Was Osr Wil Gay? - ALBION COLLEGE FURSCA 2013ALBION COLLEGE FURSCA 2013

Contents:

• OSR WIL’S ‘CCIAL’ ROLE THE GAY RIGHTS STGGLE
• WAS OSR WIL GAY?
• HOW REVOLUTNARY GAY POET OSR WIL LEFT BEHD A LASTG QUEER LEGACY
• OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER
• HOW OSR WIL PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY RIGHTS THE ARTS
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN
• ‘YOU FEEL GOOSE BUMPS’: THE PH TO PRERVE WHERE WIL WAS JAILED FOR BEG GAY
• WAS OSR WIL GAY, WHEN DID THE DORIAN GRAY THOR DIE AND WHERE WAS HE BURIED?
• OSR WIL’S INFLUENCE ON GAY INTY
• IN “THE NEW LIFE,” A 19TH-CENTURY GAY MAN FIGHTS FOR ACCEPTANCE AS OSR WIL IS TRIED FOR SODOMY
• OSR WIL’S REPUTED LAST WORDS PROVE THE INIC GAY PLAYWRIGHT KEPT HIS RAZOR SHARP W TILL THE VERY END
• ABANDONED ‘GAY AS HELL’ DOG FDS HOME WH GAY NORTH CAROLA UPLE
• OSR WIL: “GAY” IN OR “HOMOPHOBE”?
• OSR WIL, GAY MARTYR OR ORIGAL PEDOGATE REARCHER?
• #BORNTHISDAY: ULTIMATE GAY IN, OSR WIL

OSR WIL’S ‘CCIAL’ ROLE THE GAY RIGHTS STGGLE

His ma problem was that Queensberry’s allegatns about his homosexualy were te, and therefore uldn’t be judged the trial, Queensberry’s fense acced Wil of solicg 12 other young men to m sodomy. Osr Wil was tried for homosexualy on April 26, plead not guilty on 25 unts of gross a prelimary bail hearg, hotel chambermaids and a hoekeeper had ttified that they had seen young men Wil’s bed and found fel stas on his the trial, Wil was qutned extensively about “the love that dare not speak s name, ” a phrase om Lord Aled Douglas’ poem “Two Lov, ” published 1894, that many terpreted as a phemism for trial end wh the jury unable to reach a verdict.

WAS OSR WIL GAY?

Prr to beg rcerated, Wil reigned supreme the lerary sphere, but throughout his life he harboured a heavy secret – he was gay – and due to an unacceptg society, which crimalised homosexualy, he was forced to hi his inty. Same-sex sexual activy was not crimalized the Republic of Ireland until 1993 after a 1988 lg stated Irish laws prohibg male homosexual activi were ntraventn of the European Conventn on Human Rights. In a symbolic gture, however, the Department announced 2017 that if a historil homosexual crime is no longer illegal the UK and volved a nsensual sexual act wh another over the age of 16, the crime will now be emed posthumoly pardoned.

“We wele the ernment announcement to issue a posthumo pardon to all gay and bi men unjtly prosecuted for beg who they are, but we don’t thk go far enough, ” stated Pl Twock, director of mpaigns at Stonewall, a gay rights anizatn. How Osr Wil Paved the Way for Gay Rights the Arts | AnOtherPortra of Osr Wil, Source: WikimonsAs a new exhibn at Readg Prison se the lik of Patti Smh read om his semal work De Profundis, we nsir the groundbreakg impact of Wil's unjt persecutnSeptember 02, 2016.

Wil had tried to sue Sir John Sholto Douglas, father of his lover, Aled Lord Douglas (or Bosie), for libel after a seri of homophobic sults, culmatg a note left at Wil’s club the Albemarle readg “For Osr Wil, posg somdome [sic].

HOW REVOLUTNARY GAY POET OSR WIL LEFT BEHD A LASTG QUEER LEGACY

The tabl soon turned on Wil, and evince was brought forth of his “gross cency” – or homosexualy – somethg the wrer had at turns been tryg to hi, for obv societal and legal reasons, and also attemptg to garner more public acceptance and rpect for. It’s extraordary that our lifetime, gay marriage is accepted: ’s happened very fast – the distance between homosexualy beg illegal and gay marriage is only a few s, and shows how far we’ve e our tolerance and empathy to all kds of relatnships. Bull and Hasks helped found the groundbreakg stunt group at the Universy of Mae 1973 — then held the first Mae Gay Symposium 1974, which jump-started Mae’s LGBTQ+ rights stggle, lnchg much further ahead toward jtice than most other stat.

