Gay male slavery

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The police accused them of loitering and began to arrest them. LGBT people had resisted arrest at a mafia-owned gay bar, The Stonewall Inn, during a police raid. During the era of slavery, same-sex relationships and behaviors existed but were shaped by the socio-economic, cultural, and power dynamics of the time. The history of black resistance then led the Katz family to research and publish books that highlighted this history.

In some cases, the enslaved person’s degraded state may have even reinforced the enslaver’s sense of superiority or fetishization of racial “otherness.” Understanding these dynamics requires separating modern notions of attraction from the violent realities of slavery, where power trumped all other considerations.

Writing Gay History

Labor union activists in New York City attended the Jefferson School of Social Science, which was founded by the Communist party to educate the working class about the principles of Marxism.

In an interview with Vice Magazine, she explained how there were no white gay men at Stonewall.

gay male slavery

While it often existed in contexts of coercion and survival, it also reflected the resilience of enslaved individuals who sought connection and solidarity. These relationships could be emotional, romantic, or sexual, providing solace amidst the brutality of slavery.

  • Exploitation by Enslavers: Enslavers, primarily men, sometimes forced same-sex interactions on enslaved individuals.

    The normalization of homosexuality in modern times, as discussed previously, stems from unrelated social and political developments, not from slavery’s legacy.

    A white enslaver’s ability to sexually violate an enslaved person, regardless of their “dirty” or “smelly” condition, was not about conventional attraction but about power, dehumanization, and control.

    Yet, their interactions with enslaved people were not deterred by these disparities. Over time, however, the heroic efforts of trans people of color have been overlooked and white men have appeared as the leading protagonists in the Stonewall uprising. This fetishization could extend to their physical state, where dirtiness or lack of hygiene was seen as part of their “natural” or “animalistic” condition, reinforcing racist ideologies.

    For example, in the Caribbean and Brazil, where plantation labor was grueling and sanitation facilities were minimal, enslaved people were often described in dehumanizing terms by white observers.

    Enslavers had unchecked authority over the lives of the enslaved, leading to forced sexual interactions, including same-sex acts.

  • Survival Mechanisms: Enslaved individuals sometimes engaged in relationships or acts as strategies for survival, forming bonds that provided emotional or material support.

    • Homosexuality in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

    African Contexts

    Before the transatlantic slave trade, many African societies had diverse understandings of gender and sexuality.

    He returned to the archives and found even more evidence, which he then published, in 1976, as the first LGBT anthology of primary sources, under the title Gay American History. One of the first recorded political uprisings occurred in August 1966 in San Francisco, before Stonewall, when a group of transgender people who were banned from a local bar gathered at Compton’s Cafeteria.

    He had witnessed how, with the exception of a single pamphlet, there were few documents about the persecution and murder of thousands of gay men and women during Hitler’s reign. The “dirtiness” of the enslaved person likely played no role in deterring the act, as the enslaver’s motivation was control, not mutual attraction.

    The degraded physical state of an enslaved person could serve to further distance the act from any accusation of homosexuality, which was heavily stigmatized in European and American societies.

    Enslaved people were stripped of autonomy, forced to labor under inhumane conditions, and often denied necessities like clean water, clothing, or time for personal hygiene. He also recognized how the Nazis destroyed evidence of a thriving gay community in Berlin before Hitler took control of Germany. Understanding this history enriches our perspective on the complexities of human relationships and the enduring impact of slavery on societal attitudes toward sexuality.

    Related

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    Power and Dehumanization Over Attraction
    In the context of slavery, sexual violence was not about romantic or aesthetic attraction but about reinforcing racial and social hierarchies.

    A prominent transgender woman, Griffin-Gracey was not pleased with the recognition. Travelogues from the 18th century, such as those by British planter Bryan Edwards, depictenslaved Africans as “uncivilized” and “filthy,” yet these same accounts reveal enslavers’ willingness to exploit them sexually. The contradiction suggests that the enslaved person’s physical condition was not a barrier but part of the racialized fantasy that justified abuse.

    Psychologically, some enslavers may have derived gratification from transgressing social norms (e.g., engaging in same-sex acts, which were taboo) while maintaining their authority.

    While Islamic law generally condemned homosexual acts, historical accounts suggest that relationships between male enslavers and young male slaves occurred, often reflecting power imbalances rather than consensual connections.

    Ancient and Indigenous Societies

    Some indigenous cultures that practiced forms of slavery had more fluid understandings of gender and sexuality.

    The Ladder, which was a lesbian magazine, published a story, “Women’s Liberation Is Our Thing Too,” by an African-American woman activist, Anita R. Cornwell, in October 1971.