Homoerotic Archaeology: In Touch (May/June 1979), Part One.

Friday, May 22, 2020

In Touch (May/June 1979), Part One.

The son of Clarence Crane, the successful Ohio candy maker who invented the lifesaver, Hart Crane attained minor fame as an avant-garde writer, with his admiration and resentment for fellow poet T.S. Eliot prompting the creation of his most famous work: The Bridge (1930). Despite his publications in small magazines, Hart spent much of his time either temporarily employed as a copywriter or jobless and under the financial support of his father. In 1932, at the age of thirty-two, the writer’s longstanding bouts with depression led to his suicide. Although Hart had a minor same-sex relationship with an older man during his adolescence, modern literary critics have begun to read the vague imagery of his poetry as a surreptitious confession of his homosexual desires. Such an interpretation, in turn, can be found in the May/June issue of In Touch (which has been broken into two parts), where William Russo’s article makes the claim that Crane was one of contemporary society’s earliest gay poets. Also included in the first half of this issue is a showcase of the gay lifestyle in Denver, Colorado, spreads of models Jim Rogers and Nick Rogers, an advertisement for the In Touch Lounge in Van Nuys, California, and a review of the book Young, Gay and Proud.

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What is Homoerotic Archaeology?

In 2016, I discovered several discarded boxes at an estate sale. Under their flimsy flaps were hundreds of well-worn issues of homoerotic magazines from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I purchased them out of mild intrigue and, as I perused their pages, I was startled to realize that something commonly disregarded as pornographic smut earnestly chronicled the evolution of gay culture: the social and sexual liberation of the 1970s, the crushing devastation from AIDS during the 1980s, and the gradual strengthening of the community in the 1990s. As a gay man, I was touched by the subtle narrative these publications told. As a historian, I was motivated to digitally preserve their content. And, as an educator, I was driven to create a platform to share that information freely with others interested in the progression of gay society. Homoerotic Archaeology is that venue. Here you will find the advertisements, articles, short stories, and (of course) pictures found in these magazines lovingly preserved and presented for future generations of gay men to enjoy and study.

Why Preserve Homoerotica?

As early as the 1970s, scholars such as June Rook have stressed the need to preserve homosexual history in an effort to combat repression and establish a cultural background for future generations. Much of the preservation process admirably focuses on the substantial works of homosexual artists and thinkers; however, it sadly ignores other elements quintessential to the community’s history, particularly homoerotica. Although frequently labeled obscene filth, homoerotica has, just like the significant creations of artists and thinkers, been a prevalent part of the group’s culture and has played an integral role in shaping identities and perceptions (consider how influential Tom of Finland’s hypermasculinity has been in molding the body ideals of modern gay men). Due to this factor, the conservation of homoerotica is just as essential as the preservation of major artistic and theoretical homosexual works.