Osr Wil's life and work create ntradictory versns of this man. Should he really be nsired a gay in or is time we look to others?
Contents:
- WAS OSR WIL GAY?
- OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER
- OSR WIL’S ‘CCIAL’ ROLE THE GAY RIGHTS STGGLE
- ‘THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME’: OSR WIL AS A GAY IN
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. Homosexualy was a crimal offense at this time England. He bucked tight-laced Victorian fashn by wearg lorful velvets and silks and keepg his hair Aled Douglas Wil kept his homosexualy a secret.
OSR WILR: INIC GAY WRER
Homosexual acts were a crimal offense England at the time and remaed illegal there until the 1960s.
(France had crimalized homosexualy 1791 durg the French Revolutn.
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.
‘THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME’: OSR WIL AS A GAY IN
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.
Wil was tried for homosexualy on April 26, Wil Trial | Photo Creds: History.