From gay nspiracy to queer chic: the artists and wrers who changed the world

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.

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.

THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND GAY RIGHTS: THE HIDN HISTORY

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”. Durg a discsn 1949, when the archect Frank Lloyd Wright said that “this movement which we ll morn art and patg has been greatly, or is greatly, bt to homosexualism”, he was tryg to prent mornism as unacceptable; but on the same ocsn Marcel Duchamp intified lbians and gay men as beg largely rponsible for the healthy state of the arts: “I believe the homosexual public has shown more tert [] or cursy for morn art than the heterosexual. You uld say that acceptance of homosexualy beme one of the key measur of morny long before societi like ours Bra nscend to update their anti-gay 1869, Friedrich Engels had already noticed, as he put a letter to Karl Marx, that “the perasts are begng to unt themselv”, speculatg half jokgly that they might one day amount to “a power the state”.

Prs verage brought the existence of homosexualy to the foreont of the llective nscns a way that turned out to be both threateng and enablg to homosexuals: threateng bee sndal uld happen to any of them, but enablg bee gave them accs to rmatn about the homosexual muny a world where was rarely oute of this sense that homosexual people existed large numbers while still remag more or ls visible to the naked eye was the spicn that when they got together they were likely to engage somethg more, somethg even worse than the dulgg of a perversn.

PASTOR HAGEE: THE ANTICHRIST IS GAY, "PARTIALLY JEWISH, AS WAS ADOLPH HLER" (PAGG JOE LIEBERMAN!)

Notorly, the works of homosexualy seemed to transcend many more formal social and polil boundari, reifyg crossovers not only between natnal and ethnic cultur, but between high society and the mi-mons of bohemian artists, and so forth. The Homtern certaly helped cross-fertilise the history of f and bars Europe and Lat Ameri is full of artistic groups whose drkg and smokg oiled the wheels of nversatn, helpg to tegrate gay men to mastream cultural velopment. ” The gay athet Evelyn Wgh’s novels all have close nnectns wh ternatnal mornism: Ambrose Silk, Put Out More Flags, is nostalgic for “the days of Diaghilev” and has “equented” Cocte and Ste Paris; Anthony Blanche, Brishead Revised, has ded wh Prot and Gi, been even closer to Cocte and Diaghilev, and received pi of the novels of Ronald Firbank “wh fervent scriptns”.

”Hollywood stume signer Gilbert Adrian, known profsnally as Adrian, wh Greta there were plenty of openly gay people behd the scen, notably divid by genr along regnisable l: lots of lbian technicians, lots of gay male signers and choreographers. Many of the great ins of femy were shaped or signed by gay men: Joan Crawford by William Hayn, Marlene Dietrich by Travis Banton, Greta Garbo by Adrian, Judy Garland by Roger Ens, Marilyn Monroe by Jack Cole. Ernt Hemgway is the key performer this chara, his characterisatn of Ste as “a woman who isn’t a woman” a c mirrorg of his own genr follows that the cultural history of homosexualy is everywhere shadowed by that of homophobia.

The cintal succs of Tennsee Williams, Edward Albee and William Inge on the Broadway stage the 1950s was followed by a backlash of attacks, maly om straight male crics plorg their supposed sexism: their women characters were distortns, eher bee they were “really” men or bee, as women, they were hated by their misogynistic homosexual thors. You didn’t even have to arrive to meet tertg people: you uld enunter them on the way, on the transatlantic lers (Noël Coward and Sergei Eisenste were placed at the same table on one crossg) or the Tra Bl down to the Riviera, or the Orient ubiquy began to make seem difficult for homophob to travel anywhere tertg whout enunterg their bugbear. The secret of their homosexualy might be open to a social circle but a secret om fay, or open to iends and fay but a secret om work, or even, some s, known to both private and public worlds, but never openly spoken of.

From gay nspiracy to queer chic: the artists and wrers who changed the world | Books | The Guardian

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