indeedsir_backup | Gay New York 1890

Evidently, up to WWII, gays were much more visible and 'tolerated' than we now realize. For one thing, gays were considered an intermediate, or third sex, which made them more acceptable.

"The determinative criterion in the identification of men as fairies was not the extent of their same-sex desire or activity (their "sexuality"), but rather the gender persona and status they assumed... The fairies' sexual desire for men was not regarded as the singular characteristic that distinguished them from other men, as is generally the case for gay men today. That desire was seen as simply one aspect of a much more comprehensive gender role inversion (or reversal)... manifest through the adoption of effeminate dress and mannerisms; they were thus called inverts (who had "inverted" their gender)... gender identity rather than sexual identity."

This resulted in non-gay men (more working class) feeling it did not reflect upon their own sexuality if they had sex with a fairy as long as they were the "male" in the sex act. In fact, sailors favored fairies and looked for them when the "fleet was in". There are a few cartoons in the book of the competition between prostitutes and fairies for sailors.