Celebrating LGBTQ History Month, CHASS and the Department of History put on their first history teach-in, or HIST Talk. The first of these talks was Before Grindr: Gay Hookup Culture in the 20th Century, held on Oct. 26.
Megan Cherry, associate professor of history, led this first talk and detailed the chronology of the culture, separating it into three separate periods: 1900-1945, 1945-1969 and 1969 to now.
During the talk, Cherry described the many differences between each time period alongside one commonality: the subtlety of queerness. Cherry also explained how the start of cruising, defined as discreet and anonymous ways for men to have sex with other men, simultaneously started this trend of lingo amongst gay men.
Cruising had its beginnings in the 19th century but became more popular throughout the 20th century while homosexual acts were still criminalized vehemently. It would occur in more public spaces with not much attention being brought to the men engaging with one another. Whether that be offering a cigarette, a flashy tie or a lingering gaze, gay men had to learn this all to be able to attract one another.
The latter time periods both detailed significant historical events such as the Lavender Scare of the early ‘40s and ‘50s, the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and the AIDs crisis of the ‘80s, all of which had lasting effects on the LGBTQ community.
The point of these talks, according to Cherry, is to get more students interested and involved in the history department at NC State.
“Erin Seiling designed the HIST Talks program to try and sort of provide a window into what history classes are like for future or for potential minors and majors,” Cherry said. “They wanted it to be less sort of dry, longer lectures and more just sort of quick takes on history in many ways.”
Though Cherry led this first talk regarding gay hookup culture throughout history, they emphasized that sexuality in the 17th and 18th centuries is their primary research topic. They had approached the topic the second year they had been at NC State in their teaching career, coinciding with painted homophobic slurs found on campus at the time.
“The history of sexuality in my field in the 17th and 18th centuries was super interesting,” Cherry said. “I wanted a way to sort of get into forcing myself to read more about that. … So I thought, it’s really important that students have a class on the history of sexuality here at State. I looked around, and I was like, ‘Well, nobody else is teaching it, so I guess I better.’ It was important to me, that it be something that’s taught on campus. And it just so happens that it’s also a fascinating subject. So I was happy to sort of take that on as a teaching field, even though it doesn’t really relate to my research.”
Cherry will be teaching HI 369: Sexuality in U.S. History in the spring semester. They hope this class will be enlightening and engaging for students looking to learn more about the intersection of societal values and cultures with the history of sexuality.
“I think that’s a great window to figure out what’s going on with different societies like values and cultures at the time,” Cherry said. “It’s just a perfect sort of insight as to like what’s going on in different areas. I think it’ll be eye-opening to any student who takes the class to sort of look at America’s past and then also look at our current society with a more informed sort of notion as to how we got here. … And offering a class on this can make our LGBTQ students feel more welcome and have a better climate on campus. Things get better with each decade, but we’ve also got a long way to go.”
Seiling, an academic advisor for history majors and minors at NC State, thought the talk was incredibly insightful for students looking to learn more outside the classroom.
“I think it’s a history that is not frequently taught,” Seiling said. “I hear that from a lot of students is that one of the things you really enjoy when they start taking history classes at NC State or at the college level is that they’re learning histories that they feel like have always sort of been either not part of the curriculum or just a very small part of the curriculum, and this is much more expansive what we have to offer here.”
For more information about majoring or minoring in history at NC State, contact Seiling and check out the department’s website. The next HIST Talks has not been confirmed yet but is likely to happen during the spring semester.
