Time Line 1950
Time Line of Alternative Sexuality
(Please read our Time Line Info Page before proceeding!)
- 1950's
Mississippi makes publication of "general information, arguments, or suggestions in favor of social equality or intermarriage between whites and Negros" a crime.
- 1950
After a year of revolution in China a marriage law sets new age limits and allows widows to remarry. Prospective marriage partners must be checked for "correct" thinking with the party.
- 1950
Publication of The Invisible Glass by Loren Wahl
- 1950
Publication of Quatrefoil by James Barr
- 1950, June 15
Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos start Kris Studios to publish male physique photography. Orejudos begins sketching some of the models.
- 1950, Nov.
The first issue of AMG's Physique Pictorial is issued. Cover "Havasu Creek" by Quaintance. No copies of this issue are known to exist. [Hooven 95]
- 1950, Dec.
Mattachine Society founded in Los Angeles. [JR]
- 1951
(or by 53) Shaw's, New York City's first Leather Bar opens. [R]
- 1951
Rene Guyon critizises the United Nations for not including sexual rights as a basic human right. [wd]
- 1951
Clellan S. Ford and Frank A. Beach publish their study "Patterns of Sexual Behaviour", a comparison of the sexual preferences of 200 cultures. The study shows how relative Western sexual traditions are. [wd]
- 1951, April
Harry Hay (born Apr. 7, 1912), Rudi Gernreich, Chuck Rowland, Bob Hull and Dale Jennings start The Mattachine Society in Los Angeles.
- 1951, May 26
British Foreign Office officials Donald Mclean and his cruel "master" Guy Burgess defect to the USSR. [Greif 82]
- 1951, Nov.
The cover date of the oldest known extant copy of Physique Pictorial Vol.1, No. 2. Cover painting of a nude man riding a white horse through the surf: "Dashing" by Quaintance. [Hooven 95]
- 1952 (or by 1954)
The Lodge, New York City's second leather bar opens. [R]
- 1952
Jack's on the Waterfront opens at 111 Embarcadero in San Francisco. The bar particularly attracts longshoremen, motorcycle men other butch types. Gradually evolves from a straight bar with "homo space" to a gay bar with a maritime flavor. Closed in 1962 as part of the "gayola" scandals. [R]
- 1952
Joe Wieder, a championship competitive bodybuilder who had started a series of body building magazines converts his American Manhood to compete with the "informal" poses and slimmer "natural" physiques of magazines like Physique Pictorial and Vim. [Hooven 95]
- 1952
First publication of Tomorrow's Man. A tiny physique magazine Published by Irv Johnson in Chicago, which combined the look of Physique Pictorial with articles on body building and staying in shape. It quickly became the #1 physique publication. [Hooven 95]
- 1952
Alan Turing, mathematical genius, breaker of Nazi codes, acclaimed as "the man who saved England" reports the theft of his property by a hustler, when the police realize why the thief was there Turing himself is arrested and prosecuted. He is chemically castrated by the authorities and hounded by the press. He committes suicide in 1954. [Hooven 95]
- 1952, April
Dale Jennings, a member of the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles is arrested by the police. Mattachine organizes The Committee to Outlaw Entrapment.
- 1952, May 27
Birth of Sasha Alyson, founder of Alyson Publications, a gay press that gave presence to a broad range of gay and lesbian works, including Coming to Power, the writings of John Preston, and many other leather/SM works considered "marginal" at the time, by other publishers.
- 1952, August
Cover date of Physique Pictorial issue bearing a cover painting by Quaintance, "Sacrifice," depicting a nearly naked man chained in spreadeagle suspension to a vertical sun disk. In the foreground two virtually naked warriors lie bleeding (dying) from arrows penetrating their backs. This cover resulted in censorship in Los Angeles county. No one objected to the bondage, blood, or violent theme. They wanted the lushly rounded asses of the dying warriors covered! [Hooven 95]
- 1952
College English professor Sam Steward begins a sideline business as Phil Sparrow, tattoo artist. [JR]
- 1953
Alfred C. Kinsey publishes the second part of his study on human sexual Behaviour, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female. [wd]
- 1953
The German physician Harry Benjamin coins the term Atranssexuals@ and is the first to distinguish them from transvestites. [wd]
- 1953, Apr. 23
US President Eisenhower issues orders prohibiting employment of gays in government agencies. [JR]
- 1953
Forbidden Colors, Yukio Mishima's novel with SM overtones is first published in Japan. First English edition in 1968.
- 1953, Aug.
Tomorrow's Man #8 contains the first published art by Dom Orejudos and the pseudonym Etienne is created.
- 1954
Satyrs MC founded in Los Angeles, the first gay motorcycle club.
- 1954
Historie d'O by Pauline Reage (real name, Anne Declos) first published in France. In 1955 it won the Deux-Magots prize, an important French literary award. In 1965 Grove Press publishes the first English language edition as The Story of O.
- 1954
Birth of Bob Flannigan, SM performance artist and ASupermasochist@ [wd]
- 1954
The San Francisco police stage a crackdown on "Sex Deviates" hitting particularly the area of Market and Embarcadero streets.