A photographic ntact sheet showg Steven Bull speakg at the first gay symposium put on by the Wild Ste Club at the Universy pf Mae 1974, is part of Bull’s papers hoed the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversy’s LGBTQ+ llectn at the Universy of Southern Mae.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT‘You Feel Goose Bumps’: The Ph to Prerve Where Wil Was Jailed for Beg GayActivists are tryg to prerve the prison he was sent to after his nvictn for “cency, ” sayg his life is an important part of Bra’s Turner for The New York TimREADING, England — The metal stairway creaks and groans unrfoot on the way to cell C.

OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER

3, a bare oblong room of pated brick behd a large and forbiddg prison was here that Osr Wil was rcerated for around 18 months the late 19th century bee of his homosexualy, and this was the spiratn for his grimly realistic portrayal of life behd bars, “The Ballad of Readg Gaol.

“It’s got tremendo potential, ” said Karen Rowland, a uncilor Readg wh special rponsibily for cultural issu, who is origally om New York and thks the lotn is of importance not only as an artistic and cultural Turner for The New York Tim“Doublg that wh LGBTQ+ tert, and havg e om livg right next to Stonewall New York Cy, I know the value and the importance of a natnal herage se for that muny, ” she said, referrg to the Greenwich Village bar New York creded as the startg place of the gay rights town of Readg proved to be an important place the life of Osr Wil, a celebrated lerary figure until 1895, when he was arrted at the Cadogan Hotel London and subsequently nvicted of “gross cency.

The same year Osr Wil was celebrated for his stage succs wh The Importance of Beg Earnt, he was apprehend by year was 1895, and homosexualy was very much illegal and nsired immoral Victorian society. When Bosie's powerful and eply nservative father the Marqus of Queensberry, lost patience, he went to Wil's club and left a rd for him that read, "For Osr Wil, posg somdome [sic], " sentially outg Wil for all to see at a time when beg gay was very dangero. When Wil was found guilty of "gross cency, " a law monly ed England to prosecute and jail homosexuals (as The Guardian tells , remaed on the books and ed for jt that purpose until 1967) — his life was sentially ed.

HOW OSR WIL PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY RIGHTS THE ARTS

If eher had been te, Edward Carson, the Marqus of Queensberry's fence lawyer the libel trial, would certaly have ppoted them, as he did the overtly gay passag the magaze publitn of The Picture of Dorian Gray (which were later supprsed the book. Though some say that gay characters rema unrreprented the media, we live an age which gay characters hugely popular programs like Glee and Grey’s Anatomy are seri regulars wh relatnships featured promently recurrg story l.

While the Wtern World has been creasgly acceptg of homosexualy as an equal and appropriate way of life, other untri around the world are creatg even greater rtrictns on people’s eedom and digny. Uganda’s credibly alarmg Kill the Gays Bill, which is set to make homosexual acts punishable by ath (they are already punishable by prison sentenc), remas legislative limbo and is eventually due for a vote.

Havg been acced of beg a “posed sodome”, Wil cid to sue Queensberry for libel – and so Queensberry’s fence was to prove to the public that Osr Wil was ed a gay man, to which end he announced his tentn of brgg several male rent boys to ttify that they had had sex wh Wil. He was a spokman for the late 19th-century Athetic movement England, which advoted art for art’s sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and crimal sus volvg homosexualy and endg his imprisonment (1895–97) was born of profsnal and lerary parents. The novel is based on the liv of two men livg f siècle London: John Addgton Symonds, a classicist, and Havelock Ellis, a physician, who real life -wrote a groundbreakg fense of homosexualy lled “Sexual Inversn, ” first published German 1896.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

The New Life njur, wh some dramatic liberti, the spiratn and wrg of “Sexual Inversn, ” and the liv of the two men — one gay and one straight — their fai, and Brish society at the peak of the Empire. His homosexualy is the central fact of his life and he tri to explore that over the urse of his lifetime: his earlit sexual feelgs and schoolboy csh, through his tormented 20s, through to the pot where he accepted his sexualy, and ed embraced . But for those who were more self-nscly thkg about homosexualy relatnship to the Greeks, they saw that the ancient Greek world was a culture that tolerated homosexualy, accepted as a normal feature of life, but also celebrated .

‘YOU FEEL GOOSE BUMPS’: THE PH TO PRERVE WHERE WIL WAS JAILED FOR BEG GAY

And what the figur like Symonds and Edward Carpenter were potg out was, ‘You’re dog all this, you’re so admirg, but you’re missg out on the fact that this was a society which celebrated homosexualy. ’ So they wanted to try and brg people’s attentn to that disjuncture, that gap between the ialized Greece and what they saw as the real Greece, the Greece that gave hope for a society which might thk differently about homosexualy. LGBTQ Natn: You mentned Edward Carpenter, who was a ntemporary of Symonds — a utopian socialist and a poet and another out gay rights activist when there were very few like him and Symonds at the time.

