Just in time for Pride season, Miami New Times has uncovered a pamphlet published by Florida lawmakers in the January 1964 that somehow manages to be the most homophobic and homoerotic materials ever produced.
The pamphlet, “Homosexuality and Citizenship in Florida,” was written by the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee in response to the growing number of homosexuals reported in the state. Imagine, gay men flocking to sun and beaches!
Related: Elementary School To Bullying Victims: Lighten Up, Losers!
However, the committee embarked on a gay witch hunt rather than conducting research. First, it went into Florida’s schools and fired nearly 40 professors and deans from Florida universities and revoked the licenses of over 70 public school teachers for being “suspected homosexuals.” Several students were also expelled for being gay.
How about we take this to the next level?
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After the mass exodus of gays from the school system, committee members wrote up a report, dubbed the “Purple Pamphlet” for its lavender cover, intended for “every individual concerned with the moral climate of the state.”
“Homosexuality is, and far too long has been, a skeleton in the closet of society,” the pamphlet begins, before spewing pages upon pages of homophobic nonsense.
But in between the antigay rants are smatterings of softcore gay porn images like this one:
And this one:
Which might have just more than a few people some fun ideas. The pamphlet also includes a “gay glossary” packed with slang terms used by the homosexuals. Some of the words include a “fairy,” who is defined as “interested only in sex with any man,” a “creep,” who is defined as “a homosexual or normal person who is disgusting to the average or normal gay person in all ways,” and a “piss elegant,” which is defined as “a homosexual who brags or is outwardly conceited.”
LOL. We can think of several people we could fit into each category today, and love them all.
Related: A Handy Glossary Of Gay Terms For The Well-Meaning Hetty
If you ask us, the whole thing is the “dog’s lunch.” (“Either a normal person or a gay person whose looks and actions are unattractive to the point of non-association.”)
Scroll down to read the full glossary…
Louie Mars
I own a copy of this, excerpts of which will be included in my forthcoming book, ‘GAY’.
Glücklich
@Louie Mars:
How cool!
These are hilarious. “Lace works” in the apartment make it chi-chi. And see I thought it was the leather butterfly fuck swing making the apartment chi-chi.
galatians328
BUT isn’t it ACTUALLY the case that plenty of queers make up layers of stratification about ‘what they like’ and ‘don’t like’, which ‘groups’ or ‘types’ are hot and which are, who is worth respectful consideration and who can be shamelessly gossiped about, belittled, dehumanized, and bullied? So, isn’t that adopting the very strategies of the oppressors? What do queers intend to do about that: continue to be oppressors of other queers? or do something different? be something different?
GLF
“Uncovered”? There are several books published about the Johns Committee and the infamous Purple Pamphlet, notably Communists and Perverts Under the Palms, by Stacy Braukman.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Who wrote that gigglefest?? DICK Santorum’s Father?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
In NYC for Pride this weekend. My tally so far:
1- 69’s
2- 71’s
0 -Partial 69’s
:p
Sheldon Siegel
What else would you expect from a state shaped like a penis? Lol
Paul Dellai
Not. Chi chi at all
Evji108
When I was at College in Southern California in the early 1970’s they still raided gay bars, and they placed ‘honey trap’ officers in public toilets or even gay bar restrooms where they would hang out with boners at the urinals and when they got a response they made an arrest. As a nice well raised white boy from an upper middle class suburb, this was all a rude awakening.
mc4bbs
The ERRORS are the funniest things!
A “71” is actually a well-known JOKE about it being a 69 with two fingers up the butt. ROFL!
How chi-chi!
Atomicrob
Your tax dollars at work . . . Can you just imagine the group of closet queens that assembled these images and “glossary” . . .?
Bauhaus
@galatians328:
I don’t like cliques. Never have. It’s been a blessing my entire life. I’m bi [identify as gay], athletic, cultured, lover of the Arts. My identity and interests expose me to every ‘group’ and ‘type’ imaginable, but I’ve never felt I belonged to any group in particular. I’m also attracted to all ‘types’ of guys (wealthy, poor, professional, working class, any r@ce and culture, small, tall). For me, it’s about a man and his/our spark, and his light, not just sexual attraction. Some of the best sex I’ve ever had is with oppressed “Get Thee Behind Me Satan” religious nut-jobs, eager to have the gay-devil fucked and sucked out of them. I suppose the answer to your question: don’t be “that” person.
Chris Hilton
Grant Harris
Kevin Fitzsimmons
Not recent, but funny
scotshot
@galatians328: @galations328:
queers?
queers?
queers?
