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Molly house or molly-house was a term used in 18th- and 19th-century Britain for a meeting place for homosexual men and gender-nonconforming people. The meeting places were generally taverns, public houses, coffeehouses[1] or even private rooms[2] where patrons could either socialise or meet possible sexual partners.
Despite the reputation of molly-houses as places having primarily sexual connotations, rather than as social meeting places, some historians are reluctant to classify them specifically as brothels. Rictor Norton, for example, argues that the regular customers could have been in fact mutual friends, at least at the beginning, since consistent evidence concerning male prostitution seems to be insufficient in Britain until the 1780s.[2][3]
From 1533 onwards, homosexual relations and sexual activities remained illegal and were frequently prosecuted, with homosexual sexual activities being included in the offence categories of buggery and sodomy (the terms which were often used interchangeably), they remained capital offences until 1861.[4] From the 16th century onwards until 1861, particularly during the 1720s, molly-houses came to be the scenes of raids and arrests,[1] and their customers frequently became targets for blackmail.[5]
Molly-houses can be considered a precursor to some types of contemporary meeting places for the gay community,[1][6] such as cottaging.
- ^ a b c Bailey, Amanda; Trumbach, Randolph (Fall 2002). "Welcome to the Molly-House: An Interview with Randolph Trumbach". Cabinet (8 Pharmacopia). Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- ^ a b Rictor Norton (2004). "Clap, Margaret (fl. 1710–1726).". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74949. Retrieved 8 November 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Rictor Norton. "The Gay Subculture in Early Eighteenth-Century London". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ^ "Homosexuality in Great Britain Section Two: Legislation". banap.net. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ^ Rictor Norton (2001). Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon (ed.). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History Vol.1:From antiquity to World War II (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. p. 212. ISBN 0-415-15982-2.
- ^ Norton, Rictor (2004). "Clap, Margaret [known as Mother Clap] (fl. 1710–1726), 'molly house' keeper". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74949. Retrieved 29 November 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)