Homosexuality in the Harlem Rennaissance

The Harlem Renaissance, an African-American literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s, had several important gay and lesbian writers. Many of the big and famous writers were gay or bisexual men such as Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, and even the famous white sponsor Carl Van Vechten. Gay men were oppressed but black men who were gay were open about their homosexuality around other gays but when it came to the real world they kept it as a secret. At a time when New York still had laws banning homosexuality and when baths and gay bars were raided frequently. Gay men and women led amazing double lives. The culture of the Harlem Renaissance was open to sexual exploration and gays and lesbians, both black and white, thus they founded a community there. The jazz and blues clubs of Harlem were like a welcoming place to gays and lesbians of different races. In addition to the clubs of Harlem, private rent parties became a place where gays and lesbians could dance and socialize without fear of being arrested. Rent parties were private parties that people threw in their apartments to raise rent. Rent parties became places for gays and lesbians to mingle safely.