modern American gay culture emphasizes sex between two masculine gay men. But other strands of erotic attraction persist uneasily with this choice.

Truck hawks, for example, are gay men whose erotic choice focuses on straight truck drivers. Tranny chasers find nothing more arousing than chicks with dicks or a man in a frock. And boy lovers continue a tradition as old as the Greeks in their erotic attraction to teenagers.

Those who study the history of homosexuality tend to fall into two groups. The essentialists argue that there is something in our biology that sets us apart-- an essence of homosexuality that persists throughout all of history and culture. The social constructionists, on the other hand, argue that everything about homosexuality is due to different social environments.

Miss Poubelle finds herself agreeing in part with both groups of theorists. She suspects that there is some essential variation in human nature, possibly biological in origin, that strongly predisposes some males to be attracted to other males. But beyond this seed of erotic attraction, nearly everything else about how we construct lives as gay men is due to the cultural and historical context we find ourselves in.

For gay men who dress, talk, and present themselves as traditionally masculine and choose adult men who behave in the same ways, it is perhaps disturbing to realize that in a different social or historical context, they might have been transvestites, tranny chasers, or interested only in trade or boys.

Gay historians have discussed a 19th century division between two social models for men attracted to other men. The Uranian camp touted the virtues of the Greek form of love between men and boys, while the Androphilic group talked about erotic attraction between masculine, adult men. The Uranians included such poets as John Gambril Nicholson (1866-1931), who wrote rather bad poetry about beautiful boys:

Smart-looking lads are in my line
The lad that gives my boots a shine
The lad that works the lift below
The lad that's lettered G.P.O. ...

The Uranian idea of gay culture eventually gave way to the Androphilic ideal of such writers as Walt Whitman and A.E. Housman, who praised the beauty of muscular working men and soldiers.

The Androphilic model has achieved a level of success in 21st century America that is beyond the wildest dreams of its 19th century proponents. It's likely that many of the successes of the modern Gay Rights movement are due to its message that we're just like everyone else-- except for our private sex lives. But it would be a mistake to think that this is the only form that public homosexual life could have taken. Today the Uranians and transgendered are marginalized within the gay community, but history could have turned out differently. If we are comfortable living with the masculine adult male model that won out historically, that is well and good. But it behooves us to remember that things could have turned out differently, and to work for the inclusion in our community of those who have found other ways to be gay.