The Cold War and the Homophile, 1953–1963

• Published in: Australasian journal of American studies 2019-07, Vol.38 (1), p.79-96
• Main Author: Hansen, Will
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1838-9554

This article argues that the Cold War had an underrated influence on homophile identity and politics. Although agitating for homosexual rights presented in many ways a challenge to the dominant homophobic order, in other ways the homophile movement actually reproduced hegemonic Cold War ideology. Homophiles—a group of homosexuals who tended to be male, middle class, and white—sought to neutralize those aspects of homosexuality that were deemed culturally unacceptable, and in so doing further marginalized many queer peoples. This essay demonstrates how homophiles attempted to disassociate themselves from their lower class, gender-nonconforming, non-white, sexually non-normative peers, in order to assimilate into Cold War society as rights-bearing American citizens.