20
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MARCH 3, 2019
Love birds!
Abraham and Leah Serur celebrated their enduring affection for one another — and 65 years of
marraige — at the Senior League of Flatbush’s Valentine’s Day bash.
QUEER
ing a never-before-exhibited
scrapbook exploring
the life of a gay woman living
through 19th-century
Brooklyn, said the show’s
co-curator.
“She was a lesbian from
Brooklyn, and a prodigious
scrapbooker,” said
Hugh Ryan. “It’s an incredible
document, the likes of
which I’ve never seen before.”
Ryan began his history
of Kings County’s queer
culture with famed Brooklyn
bard Walt Whitman,
who through poems like
“Leaves of Grass,” published
in 1855, exposed an
otherwise undocumented
interest in same-sex relationships
brewing along
the borough’s waterfront.
“Even though we only
have records of Whitman,
because he kept these records
of other men, we
know there was a community
there, of white, working
class men on the waterfront,
who were into
the idea of sexual relationships
with other men,”
said Ryan.
The new exhibit, which
the Historical Society bills
as the fi rst to ever look at
the borough’s gay history,
focuses on the industrial
milieu of Kings County’s
coastal communities, and
on fi ve professions that, for
various reasons, drew the
interest and talent of bluecollar
queers, according to
Ryan: artist, entertainer,
sex worker, sailor, and factory
worker.
Some gay Brooklynites
were attracted to the migratory
nature of jobs like
shipping and entertaining,
which took them to distant
ports, or on cross-country
tours, which allowed them
to have their same-sex dalliances
in distant locales,
while avoiding notoriety
at home.
“Part of the reason actors
were more appealing
is that you traveled,” said
Ryan. “People couldn’t
keep a close watch on you.”
During the early 20th
century, the relatively
high pay of factory jobs
offered women a level of
independence from male
breadwinners that more
traditional occupations
could not provide, empowering
women to fend for
themselves — and their
lovers.
“They made more
money than women in traditionally
feminine jobs,”
said Ryan. “It’s about the
opportunity to live a life of
one’s one.”
“On the (Queer) Waterfront”
at the Brooklyn Historical
Society (128 Pierrepont
St. between Clinton
and Henry streets in Brooklyn
Heights, www.brooklynhistory.
org). Opening
reception March 5; 6:30–
8:30 pm. Free. Exhibit open
through July 7, Wed–Sun;
noon–5 pm. $10 suggested
donation ($6 seniors, students
free).
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NODDING YES.
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Photo by Steve Solomonson