- 1954
Joe Wiedner begins publication of Body Beautiful and Adonis, big budget, color cover, physique magazines which alternate publication in succeeding months. The rise of physique magazines threw the body building publishing world into a homophobic panic, except for Wiedner who jumped in and competed. [Hooven 95]
- 1954
On the urging of Jim Kepner and Ann Carrl Reid, Chuck Rowland starts the Church of One Brotherhood to minister to the religious needs of gays and lesbians. It prospers for about a year, then folds.
- 1954
The movie "The Wild One" Starring Marlon Brando as a leather jacketed motorcycle gang member is released, creating a sensation and giving seed to an image.
- 1954, Feb.
One magazine includes its first article about a women's issue. Lesbians continued to be included in the content, and on the staff, until 1959.
- 1954
June: Suicide of Alan Turing in England, after being outed as a homosexual when he reported the theft of some items by a young man he had invited into his home. Turning had been instrumental in breaking Nazi codes during the war, and is considered the father of the computer.
- 1955
Two by Eric Jourdan first published in France. This novel of male love with definite SM elements was published in English in 1963.
- 1955
Publication of Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce, the novel which inspired Paul Neuman's superb movie performance as a member of a southern prison camp chain gang.
- 1955, Sept. 21
The Daughters of Bilitis, the first Lesbian organization in America, is formed in San Francisco.
- 1955, Sept. 30
James Dean is killed in a car crash in California. The actor's smoldering sexuality and young death (at 24) elevated him to legendary status. The persistant rumors that he enjoyed being burned with cigarettes and kicked and trampled under men's feet provided hours of pleasant fantasy for many Tops.
- 1955, Nov. 1
An anti-homosexual witch hunt begins in Boise, ID, later documented by John Gerassi in The Boys of Boise.
- 1956
The last of the US laws making epilepsy a disqualification for marriage are removed.
- 1956
Publication of The Street of the Sun by Lance Horner, the most homoerotic and SM, of the Mandango family of novels.
- 1956
Publication of Sex Magick by Ian Young. Poetry from one of Canada's best known leathermen. (born Jan 5, 1945).
- 1956, Sept.
Jim Kepner and Dorr started America's first gay studies classes. In Jan 1957 they started the first 36 week course in World History from the gay perspective. Kepner conceived and edited Americas first gay scholarly-style journal: ONE Institute Quarterly of Homophile Studies for three years.
- 1957
The German physician Hans Lehfeldt founds the "Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality" (SSSS) in New York. [wd]
- 1957
Amsterdam's first leather bar and hotel, The Argos, opens. It is still in business!
- 1957
The Spring issue of Physique Pictorial magazine includes the first published erotic art of Tom of Finland, and marks the first time that name is used.
- 1957
Erotic artist George Quaintance dies.
- 1957
Publication of Color of Darkness, a novel by James Purdy (born July 14, 1923).
- 1957
Publication of The Last Exit to Brooklyn, a novel by Hubert Selby Jr. (born July 23, 1928)
- 1957
In the Crittenden Report, the US Navy concludes that homosexuals serving in the military do not create a security risk. The Pentigon denies the existance of this report for twenty years.
- 1957, Sept. 4
In London the Wolfenden Report recommends decriminalization of "private homosexual acts between consenting adults".
- 1958
Both Federal and Chicago authorities charge Kris studios with censorship violations. Renslow fights back, surprising the prosecution. His defense uses the simple stand that nudity is not obscene. In support his attorney shows photos of nude male sculpture in the courthouse where the case is being held. Kris was found not guilty, prosecution appealed and eventually the same decision came from the US Supreme court. [Hooven 95]
- 1958
Confessions of a Mask, an autobiographical novel by Yukio Mishima first published in English.
- 1958
The Balcony, Jean Genet's play which accommodates every sexual desire, is published in French and English.
- 1958
The gay SM novel, Muscle Boy, by Bud Clifton is published [wd]
- 1958
Publication of The Question by Henri Alleg, an account of the French Algerian newspaper man's torture at the hands of French paratroopers.
- 1958
Publication of Those about to Die , a history of the Roman games and arena shows by Daniel P. Manix.
- 1958
Oedipus MC founded in Los Angeles, the second gay motorcycle club.
- 1958 May 12
The Homosexual Law Reform Society is founded in London.
- 1958, June
Chuck Renslow becomes manager of The Gold Coast in Chicago and creates the first Leather Bar. [JR]
- 1959
The Big Dollar at 34th & 3rd in New York City opens, A VERY leather bar. [R]
- 1959
The Spur Club a leather friendly bar at 126 Turk in San Francisco's tenderloin is raided and closed. [R]
- 1959
In the San Francisco mayoral election homosexuality becomes a political issue. The incumbent clamps down on "queers". [R]
- 1959
Publication of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. (born Feb. 5, 1914)
- 1959
US Supreme Court rules in favor of allowing distribution of D. H. Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover. [Hooven 95]
- 1959
Kellers (bar) opens in New York City and becomes a gathering place for gay motorcycle riders.
What links here • Contact
</column>