New Pride Exhibit at the Jefferson Market Library
By Corinne Neary
June is upon us once more. Here at Jefferson Market Library, on the last Sunday of the month, we are in an ideal location to watch the celebrations commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots. Now that the whole of June is known far and wide as Pride month, and our parade features floats with Real Housewives dancing and posing for selfies with fans, it’s fun to get caught up in the glitter and the sweat of it all. What is also fun is taking a closer look at a niche slice of printed queer culture of the past. That’s what we’re doing this month in our new exhibit in the Little Underground Gallery, titled Menergy: Gay Male Magazines of the 1950s-1980s.
The chance to do this show came to us, like many great things, through one of our patrons. Jonathan Debusk has been living in Manhattan since 2002 and has been a dedicated consumer of the city’s gay culture ever since. The exhibit sources all of its materials from his collection. We sat down with Jonathan to learn more.
How did you get interested in collecting vintage gay magazines?
I first became interested in collecting gay fiction by gay authors, primarily from the 1940s to the 1980s. Two of my favorite books that I discovered are Ambidextrous by Felipe Picano, and The Blue Star by Robert Ferro. I became interested in learning more about how gay men thought about, longed for, and looked for sex, hid themselves, and just lived in a time where they couldn’t be themselves. In doing so, I also learned more about myself.
There’s a finite and small amount of outwardly gay authors from those times and I wanted to learn more, so I started looking on eBay for gay magazines from the 1950s and 1960s. The covers were sexy, sometimes in a subtle way, which added a curious allure to them and made me think of what it must have been like to buy them at that time.
Once I got the first few in the mail, I realized not all of them were just about the male figure, they also were the only place for gay men to learn about anything gay-related: arrests across the country; political activism; Tiffany’s saying “We’re sorry. But we do NOT carry earrings for men. Nor will we;” comics; subtle moments in gay advertising; classifieds. These magazines were like the Grindr, PornHub, and LGBTQ Nation of their time, rolled into one. They also fostered the type of community that you would find years later at openly gay bars.
What about the magazines is different from what you see in contemporary gay online media?
Seeing just one picture of a handsome guy, not fully naked, can be so much sexier than the instant and full-on sex and nudity that we’re used to today.
About how many magazines do you have in your collection?
Around 100. I want to have at least two or three of every magazine and I want to have the full series of some others. Drum is my favorite—I want all of them!
What do you hope people get out of coming to see the exhibit?
I want those in their twenties and thirties to understand the history — it was sexy, intellectual, and sophisticated. I was amazed at many of the news stories of the time and would think about how much gay men have been through. Even though we have clearly made huge strides, there are still ways in which things are not that different today than they were back then. At a time when many LGBTQ+ rights are under assault, it’s important for everyone to understand that even when people in our community are forced to hide or retreat, we find a way to thrive.
Exhibit Info
We will begin the work of hanging the exhibit at the beginning of June, so if you’re visiting the basement that first week or so, you’ll likely see us in action. Our opening reception will be held Wednesday, June 18, from 6-7 pm, so please stop by if you are in the area! The exhibit will be on view until the end of July, so there is plenty of time to check it out if your June calendar is packed full of Pride month events! As always, we hope to see you soon.
