For years gay people were tolerated the arts – and were then acced of takg over. Gregory Woods trac the works of wrers, artists, tellectuals and film stars who transformed 20th-century culture
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FROM GAY NSPIRACY TO QUEER CHIC: THE ARTISTS AND WRERS WHO CHANGED THE WORLD
As someone wh more than a passg tert lbian and gay culture, my attentn was drawn to the potential for bias this cheerful scene … But hang on a moment, somethg was not que right. How uld this cisn possibly benef the ternatnal gay nspiracy that has been so flagrantly nng the arts for so long? And so, jt when you thought the Twtersphere might be about to explo wh homophobic abe about misplaced special terts, there was nothg to pla urse, by highlightg the sexuali of the wrers, I’m engagg much the same impertence.
And would have been no ls irrelevant if they had cid to give the prize to the short-listed poet Chris Beckett, who happens to be a gay man. However, I feel fortable wh havg raised the issue, sce prompts tertg qutns about the nature and fluence of gay culture – whether is a stagnant oxbow or a strong current at the centre of the uld be that official regnn is a relevant ditor here.
Today, lbians and gay men mata a cultural visibily that is not new: has been built up over a century and the qutn of gay fluence is not entirely gratuo. To what extent was fluence ed by homosexual powerbrokers (Diaghilev the Ballets Rs, Hugh Bemont London’s Wt End theatr, David Geffen Hollywood) to further the reers of other homosexuals? The great Icelandic novelist Halldór Laxns noted 1925 that Reykjavik had fally acquired all the acutrements of morny: “not only a universy and a movie theatre, but also football and homosexualy”.