Time Line 1910
- 1910
Among the Klementi tribe in Albania, if a virgin swore to twelve witnesses that she refused to ever marry, she would be allowed to live as a man carrying weapons and herding livestock. [TOL]
- 1910
Magnus Hirschfeld creates the term "transvestite" and is the first to separate them from homosexuals. [wd]
- 1910
The Chicago Vice Commission reports the presence of whole "colonies" of sexual perversion, including a homosexual street gang, known as the Bluebirds, that frequented Grant Park.
- 1910
Emma Goldman first begins speaking publicly in favor of gay rights
- 1910, May 14
Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein begin living together in Paris. [TOL]
- 1910, Dec. 19
Birth in Paris of Jean Genet, his gay and SM themed works include The Balcony, Querelle du Brest, and Our Lady of the Flowers. (Death in 1986)
- 1911
A law is passed in the Netherlands prohibiting sexual contact between members of the same sex under the age of 21. The law sparked Dutch nobleman Jacob Schorer to form Nederlandsch Wetenschappelijk Humanitair Komitee, modeled after Hirschfeld's Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany. The NWHK provided support to homosexuals until 1940 when Schorer destroyed its records to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Nazis. [AA]
- 1911, November 9
Irving Klaw was born in Brooklyn NY, Died 1966. He was instrumental in publishing pinup, bondage and fetish photos from the 40's through the 60's. Bettie Page was on his more famous discoveries. (Robin Roberts of BackDrop was one of the photographers who sold photos to his company in 1958 and 1959.)
- 1912
The first explicit reference to lesbianism in a Mormon magazine occurred when the "Young Woman's Journal" paid tribute to "Sappho of Lesbos".
- 1912
The Scientific Humanitarian Committee polls candidates for the forthcoming Reichstag election to learn their view on gay issues. Ninety one out of the 96 who respond say that they favor gay rights! [AA]
- 1913
Alfred Redl, head of Austrian Intelligence, is exposed as a double agent working for the Russians. He commits suicide the next morning. Authorities who search his rooms find abundant indications that Redl had been a homosexual. The widely publicized case gives prominence to the idea that homosexuals are security risks, and 37 years later, US Senator Joseph McCarthy used the Redl case to raise similar fears. [AA]
- 1914
Publication of Dictionary of Criminal Slang which includes the first known printed definition of the word "faggot" as a term for "a male homosexual". [TOL]
- 1914
Magnus Hirschfeld publishes his 1067 page study on homosexuality. [wd]
- 1915, May 25
Foreseeing a wartime shortage, Amy Lowell hoards 10,000 of her favorite Havana cigars in her home in Brookline, MA. (born Feb 9, 1874)
- 1916, Nov. 29
Birth of artist Neel Bate, as "Blade" one of the pioneers of gay erotica. His most famous work, an underground classic in pre-Stonewall days is "The Barn", which he wrote and illustrated.
- 1916, Dec. 30
On this date Grigori Rasputin is murdered. The Russian monk, who was a famous sexual adventurer, spent some years initiating women into the reportedly Christian cult of flagellants before he settled into the court o Nicholas and Alexandria. There is no evidence that his position in the Russian court stopped or impeded his involvement with the female flagellants cult. [JWB]
- 1917
The new revolutionary government of the Soviet Union abolishes the sodomy laws of the tsarist regime. [AA]
- 1917
The Bolshevik government in Russia says it will recognize only civil marriages.
- 1917, Nov. 20
T. E. Lawrence (aka: "Lawrence of Arabia") (1888-1935) being held captive by the Turks at Deraa is caned and (probably) raped by Turkish army officers, an incident described in his 1926 book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. His taste for the cane continued through life.
- 1918
Publication of Life is Movement, the autobiography and manual of Hungarian born Eugen Sandow, who thrilled audiences in New York and London throughout the 1890's. Billed as The world's strongest man he often appeared wearing only a metal fig leaf, held in place by a spring metal strap that was hidden in the cleft of his ass.
- 1919
Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Institute for Sexology in Berlin. The Institute combines the world's first sex counseling center, a museum, a library and an ongoing series of educational events. [AA]
- 1919, Jan. 7
Birth of Robert Duncan, a leading poet of the San Francisco renaissance. The first poet to use the word "cocksucker" in print and the first to strip to the buff during poetry readings. [Greif 82]
- 1919, May 24
Release of Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others), one of the earliest films to offer viewers a gay-positive perspective. It costarred Konrad Veidt and Magnus Hirschfeld. [AA]
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