ABSTRACT
‘The act male homosexuals commit is ugly and repugnant and afterwards they are disgusted with themselves. They drink and take drugs to palliate this, but they are disgusted with the act and they are always changing partners and cannot be really happy.’ Gertrude Stein’s unsympathetic and bigoted view of male homosexuality, written in a letter to Ernest Hemingway, 1 is even more surprising given that her fashionable salon in Paris included many homosexual men, some of whom were close friends. Indeed it is she who is credited with the first use in literature of the word ‘gay’ to denote homosexuality. Her view is an even more damning critique of male homosexuals when compared with her idealistic view of lesbians, and by implication her relationship with Alice B.Toklas, which is the exact opposite. ‘Women,’ she wrote, ‘do nothing that they are disgusted by and nothing that is repulsive and afterwards they are happy and can lead happy lives together.’ Nevertheless her opinion did identify some of the difficulties homosexual men faced in seeking to lead ‘happy lives’ and also reflected many of the prejudices and oppressive attitudes of society.
