More Surprises! (No Surprise there)

The third section of Chauncey's Gay New York was just as thought provoking as the other sections. At this point I rather expected to be surprised, and I was.  So much was covered, I hardly know where to begin for my blog posting.  Thus, I will simply start with a section I found to be of interest, and which also left me with some questions, that being the section on Prohibition.  While I have often heard that Prohibition actually increased the alcohol consumption in America (or at least did NOT succeed at all in stopping alcohol purchase and consumption)  I was interested to hear in the positive effects it had upon the Gay community as a whole. Thanks to the secrecy Prohibition required of even straight, middle- class people to socialize in an atmosphere which included alcohol, Gay men were able to more freely expand their own communities in this time. 
   Beyond this, I also found the sections on double-entendre and censorship particularly interesting.  Chauncey demonstrated how the Gay community was able to take terms used in everyday language, such as "seafood,"  or "browning,"  and turn them into coded terms that other gays would recognize as "navy men" and "anal sex."  Censorship also produced interesting effects upon the representation of Gay culture.  Rather than completely eliminating its presence, censorship simply forced allusions to homosexuality to become implicit rather than explicit, coded in actions which, on the surface, seem innocent, but if "clued in" to gay culture, have homoerotic tenancies, such as Bugs Bunny stroking a rifle.   Mary asked us in class today to read this section of Gay New York keeping questions in mind, and one which occurred to me in these sections was: how much of this coding from earlier years in the Gay community has transferred to today?  Is coding still in use to the extent that it was in the mid-1900s?  Despite the alleviation of some censorship, are coded gay images still a prevalent part of the film industry?  I remember watched a documentary on the film rating board a few years ago, which indicated how strict the board was in terms of sex, and how any form of sex other than the missionary position or woman on top would produce an R rating (including gay sex)  but I am unsure of how much censorship of specifically gay material in general continues today in the media.  It would be an interesting thing to look into.