Ahead of the curve —Two men tie the knot in 1957.
The ONE Archives Foundation in Los Angeles, a non-profit dedicated to preserving LGBTQ history, is on a mission. Having stumbled across a series of wedding pictures taken in the 1950’s, they want to find the grooms or, at least, find out who they are.
So far, all they know is that the pictures were dropped off at a drugstore in Philadelphia to be developed and that the owner of the drugstore, deeming them inappropriate, refused to return them to the unknown grooms.
To that end, they’ve created a website, OurOneStory.com to help find these men. Not an easy task as the couple must be in their 80’s or 90’s now. The historians have become sleuths, hoping that if they spread these pictures around someone will recognize either the grooms or their guests.
Incredible to think that this little chunk of history has survived, that these pictures have somehow made it from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and that they weren’t destroyed by the offended drugstore owner.
Also, in your face to all those morons who picket and scream and fight against school boards who want to “normalize” homosexuality. The cretins who rant about the corrupting influence of social media, who insist the liberal agenda is destroying family values and “turning” good kids gay.
These two men knew who they were, and who they wanted, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t learn that in school, or see it in an Instagram post.
Captured in black and white, a celebration, a moment in time, and a silent witness to the fact that same-sex attraction is, and always has been, one of the threads that inform the tapestry of human sexuality.
Sorry, stepping down from my soapbox now. For more wedding pictures, please check out this link.
Thanks for sharing this, Aimer. I love a happy ending and would like to read that the grooms are still alive and well. I would love to hear their story!
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Me too. I want to know the rest of the story 🙂
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These men married a year before I was even born! Maybe they were closeted to the outside world, because being out in those days was very dangerous. But they knew who they loved and they made a statement with their marriage vows. Incredibly inspiring!
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Notice the lack of family members in the photos, no sisters, mothers. I suppose one of those young men could have been a brother, but I doubt it, not back then…So brave. Makes you smile and cry at the same time.
We have an organization here in Toronto, ArQuives that does the same thing, collects and makes gay history available. Stories like this make you realize how important this kind of work is.
Fun fact: same-sex marriages were alive and well in the ancient world until Christianity shut them down. 2000 years to come full circle. We haven’t invented the wheel, we’ve just rediscovered it 🙂
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What an interesting and fantastic post, Aimer. It makes me think of all the underground gay nightclubs that existed well before homosexually was no longer a crime in many counties. I still remember having to knock on the door of a club, and somebody would open a peephole and decide whether to allow you in or not. I also worked on the door of a gay nightclub in London in the late 1980s. I was a barman, but when the girl who took the entry fee into the club never turned in for duty, I was duly put in her place. I didn’t mind at all, because I had a crush on one of the doormen!
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Good times, Hugh 🙂
Having known both, what do you think, are today’s clubs missing that element of intrigue?
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Well, I’ve not been to a nightclub for many years, but I do think the element of intrigue has been lost, Aimer. It’s a little like knowing that people can use their mobile phones to date now. No more having to go out to look for a date. It can all be done from the comfort of our homes. I’m positive that in about 20 years, people will pay money to have conversations face to face.
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LOL! Probably 🙂
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