The American biker gang The Hells Angels, which formed in 1948, serves as a rich example. During this period, the homosexual contact of straight men began to undergo a transformation from relatively mundane behavior to the bold behavior of male rebels. straight) men continued into the 1950s and 60s. The notion that homosexual activity was not “gay” when undertaken by “real” (i.e. Fairies affirmed, rather than threatened, the heteromasculinity of straight men by embodying its opposite. In such encounters, the fairy acted as the sole embodiment of queerness, the figures with whom normal (straight) men could have sex – just as they might with female sex workers. Public parks and restrooms were also common sites for sexual interaction between straight men and fairies.
With sex-segregation the general rule for single men and women in the early 1900s, the private back rooms of saloons were often sites of sexual activity between normal men and fairies, with the latter perceived as a kind of intermediate sex – a reasonable alternative to female prostitutes. Close quarters: sexual encounters between men and ‘fairies’ were commonplace in the dense neighborhoods of working class Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
