Abstract
This chapter examines the development of queer youth cultures in New Zealand in the decades before 1950. It explores broad social patterns, international and local influences, and the intricacies of young people’s own experiences. By examining life stories and important societal changes, the chapter asks how meaning was negotiated at the level of the individual. The intimate opportunities available in the early years of colonisation grew alongside the processes of urbanisation, and although modern gay and lesbian identities solidified after the Second World War, their prehistory is full of ambiguous relationships and intimate possibilities. Young people’s stories reveal that the intimate present is built to a considerable degree upon the past.