Dudes, “Unnatural Crimes,” and a “Curious Couple”

Abstract

The National Police Gazette, a popular New York City tabloid that reached its heyday in the late nineteenth century, was known for its challenging and changing assumptions about masculinities in its coverage of sports, professional pursuits, and even dress. This study examined two issues a year selected randomly over a twenty-one-year period, 1879–1899, to determine if the Gazette ever offered coverage of or hints at homosexual or bisexual lifestyles. It also examined the way the tabloid covered trials involving Oscar Wilde, during which he was accused of sodomy. Little has been written about “mainstream” nineteenth-century newspapers' coverage of gay or sexually alternative lifestyles, probably because very little of such coverage was offered. This examination found that occasionally the Gazette hinted at multiple meanings of cross-dressing (usually women dressing as men) or the effeminate characteristics of “dudes,” but it rarely covered gay or alternative lifestyles in any direct way.