In 1885, England crimalized all sexual relatns between nsentg adult mal, no matter how private or quiet. So if you want a picture of London's gay life around the 1895 trial of Osr Wil, you mt scend to a shadowy unrworld of protected spac and passwords. This is where Theo Aronson guis his…
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GAY HISTORY: THE CLEVELAND STREET SNDAL
Acrdg to Acland, her father had treated a young gay man wh syphilis, which he had possibly ntracted om a prostute the Wt Indi. Homosexualy was illegal and nsired so shockg that men ught the act eher left the untry or were sent to jail, as wnsed Osr Wil’s imprisonment a few years later.
Eventually a more suable match was found Prcs Mary of Teck, dghter of a mor German nobleman and an English granddghter of Gee III, who was willg to attach herself to a dull and cur (and possibly gay) man exchange for beg the Brish queen. The Cleveland Street sndal occurred 1889, when a homosexual male brothel Cleveland Street, Fzrovia, London, was disvered by police. The sndal fuelled the attu that male homosexualy was an aristocratic vice that rpted lower-class youths.
Such perceptns were still prevalent 1895 when the Marqus of Queensberry acced Osr Wil of beg an active homosexual. The Act ma all homosexual acts between men, as well as procurement or attempted procurement of such acts, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment wh or whout hard labour. [31] The fal fence wns, John Sl, was a male prostute who had earlier been volved a homosexual sndal at Dubl Castle, and featured a clanstely published erotic novel The Ss of the Ci of the Pla which was st as his tobgraphy.