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

Contents:

• WAS OSR WIL GAY?
• OSR WIL’S ‘CCIAL’ ROLE THE GAY RIGHTS STGGLE
• OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER
• HOW OSR WIL PAVED THE WAY FOR GAY RIGHTS THE ARTS
• ‘THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME’: OSR WIL AS A GAY IN
• OSR WIL’S INFLUENCE ON GAY INTY
• WAS OSR WIL GAY, WHEN DID THE DORIAN GRAY THOR DIE AND WHERE WAS HE BURIED?

WAS OSR WIL GAY?

Wil, a homosexual, was put on trial for gross cency 1895 after the tails of his affair wh a Brish aristocrat were ma public. He bucked tight-laced Victorian fashn by wearg lorful velvets and silks and keepg his hair Aled Douglas Wil kept his homosexualy a secret. Homosexual acts were a crimal offense England at the time and remaed illegal there until the 1960s.

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. The fense also qutned Wil about the premise of his ntroversial 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, suggtg that Wil had ed the novel’s homoerotic them to sce Lord Aled. 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.

However, Osr is bt known for his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian AffairFor obv reasons, Osr kept his homosexualy a secret.

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

The rd said, For Osr Wil, posg somdome [sic] expected, this totally ed Osr’s public relatns sce homosexualy was a crimal offense England back then. Homosexualy was legalized France 1791 durg the French said no, he won’t flee and cid to sue Douglas’ father for famatn. The vast majory says that Wil was homosexual, and that he was merely reprsg his feelgs toward men for the sake of marryg Constance and makg an attempt at a “normal” fay for that era time.

Homosexualy was not spoken about at all durg the Victorian perd and fact up until que recently. Bgrapher Ian Kelly was able to rroborate two referenc om Casanova's memoir, The History of My Life, which Casanova had same-sex relatns:"The morn ncept of bisexualy, no ls than of homosexualy, didn't really exist the 18th century, and the nceptn of sexual preference was on the whole a much more fluid affair. A steadfast patrt, the renowned poet is seen as a inic voice creatg the ncept of 'The Amerin Dream' - but the homophobic nature of the Uned Stat at the time did e Whman grief and spoke publicly of relatnships wh women, but also had.

Some have been quick to terme that the thor was actually gay and reprsg his te sexualy his marriage; others are certa that he was, fact, a bisexual 's grandson and bgrapher, Merl Holland, that Wil was heterosexual "up to a certa pot his life", and also spoken about his grandfather's long-term, yet tumultuo, wh poet Lord Aled Douglas. It's been noted that she dated nductor Leopold Stokowski, photographer Sir Cecil Beaton, fellow silent film star Louise Brooks, and openly gay wrer Merces Garbo's ath, the tate of fellow Swedish-born actrs Mimi Pollak between the pair, one of which (dated 1930) shows that Garbo wrote to Mimi after fdg out she was pregnant, "We nnot help our nature, as God has created .

OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER

His long-time iend, Sir Ian McKellan (who is openly gay), allud to Guns' sexualy , sayg the late actor had told him not to bee an activist for LGBTQIA+ issu. "Alec Guns took me out to lunch and said, “You really should not, as a leadg actor, have anythg to do wh anythg polil, pecially anythg as dirty as homosexualy. Source: BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF / TIMEThe creator of - the troductn of a more fluid spectm of sexualy, rather than relyg on strict tegori of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual - was thought to personally he himself had same-sex relatnships wh graduate stunts and lleagu, and 's also noted that he and his wife Clara McMillen were polygamo.

His 'nversn' to homosexualy probably me about 1886/7 wh a young man who was to rema a lifelong iend, Robert Ross.

'Earnt' was a -word for 'gay' and wearg a green rnatn was a 'secret' sign of homosexualyBoth explanatns seem to have been nveniently vented years later wh ltle or no foundatn fact. 'Earnt' was supposedly a rptn of 'Uraniste' or one who practic Uranian or homosexual love, and the green rnatn was said to be the badge of Parisian perasts.

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.

‘THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME’: OSR WIL AS A GAY IN

Osr Wil, apart om beg famo as a dramatist, playwright, w and poet, is also famo as beg an inic gay man. As he famoly had a homosexual relatnship or ‘affair’ wh the son of an aristocrat, his personal life beme public knowledge, and he was ultimately tried, sentenced and imprisoned.

Wil, who famoly had a gay relatnship wh Lord Aled Douglas, otherwise known as ‘Bosie’, was acced by his father, who happened to be the Marquis of Queensberry, of homosexualy. Wh same-sex marriage now legal all parts of the UK, n sometime be easy to fet how different attus to homosexualy were the past, and how much change has taken place over the past 50 years. For hundreds of years gay people have stggled to be accepted and treated the same as people who are not fact wasn't until 1967, that two men were able to be a relatnship together whout the fear of beg stands for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr.

OSR WIL’S INFLUENCE ON GAY INTY

Sometim appears wh Q, meang queer and +, which is an clive symbol to mean 'and others' to clu people of all history month tak place Febary each year, to help te people on lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr history, as well as the history of the gay and civil rights out more about some of those who have ma an impact both om the past and prent.

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

Alan TurgAlan Turg was not a well known figure durg his lifetime, but today he is famo and celebrated for the ccial part he played the victory over Nazi Germany was a mathematician who cracked somethg lled the Enigma , which is thought to have shortened the war by several was also a victim of mid-20th Century attus to homosexualy and 1952 was arrted bee beg homosexual was illegal Bra at this 2013 he was pardoned for this 'crime', and 2017 the ernment agreed to officially pardon men acced of 'crim' like this, meang they will no longer have a crimal pardong has e to be known as the Alan Turg 2019 Turg was named the most "inic" figure of the 20th Century and his face now appears on the £50 note. Osr WilImage source, Napoleon Sarony/Universal History ArchiveOsr Wil is one of the famo playwrights of all time, fact, you might even have studied 'The Importance of Beg Earnt' - one of his most famo plays - at was married to a woman and had two sons, but was later acced of beg homosexual. Johnson was an Ain Amerin transgenr-rights activist, whose work the 1960s and 1970s had a huge impact on the LGBT this time, beg gay was classified as a mental illns the Uned Stat.