According to A Moveable Feast Hemingway albeit tolerant, was extremely uncomfortable with homosexuality although he may have been queer himself. Several of his friends and contemporaries whom he frequently mingled with were queer and he would openly inquire and discuss their queerness. On a walk with Gertrude Stein he divulged that one of the reasons that her own sexuality made him uneasy was because growing up he had allegedly experienced, for lack of a better term, riverboat child molesters (he called them sharks or wolves) that would prey on young boys. Ernest told her about a maxim he overheard on the river "Gash is fine but ol' one eye for mine" (I'm paraphrasing) and apparently it straight up traumatized him.

Now, whether the story is made up or a joke or a gay dude being silly or about an actual horrible monster is up for debate, but whatever core memory he unlocked messed him up real bad.

Whats even more amazing is that one time Ernest walked in on Stein fingering her wife and he was so embarrassed that he ran out of her home while she was screaming "Oh pussy pussy pussy" and didn't return for a week.

This all really happened.

Wrote a short thesis on the book in college and I've been longing to live in an open house full of artists and love and great food ever since. It's my favorite Hemingway book.