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Molly-House was a term used in 18th century and in 19th century England to define a meeting point for homosexual men. These meeting places were generally taverns, public houses, coffeehouses or even private rooms where men could either socialize or meet possible sexual partners. Even if these clubs tended to display a heavy sexual connotation, some critics are cautious to classify them as mere 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 until the 1780s.〔 At that time homosexual sexual activities were included in the offence categories of buggery and sodomy (terms which were often used interchangeably) and were heavily prosecuted (in the United Kingdom they remained capital offences until 1861〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.banap.net/spip.php?article156 )〕). In this context, particularly during the 1720s, Molly-Houses came to be the scenario for raids and arrests,〔 and their customers the ideal target for blackmailers. Nowadays, Molly-Houses can be considered a sort of precursor of some types of contemporary meeting places for the gay community.〔 ==Etymology== In analysing the origin of the ''Molly-House'' denomination, it seems important to investigate the first component of the compound. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ''Molly'' (also spelt as ''molley'', ''mollie'', ''mally'') is considered a pet-form of the female forename Mary, and had two main connotations in 18th century English. The first one is close to the word moll, designing a lower-class girl or woman, occasionally a prostitute. The second one is classified as slang, defining an effeminate, usually homosexual, male.〔〔(The Gay subculture in eighteenth century England ) Rictor Norton Quote: However, I think we have to exercise some caution and avoid jumping to the conclusion that just because we do not hear of the molly subculture or effeminate queens before 1700, therefore they did not exist until 1700.〕 Along with the possible perception of intrinsic female features deriving from the association with the name Mary, another possible origin of this denomination for a homosexual man could be found in the Latin form ''mollis'', indicating the supposed passive-effeminate partner in male homosexual relationships.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/Mollis.pdf )〕 However, the question is quite complex when considering the translation of ''molly'' given in some dictionaries of the time, particularly in 1762, in a Swedish/English dictionary by Jacob Serenius, and in a French/English dictionary by Thomas Nugent, in 1767. The word was present, but simply defined a sodomite, without effeminate connotations. Other uses of the word can be seen in the verb ''to molly'' (to have a homosexual intercourse), in the expressions ''mollycot'' (a British regional expression indicating man interested in activities traditionally associated with women) and ''Miss Molly'' (referring to an effeminate or homosexual male). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Molly house」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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