Roger Casement: gay Irish martyr or victim of a Brish fery? | History books | The Guardian

gay martyrs

Members of a church say God is punishg U.S. soldiers for fendg a untry that harbors gays, and they brought their msage to the funerals Saturday of two soldiers killed Iraq.

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ROGER CASEMENT: GAY IRISH MARTYR OR VICTIM OF A BRISH FERY?

Abstract. Through an examatn of publicly mourned gay aths Ameri, Brett Ktzsch unters the mon perceptn that LGBT polics and relign have b * gay martyrs *

His wrgs nvced historians John Boswell and Brian Patrick McGuire that Aelred was a gay man, albe one who still disuraged any sexual activy outsi the bounds of marriage.

Several relig anizatn, s cludg the Natnal Anglin Catholic Church and Integry the Epispal Church the Uned Stat have regnized Aelred as the patron sat of such gay-iendly groups as the Orr of St. An abbot medieval France, Bernard of Clairvz mataed a lengthy personal relatnship wh the archbishop Malachy, acrdg to gay liberatn theologian Richard Cleaver.

SERGI AND BACCH: THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO WERE MA SATS BY THE CHURCH

* gay martyrs *

Boris would go on to hold special signifince for gay Christians bee of his apparently romantic relatnship wh his servant, Gee the Hungarian. This 16th-century Spanish sat was prone to g homoerotic imagery poetry exprsg his love of Christ, most notably his poem "On a Dark Night.

By that terpretatn, such scripture as referenc to the disciple reclg upon the bosom of the Lord have spired homoerotic art pictg the relatnship between Christ and John as romantic.

This is the view explored Martti Nissen and Kirsi Stjerna's Homoeroticism the Biblil World: A Historil Perspective. The 19th-century Brish subversive scholar was beatified 2010, spe speculatn that he may well have been gay.

DYG TO BE NORMAL: GAY MARTYRS AND THE TRANSFORMATN OF AMERIN SEXUAL POLICS

Consired the ma patron sat of gays by many, Sebastian was martyred Rome the year 288 on the orrs of Emperor Dcletian. While no tal actually exist providg rmatn about Sebastian's love life or sexual orientatn, the fact so much Renaissance art picts him homoerotic pos monstrat a strong nnectn to LGBT people.

Y, the Good Kg Wencls, a sat and a de, also was likely gay. The wrgs ma reference to such classil gay figur as Adonis and Ganyme.

SAT SEBASTIAN AS A GAY IN

The achievement of legal equaly for gays Ireland 2015, together wh the Uned Kgdom’s recent Brex vote to leave the European Unn, may ocsn a new life after ath for Casement — as the symbol of a uned Ireland. In the aftermath of his executn a s-long bate over the thenticy of the diari leadg participants the bate are two bgraphers: Jefey Dudgeon, who believ that the diari are genue and that Casement was a homosexual, and Ang Mchell, who thks that the diari were fed and that Casement’s sexual orientatn remas an open qutn. Casement’s path to polil remptn was laid by the Gay Liberatn movement.

In 1981, he challenged Northern Ireland’s crimalisatn of homosexual acts between nsentg adult men a se agast the Uned Kgdom brought before the European Court of Human Rights. The urt led that the law at issue vlated the European Conventn of Human Rights, and this cisn prompted the Brish ernment 1982 to issue an Orr Council that crimalised homosexual acts between adult men Northern Ireland; England, Wal, and Stland had already passed siar laws.

DYG TO BE NORMAL: GAY MARTYRS AND THE TRANSFORMATN OF AMERIN SEXUAL POLICS

In 1993 the Irish parliament to the south also crimalised male homosexualy orr to brg the Republic’s law to pliance wh the European Conventn of Human Rights.

GAY HISTORY: MARTYRS AMONG US: DEIFYG MATTHEW SHEPARD, HARVEY MILK + MORE

Casement has been rcated by an extraordary batn of velopments the Republic of Ireland and the Uned Kgdom, not jt the relative toleratn of homosexualy, but the lurch toward Brex a popular referendum that found 52% of UK voters favour and 48% opposed. In reprentg Casement as a man of ntradictns, bgraphers have asssed him the terms of nflicts Irish society that persisted long after his ath: the sectarian divi between Prottants and Catholics, the troubl between Ireland and Bra, and the discrimatn agast male homosexuals enforced by relign and law.

Christiany’s history of discrimatn agast the gay muny is wily known, and the irratnal aversn on the part of Christians towards same-sex relatnships and marriage is unfortunate, to say the least. They were origally scribed as erastai, meang lovers, ditg they were engaged an erotic homosexual relatnship. What is clear, however, is that the two sats were fact venerated for centuri startg the 5th century, and their close relatnship has spired many gay Christians, who’ve now taken them as the patron figur of homosexualy Christian non.

They jo the pany of Sebastian, patron sat of homosexualy, Pl the Apostle, who may have stggled wh homosexual sir, and John the Evangelist, who was possibly the “Beloved Disciple” of J — who are also venerated by queer Christians for a variety of reasons. This All Sats’ Day — and honor of All Souls’ Day — here’s a look at the ia that there are sats and martyrs of Christiany who were eher genr non-nformg, or who exhibed strong same-sex bonds or attractns — or who simply stggled wh what may have been homosexual sire. And when to queer-revered sats such as Sebastian, ’s important to unrstand that when we say he is regard as the patron sat of homosexualy, ’s not bee of anythg he did while alive, but merely bee of his longstandg populary wh gay men.

THE FOTTEN MASS MURR OF 'ANTI-GAY' MARTYRS

Bulletproof Fah: A Spirual Survival Gui for Gay and Lbian Christians. Dyg to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformatn of Amerin Sexual Polics.

Through an examatn of publicly mourned gay aths Ameri, Brett Ktzsch unters the mon perceptn that LGBT polics and relign have been opposnal to one another. Dyg to Be Normal reveals how gay activists have ed relign to bolster the argument that gays are sentially the same as straights, and therefore servg of equal rights. Throughout, Ktzsch shows how, the fight for greater social cln, activists relied on Christian valu and rhetoric to portray gays as upstandg Amerins.

ANTI-GAY CHURCH PROTTS AT SOLDIERS’ FUNERALS

As Ktzsch monstrat, gay activists regularly rerced a whe Prottant visn of acceptable Amerin cizenship that often exclud people of lor, genr-variant dividuals, non-Christians, and those who did not adhere to Prottant Christiany’s sexual standards.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY MARTYRS

Sat Sebastian as a gay in | Art UK .

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