You know, one of the thgs I wanted to do the novel was get away om the ia, which is an herance om the Wil trial, that everythg about beg gay the 19th century was disaster and secrecy and gloom and sadns and tragedy. Unlike most of Wil's iends, Douglas didn't have to pretend to be nt, and most rears will sigh wh relief that the relatnship between Wil and Douglas end, however terrible the circumstanc, before ltle Cyril uld face the potential nsequenc of the latter's, much of the material Andre and Osr challeng Wil's reputatn among liberals as a gay in.

WAS OSR WIL GAY, WHEN DID THE DORIAN GRAY THOR DIE AND WHERE WAS HE BURIED?

And succsfully and trigugly recreat the vast work of homosexuals untri like Italy and Algeria, where perasty was known to flourish - what others have lled the sctn of the Orient and the Mederranean; what the days is referred to, rather ls eloquently, as ternatnal sex tourism.

All the aspects together are leadg to the ma rearch qutn: How was the attu towards Wild’s Homosexualy the Victorian Age and how did this homosexualy fluence his wrg the Picture of Dorian Grey? Only one year later 1891 Wil met Lord Aled Douglas, they had a almost four year lastg relatn ship, but Aled´s father found out about this relatnship and acced Osr Wil for beg a homosexual.

OSR WIL’S INFLUENCE ON GAY INTY

Steve Nichols and his partner, John Wn, cid to adopt Fez when they realized he was facg the same kd of ignorance and bigotry they’ve faced as an openly gay uple, the Charlotte Observer reported. “What is almost as ncerng as the ia that he’s gay, and that the person gave him up for that reason, is the fact that the owner apparently didn’t do anythg to take re of this dog, ” Nichols told the Charlotte Observer. The irony is that this latt pathetic and pathologil effort to erect a homosexist myth around the ntroversial figure of Osr Wil is based upon a misunrstandg about Wil himself, and ed, and to get to the pot whout mcg words, is erected on an outright lie.

IN “THE NEW LIFE,” A 19TH-CENTURY GAY MAN FIGHTS FOR ACCEPTANCE AS OSR WIL IS TRIED FOR SODOMY

Wrer Osr Wil is arrted after losg a libel se agast the Marqus of had been engaged an affair wh the marqus’s son sce 1891, but when the outraged marqus nounced him as a homosexual, Wil sued the man for libel. Homosexualy was classified as a crime England at the time, and Wil was arrted, found guilty, and sentenced to two years of hard was a well-known thor by this time, havg produced several brilliant and popular plays, cludg The Importance of Beg Ernt (1895).

After Douglas, a fur homophobe, began spoutg his objectns to Wil’s behavr to the public, Wil felt pelled to sue him for his fense, Douglas argued that Wil had soliced 12 boys to m sodomy between 1892 and 1894. Before Stonewall, There Was a BookstoreNetworks of activists transformed Stonewall om an isolated event to a turng pot the stggle for gay Rodwell behd the unter at the Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop (Kay Tob / Mancripts and Archiv Divisn / The New York Public Library)Edor’s Note: This article is part of a seri about the gay-rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall July 4, 1965—four years before Stonewall—39 activists om D. Drsed formal attire—the men ats and ti, and many of the women skirts and drs—they rried signs that read Equal Treatment Before the Law and Homosexual Bill of the next four years, the anizer of that prott, Craig Rodwell, along wh his ras, Barbara Gtgs and Kay Tob Lahen, marched Philalphia.

” When the Mattache Society rejected Rodwell’s plans to open a bookstore, he rigned om the group and cid to do Stonewall protts two years later would draw broad attentn to the stggle for gay liberatn, but that stggle did not start 1969.

OSR WIL’S REPUTED LAST WORDS PROVE THE INIC GAY PLAYWRIGHT KEPT HIS RAZOR SHARP W TILL THE VERY END

Their efforts produced the tellectual revolutn that lent the Stonewall protts their power, and which helped ensure that long after the protts were over, the chang they wrought would victori of Stonewall, then, had the unlikelit of birthplac: the Osr Wil Memorial 1967, there were no gay muny centers, save San Francis’s Society for Individual Rights, that offered cultural programmg and recreatnal activi. “When I first wanted to fd out what meant to be gay, after I first put the label on myself, beg a reasonably well-ted girl, I thought, ‘Oh well, I’ll go to the library, ’” Gtgs later who went lookg typilly me up empty-hand. That was the void Rodwell set out to board a b and head to Fire Island, a Long Island beach town that had bee a gay hub, wh the hope that he uld earn enough money workg as a bartenr to open the store.

