Exploring the Wild Gay History of the YMCA

Kaz Rowe August 22, 2023
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About

I love history and I love subjecting people to my unhinged rants about it. I also make the webcomic Cunning Fire. They/them Please only use my email for serious business inquiries, thank you.

Video Description

Head to https://www.mykitsch.com/kaz and use my code KAZ to get 25% off your first order with Kitsch! Kitsch ships in the US and internationally to over 27 countries including Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and more! Many of us have been to the YMCA via summer camp or through a gym membership, but for a century the Y was also an extremely popular gay cruising center-- against the Y's own wishes. Come learn with me about how gay men made the Y their safe space in a time when getting caught was a crime, and what changed. Buy my graphic novel, Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun: https://www.kazrowe.com/comics/cahun https://shop.getty.edu/products/liberated-the-radical-art-and-life-of-claude-cahun-978-1947440074 Find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KazRowe I'm on TikTok @ kazrowe Find me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/kaz.rowe Buy my comics: https://gumroad.com/kazrowe Send me a ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/A347K4X Read my webcomic: https://www.cunningfire.com/ Catch it on Tapas: https://tapas.io/series/cunning-fire Line Webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/cunning-fire/list?title_no=59016 Captioning by Transcription, Ho! Captioning Services Filmed using: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k– https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera Blackmagic Video Assist 5” HDR – https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicvideoassist Olympus M. Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro– https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1003635-REG/olympus_v314060bu000_m_zuiko_digital_ed.html Samsung Portable SSD T5 - 2Tb– https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/portable-solid-state-drives/portable-ssd-t5-2tb-mu-pa2t0b-am/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sources Gay New York by George Chauncey Portland Vice Scandal (1912-1913) By Peter Boag for Oregon Encyclopedia https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/portland_vice_scandal_1912_1913_/ American Sexual Histories edited by Elizabeth Reis Rethinking Sexuality in the Progressive Era by Catherine Cocks 'MACHO TYPES WANTED': THE VILLAGE PEOPLE, HOMOPHOBIA, AND REPRESENTATION IN 1970s by ALEX MIDGLEY Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall By James Polchin Men and Women Adrift: The YMCA and the YWCA in the City edited by Margaret Ann Spratt and Nina Mjagkij History of Homosexuality in Europe and America edited by Stephen Donaldson and Wayne R. Dynes Military masculinities : identity and the State by Paul R. Higate Mates and lovers : a history of gay New Zealand by Chris Brickell Capitalism and Gay Identity by John D’Emilio for The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader Take the Young Stranger by the Hand: Same-Sex Relations and the YMCA by John Donald Gustav-Wrathall Out of the Tubs, and Into the Streets! Tracing the history of bathhouse regulations in San Francisco, CA by Stephan Ferris “YMCA opens door to gay families” from Globe & Mail, November 12, 1992 “Wanna buy a 'y'?” from The Advocate; Feb 14, 1973

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