Troll much?
papparon
I was at Florida State U 1960-1963 and was one of the “expelled” students. There is no way I can tell you the horror and unreality the students and teachers experienced at the hands of these “investigators” during that time. It was nothing less than what most people would think of as Nazi interrogation techniques – threats of imprisonment and death – intimidation by questioning your unsuspecting associates and relatives – abusive language – sleep deprivation – public humiliation – forced “confessions” – relentless demands to provide more names of potential suspects or you would be “locked up and the key thrown away” – even the ironic cliche of being questioned in a dark room with a goose-neck lamp shining in your face, shadowy figures milling about; the corner of a tape recorder just visible on the desk, and the clickity-whirr of 16mm camera rolling somewhere in the darkness.
It was definitely NO JOKE. At least two of my friends committed suicide. When the college sent a letter to my parents of my “suspected” association with “known homosexuals” My parents threw me out of their house and from that point on I was on my own. To this day I can vividly recall those scenes and many more, still feeling the anger and sickening, raw emotions those thoughts bring.
This should NEVER have happened in the United States – yet it did, and almost nobody knows about it. The booklet described here should be proof enough of who the truly sick people are. The part that is not shown here is the drivel that they claim are conclusions of an unbiased investigation. If you think this is funny, try to find a complete copy of the booklet and read it. You will be disgusted and ashamed to be part of a country that would do that to its own people.
GG
“So, what brings you to this gay bar?”
“Er, I’m doing research for a book.”
da90027
I haven’t laughed this hard since I saw Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages
Ladbrook
From the state that also gave us Anita Bryant and now Marco Rubio. So… not surprised.
mdhess
Methinks the Florida legislature had a touch of the voyeurism.
martinbakman
@Atomicrob: They were probably Baptist preachers.
CarrieV
@papparon: Papparon, that is tragic 🙁 I cannot imagine the terror and torment that all of you must have been put through, and you especially getting treated this way in the end BY YOUR OWN PARENTS.
All I can say is America, and ultimately the world, is slowly but surely getting better for most people. The stranglehold by the rich, white cis-hets in power is slowly being eroded to make way for people of all colors, genders, sexes, and identities. Look at today’s youth laughing at how backward America used to be, and view it as progress of how far we’ve come that they cannot even imagine a f%ck!ng backward world that this booklet evokes.
Thank you for putting a serious face on this for a moment so we can be reminded of what used to be.
Maude
@papparon:
That’s a story I’ve heard many times from people who I met in NYC during the 1970s.
So sad, and it wasn’t only Florida U, that did the dirty deed to staff and students alike.
TU was a favorite place to cruise until the Knoxville Worlds Fair…..You may not believe this, but they removed every door of every public toilet cubicle in Knoxville…..Dept.Stores, movies,bars, everywhere you can think of during the Worlds Fair Exhibition.
Kaye Crawford
@papparon:
I was raised in Florida in the late 50’s, moved to D.C. as soon as I was old enough to live on my own (18) & after 7 yrs of living in total fear, & my lover killed, I moved out West.
I intimately understand the nightmare you went through & think we should write our stories, as difficult as it could be, so our youth can understand & have a new appreciation of our LGBT elders.
Does anyone else remember the Rendezvous in D.C. or the SugarShack in L.A.?
patricko
@papparon: I’m sorry you were forced to go through that. I hope you ultimately found happiness.
mujerado
@galatians328: – Yes, but it’s true of heterosexual people too. Everyone has groups they belong to and other groups they look down on. If you want to condemn gay people for it, you have to condemn everyone for it.
omacdonald
@Sheldon Siegel And FL looks like a droopy one at that.
omacdonald
This looks like a parody of some anti-gay PSA. I mean seriously… looking at this I’m getting a little turned on which probably is the opposite of the goal for this PSA. Idiots.
Lisa Thornton
“Lust murder” is a homosexual term?
Dylan J. Tate
Lmaooooo I didn’t even know some of these terms existed. I wonder how many gays were groomed into Outhood when they read this pamphlet? HahaahahahahahahahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Gus Anderson
So, homosexuality is a citizenship requirement in Florida? SWEET
jason smeds
In those oppressive days, the male body was actually more admired, valued and eroticized than it is today. Today’s male ideal has become Stonestreet from Modern Family.
Finrod
Based on the glossary, I’d say that gays in Florida were having a good time, and that the people who wrote this pamphlet were not entirely familiar with the alphabet.
Trevor McGee
STH
IanHunter
I was given a copy of this a few years ago by friends from Florida. We got a lot of laughs, especially with some of the “gay glossary”. I honestly thought that it was published as a joke at first.