Contents:
- IT’S A SUGGTN MANY WILL NSIR AN OUTRAGEO – AND UTTERLY IMPLSIBLE – SLUR ON BRA’S GREAT HERO. BUT AN TRIGUG NEW BOOK A RPECTED HISTORIAN ASKS… WAS WSTON CHURCHILL SECRETLY GAY?
- WSTON CHURCHILL MAY SECRETLY HAVE BEEN GAY
IT’S A SUGGTN MANY WILL NSIR AN OUTRAGEO – AND UTTERLY IMPLSIBLE – SLUR ON BRA’S GREAT HERO. BUT AN TRIGUG NEW BOOK A RPECTED HISTORIAN ASKS… WAS WSTON CHURCHILL SECRETLY GAY?
But an trigug new book a rpected historian asks… Was Wston Churchill secretly GAY? He seemed relaxed pany of homosexuals and regard their (illegal) activi as a subject for good-natured ribaldry. Ined, like all policians of siar persuasn, he had to keep his gay life secret ” for all homosexual activy was illegal until 1967, and ntued to attract tense social disapproval for long after that.
I noticed that the skills which Thorpe veloped as a clanste homosexual (or ˜closet queen’, to e an exprsn which me durg the Sixti) were not dissiar to those which ma him such an effective polician: quick ws, actg abily, a talent for trigue and subterfuge, and a pacy for takg lculated risks. In Thorpe’s se, there also seemed to be a psychologil lk between the thrill of ˜feastg wh panthers’ (as Osr Wil scribed the dangero allure of sual homosexual enunters) and the general excement of polics. I wonred whether the same might be te of other homosexual or bisexual policians, of which I spected there might be more than generally supposed, bee the fact of their beg actors, risk-takers and triguers would tend to draw them towards the profsn.
If their bgraphi are wrten, their fai ually ensure that the homosexual or bisexual aspect of their liv is barely mentned. In the not so distant past, to scribe anyone, let alone a public figure, as a homosexual was a slur, but now that most Wtern societi homosexualy is generally accepted, is surely time to try to unrstand the stra of “closet-queenery” which ns through recent polil history.
WSTON CHURCHILL MAY SECRETLY HAVE BEEN GAY
As a schoolboy, Churchill may have had some enunter wh the phenomenon at Harrow, which had one of the more homosexual reputatns among the major public schools. Wary of a lawsu for libel, Bce did not refer directly to the homosexual allegatns, but Bce’s father mentned them Febary 1896 a letter to an officer who was buyg his son’s ary gear.
Ls than a year after the trial of Osr Wil, which had end wh his beg imprisoned for homosexual acts, this was the most ser imagable slur. If he did ed have homosexual clatns, Bce’s allegatns would have given him a ser ight and termed him to keep such feelgs firmly unr ntrol.