It was no secret that the “roaring twenties” was associated with a sexual revolution throughout the entirety of the United States. New York City not only saw a dramatic shift in urban and racial landscapes after the Great Migration, but an accompanying shift in moral attitudes towards the subject of sexuality. Formerly taboo and covert, promiscuity and sexually-suggestive acts slid to the forefront of entertainment. Speakeasies, bars and dance-halls found ample business and were open all hours of the night. While the police and various conservative societies attempted to suppress the “immoral” sexual activities that were occurring in the streets of New York, Harlem was largely exempt from policing, and sexual liberation became a visible facet of Harlem life. Single black female migrants poured into the city and found jobs as cabaret dancers and singers, providing late-night entertainment for blacks and whites alike. Harlem also saw its fair share of cross-dressers, lesbian couples and explicitly sexual performances (Schwartz, 141). However, the sexualized was not without opposition from the inside. Striving for “racial uplift,” the black bourgeoisie tried to counteract the image of a sexualized Harlem by exerting pressure on the black community,” but their efforts to police the neighbourhood failed (Schwarz, 141). It is important to consider that the Harlem Renaissance was thus born out of an environment where two competing social forces were at play—the conservatism and seriousness of the black bourgeoisie and intellectuals and the sexual radicals that found a place to express themselves in the newly sprouted Harlem metropolis.

“The Harlem Renaissance was surely as gay as it was black.”

-Henry Louis Gates Jr., American literary critic and intellectual

Many Renaissance artists were same-sex interested, but they often hid their sexuality from the public eye. Schwartz writes that secret gay networks were established among some male Renaissance participants in an attempt to shield their sexuality from the “eyes of the black bourgeoisie” (Schwartz, 142). Lesbian artists had a less structured community, as they had to additionally face gender discrimination and family obligations, thus experiencing more “repressive living and writing conditions than their male counterparts” (Schwartz, 142). The black bourgeoisie was particularly skeptical of lesbians, and how their image would stunt the growth of the African-American race. Black women were regarded as the “future of black America,” but lesbians counteracted this role, as they were accused of “rejecting their reproductive role” in society and “corrupting black youth” (Schwartz, 143).

Given the sensitivity regarding black female sexuality, provocative portrayals of female sexuality were scant in most female Renaissance works. Female writers were conscious of the “persistent myth of black women’s lasciviousness,” and treated the subject gently, as to not confirm existing stereotypes. Schwartz also observes that many of the prominent female writers during the Renaissance were “northern bred and belonged to the black bourgeoisie”—and primarily concerned with subduing the sexualized image of Harlem.

Pictured above: Harlem cabaret dancers

Larsen’s carefully layered plot in Passing is clear evidence that she too adhered to this convention. On the surface, it appears as though Passing is about the mulatto struggle with identity and belonging, but a closer reading reveals sexual undertones that suggest a lesbian subplot. Readers follow Irene and Clare’s dramatic reunion and the close relationship that ensues when Clare becomes increasingly involved with Irene’s life. In contrast to the two women’s marriages, which are projected as relatively unemotional, the interactions between Irene and Clare are laden with unadulterated passion. Irene admits that she has a “strange and compelling….fascination” with Clare (Larsen, 161) and often finds herself taken aback by Clare’s beauty. Irene’s bouts of admiration for Clare vanish almost as soon as they surface, as she is often quick to darken and express disdain for Clare’s presence. The apparent flux of Irene’s emotions mimics the expression and repression paradox that characterized the Harlem Renaissance. The end of the novel sees the mysterious death of Clare, which leads us to infer that Larsen is commenting on the tragic aspects of sexual repression.