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Related: About this forumLOVE AND AFFECTION: VINTAGE PHOTOS OF GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES
A couples photographic portrait is an affirmation of their relationship. It states for all to see: We love each other. We care for each other. We are proud of who we are together.
During the Victorian era many gay and lesbian couples proudly expressed their love for each other in studio portraits. Unlike the common belief that such relationships were the love that dare not speak its name, as Oscar Wilde so famously described same sex attraction in his poem Two Loves, gays and lesbians often dared to show their love. Indeed, many gay and lesbian couples more or less lived openly together throughout their lives. This was far easier for women than for men as women were expected to live together if they were not married, or to live with the euphemistically termed female companion.
Men, no historical surprises here, had their own haunts for meeting like-minded souls. In London these could be found in the Molly houses and gentlemens clubs or pick-ups haunts at Lincolns Inn, or St. James Park or the path on the Citys Moorfields, which was charmingly referred to as Sodomites Walk.
Theaters and circuses were also well-known dens of homosexual activitythis can be traced all the way back to Elizabethan England, when male prostitutes plied their trade at theaters.
During the Victorian era many gay and lesbian couples proudly expressed their love for each other in studio portraits. Unlike the common belief that such relationships were the love that dare not speak its name, as Oscar Wilde so famously described same sex attraction in his poem Two Loves, gays and lesbians often dared to show their love. Indeed, many gay and lesbian couples more or less lived openly together throughout their lives. This was far easier for women than for men as women were expected to live together if they were not married, or to live with the euphemistically termed female companion.
Men, no historical surprises here, had their own haunts for meeting like-minded souls. In London these could be found in the Molly houses and gentlemens clubs or pick-ups haunts at Lincolns Inn, or St. James Park or the path on the Citys Moorfields, which was charmingly referred to as Sodomites Walk.
Theaters and circuses were also well-known dens of homosexual activitythis can be traced all the way back to Elizabethan England, when male prostitutes plied their trade at theaters.
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/vintage_photos_of_gay_and_lesbian_couples
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LOVE AND AFFECTION: VINTAGE PHOTOS OF GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES (Original Post)
icymist
Feb 2016
OP
Suich
(10,642 posts)1. Those are awesome!
I can't even imagine what life was like for them...thanks for posting!
Kali
(55,016 posts)2. OMG! those are wonderful!
and if as the comments seem to indicate, some are not actually couples they are still wonderful old photos.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)3. Incredible and beautiful! Thanks for posting, these are wonderful!!! Really enjoyed this look
into our past!