What Were Once Vices...
Gay and Lesbian Eyes

Sam Spade seemed to take some genuine pleasure in slapping around both Wilmer (the gunsel!) and Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon, and gays and lesbians (and transsexuals) have been treated more or less the same way in the genre ever since. When they're not being reduced to campy comic relief, they're generally gender-confused homicidal freaks.

However, that all changed with the publication, in 1970, of Joseph Hansen's Fade Out, featuring tough-minded, middle-aged insurance investigator Dave Brandstetter, who just happened to be gay.

Thank God..

• Gay Men
• Francis Morley by Lou Rand
  Arguably the first gay private eye (1961)
• Dave Brandstetter by Joseph Hansen
  And certainly the best. Still.
  
  
• Mark Bradley by Stan Cutler
• Scotty Bradley by Greg Herren
• Archie Cain by Jack Ricardo
• Duffy by Dan Kavanagh (pseudonym of Julian Barnes)
• Dick Hardesty by Dorien Hardesty
• Jake Lieberman by Stephen Lewis
• Chanse MacLeod by Greg Herren
• Kevin J. Porter by John F. Parker
• Russell Quant by Anthony Bidulka
• Don Strachey by Richard Stevenson
• Henry Rios by Michael Nava
• Derek Thompson by Kelly Bradford
  .
• Lesbians
  In tandem with the success of women sleuths in general, cme the success of the lesbian eye. Who knew? In the early eighties, while Kinsey, Sharon, V.I. et al were assaulting the mainstream bestseller lists, in alternative and women's bookstores, readers first began snapping up lesbian novels featuring lesbian P.I.s by the armful. Mostly printed by small, independant presses (Naiad, Seal, Crossing), lesbian private eyes were soon everywhere. The books weren't always great, and some seemed rather formulaic (by 1989, the Village Voice remarked that "If it's a Naiiad book, you can bet she'll be in bed with some cute thing by, oh, page 120.").
  
  Still, there was no doubt that the dyke dick had arrived. Not that there hadn't been precedents. By 1978, Eve Zaremba had managed to land a publishing contract with mainstream publisher Paperjacks, and in 1991, Sandra Scoppetone scored a hardcover contract with another mainstream press for her popular Lauren Laurano series.
  .
• Clio Browne by Dolores Komo
• Nell Fury by Elizabeth Pincus
• Rowena Grant by Maurice Gagnon
• Kat Guerrera by M.F. Beal
  The first lesbian eye (1977).
• Kylie Kendall by Clair McNab
• Helen Keremos by Eve Zaremba
  The first lesbian sleuth by a mainstream publisher (1978, in paperback).
• Micky Knight by J.M. Redmann
• Lauren Laurano..by Sandra Scoppettone
  The first lesbian eye to be published as a mainstream hardcover (1991)
• Saz Martin by Stella Duffy
• Robin Miller by Jaye Maiman
• Eliza Pirex by Diana McRae
• Lamaar Ransom by John Calder
  One of the first, published in Britain, 1979
• Caitlin Reece by Lauren Wright Douglas (1987)
• Emma Victor by Mary Wings (1987)
  
  In June 1998, as part of the P.I. Poll, I questioned readers on their favorite lesbian eyes. The results are listed here.
  
  
• Transsexuals
• Scotti House by Marijane Meaker "with" Vin Packer