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.