) The bookshop had not only beme a major touchstone for New Yorkers but also symbolized the promise of gay liberatn to many others throughout the June 28, 1969, Rodwell was walkg home om a bridge game wh a iend when he heard noise g om the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar that had been owned by the Mafia and equently raid by the police. The paper ran stori on the psychologil profsn’s emphasis on men and the “blackout on female homosexualy, ” featured foms where rears bated the mers of books by Betty Friedan and Mary McCarthy, and ran terviews wh lbian thkers and activists. At the annual meetg of the ALA Dallas 1971, the gay group gave a book prize, set up a kissg booth to attract attentn to their e, and anized ssns such as, “Sex and the Sgle Cataloguer: New Thoughts on Some Unthkable Subjects.

Like Rodwell’s work at the Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop, Gtgs and others the ALA challenged the clil and crimal meang of the term, and illtrated how homosexualy uld also refer to books posively. More to the pot, homosexualy, they asserted, was not jt a term that medil, legal, or relig thori assigned to gay people, but one that gay people uld publicly, polilly, and profsnally fe for themselv.

ABANDONED ‘GAY AS HELL’ DOG FDS HOME WH GAY NORTH CAROLA UPLE

It was an tellectual revolutn, one that changed who got to e the term, how was ed, and what 1972, Gtgs agreed to be on a panel at the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn to discs the medil profsn’s sistence that homosexualy was a mental illns.

OSR WIL: “GAY” IN OR “HOMOPHOBE”?

Sce the medil profsn’s ventn of homosexualy as a tegory at the end of the 19th century, queer people had not been able to formally participate discsns about their Gtgs felt would be more effective to have a panelist jo the discsn who was both gay and a psychiatrist.

” The next year, 1973, the APA voted to remove homosexualy om s list of mental Gtgs, Rodwell, and others ntued to fe homosexualy on their own terms, refg to allow those posns of thory to be the sole thors of their inty, the revolutn was not over. And was those works of activists, and the tellectual revolutn they set motn—reclaimg and fg their own inty—that transformed Stonewall om an isolated event to a turng pot the stggle for gay liberatn. Gay rights activist Craig Rodwell tablished the East Coast’s first gay and lbian bookstore (and the first one the natn to operate long term), named memory of Osr Wil, a storeont of this apartment buildg on Mercer Street 1967.

OSR WIL, GAY MARTYR OR ORIGAL PEDOGATE REARCHER?

The shop was named after Osr Wil, who, Rodwell wrote, was “the first homosexual morn tim to fend publicly the homosexual way of life, is a martyr to what has recently bee known as the ‘homophile movement.

Rodwell saw the bookstore as a muny bullet board, rryg announcements of important activi, as a clearg hoe for those terted law reform New York State, and as a spur to wrers who would now have a place to sell their gay-themed work. The Mercer Street store also beme the headquarters for the Homophile Youth Movement, where Rodwell often unseled young gay men and women and tried to set a posive example for them, so, as he said, they would “ga a sense of pri and digny as young homosexuals.

In 1973, Craig Rodwell moved his Osr Wil Memorial Bookshop, the first gay and lbian bookstore on the East Coast (and the first of s kd the natn to operate long term), om s origal home on Mercer Street to a proment lotn on Christopher Street, near the center of New York Cy’s gay life. Wh s public face and large wdows, the bookstore was a welg sight to gay and lbian New Yorkers and visors om all over the world who would climb the low stoop, wh s origal wrought-iron railgs, and enter the narrow shop, assured of a iendly greetg om Rodwell or his multi-racial staff.

#BORNTHISDAY: ULTIMATE GAY IN, OSR WIL

For example, Jane Utell relat how Alison Bechl disvered a trove of gay and lbian ic books at the store which, as Bechl noted, allowed her “to apprehend the rich, transformatnal qualy of lbian experience and get down on the page” such semal graphic works as Dyk to Watch Out For (begng 1983) and Fun Home: A Fay Tragiic (2006), which later beme the Tony Award-wng mil Fun Home (2013). If you are terted Sherlock Holm and his (homo)sexualy, check out my other post The relatnship between Sherlock Holm and John Watson, I wrote about their relatnship  The Private Life of Sherlock Holm and BBC’s Sherlock. Holm has a “distctly homosexual liftyle”: he equently viss the Northumberland Avenue Turkish baths wh his iend, he reads thgs that had homosexual nnotatns at the time (such as Horace, Catull, Háfiz and Thore), he equents Che opium ns and nsorts wh “rough-lookg men”, and he n change his appearance (cludg beg drsed as a woman).