The 1950s
I look back on the 1950s now, an old man, and see myself as a college student, innocent, in khakis and the penny loafers and crew neck sweaters; Eisenhower was president, cars were big and sleek, television was small and black-and-white, and gay men were ‘faggots’ or ‘queers’ who lived in the shadows, coming out only to a few bars in every city, usually a dingy place where they could at least be themselves for a few hours; or, for the less genteel, in the men’s rooms of bus stations and...