Historians have long argued that queer women in urban spaces received a level of legal and social tolerance or impunity toward their same sex relationships. This article argues that queer women were not arrested on charges of homosexuality or sodomy, but on charges of public indecency, "crimes of lewdness," distribution of immoral literature, or prostitution. The use of sex work archives such as the Committee of Fourteen allows scholars to uncover more intersectional lesbian narratives by focusing on those who were most heavily impacted by vice and penal reform. Some historians have laid scholarly foundations by noting the queer subcultures within cooperative housing buildings in cities such as Chicago and New York. However, few historians have used the rich archive built around surveilling female sex workers to identify under-represented lesbian subcultures in this period. While white and upper-class queer women may have been able to live together without raising concerns or accusations of sexual misconduct, the existing social and judicial attitudes toward Black and working-class immigrant women's sexuality meant that their same-sex relationships made them a greater target than their white counterparts. While sex work provided means for queer women of any race to support themselves outside of a marriage to a man, Black queer women were disproportionately prosecuted. By understanding the history of early twentieth century sex work and lesbian communities as inextricable, scholars can uncover narratives of working class, Black queer women who have been systematically erased from the historical record.
Keara Sebold (Sun,) studied this question.