The Queer History Of The Women's House Of Detention

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🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

In New York City, in the 20th century, tens of thousands of women and transmasculine people were incarcerated at the so-called "House of D." Author Hugh Ryan says that in many cases, the prisoners were charged with crimes related to gender non-conforming behavior. "Drunkenness, waywardism, disobedience to their parents, being out at night by themselves, wearing pants, accepting a date from a man, accepting a ride from a man," Ryan says. "All of these things could have gotten you arrested if you were perceived as the 'wrong kind of woman.'" In his new book, The Women's House of Detention, Ryan writes about the prison, and about the role it played in the gay rights movement of the '60s, including the Stonewall Uprising of 1969.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross.
0:02.4	We're going to talk about a little known chapter in LGBTQ history
0:06.7	that is also an important chapter in the history of incarceration in America.
0:11.3	My guest, U Ryan, is the author of the new book, The Women's House of Detention,
0:15.2	A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison.
0:18.1	The House of D, as it was called, was located in Greenwich Village.
0:22.0	The book tells the story of the cycle in which the prison contributed to Greenwich Village
0:26.4	becoming a queer Bohemian neighborhood while the neighborhood contributed to the prison
0:31.3	having a disproportionately large number of incarcerated lesbian and transmasculine people.
0:37.3	In writing the history of the prison, Ryan also describes how women were punished
0:41.9	for what was considered at the time to be gender nonconforming behavior,
0:46.1	ranging from being a lesbian or transmasculine man to just wearing pants.
0:51.5	The prison opened in 1932 in Greenwich Village was shut down in 1972 and was demolished in 1974.
0:59.4	Among the last prisoners there were Angela Davis and Efinishakor,
1:03.5	Tupac Shakor's mother.
1:05.4	The prison also figures into the Stonewall uprising and the founding of the Gay Liberation Front.
1:10.9	U Ryan is on the board of advisors for the archives of the LGBT Center in Manhattan
1:16.2	and the Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Fort Lauderdale.
1:20.0	His previous book is titled When Brooklyn Was Queer.
1:23.9	Hugh Ryan, welcome to Fresh Air.
1:26.1	So let's start with the Stonewall uprising.
1:27.9	That's one of the turning points in LGBTQ history.
	...

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